Be Careful Whilst Out Riding

Hi all, now that better weather is coming and more riders are getting out onto the roads, be very careful, a number of Police Forces including Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria are due to undertake both covert and overt operations to target motorcyclists speeding and other road traffic offences. There are unmarked Mercedes, BMW, and Skoda high performance Cars amongst others to target speeding motorcyclists, also be further aware that a number of high performance motorcycles are also being used by the Police, if you are group riding of 2 or more and suddenly a BMW S100rr suddenly joins the group be cautious in all likelihood it will be a Police Officer who has front/rear cameras, also being used are a number of adventure bikes such as the KTM Superduke, the unmarked cars are already in operation on roads leading to popular meeting places like Devils Bridge in Kirkby Lonsdale. There are also speed camera vans and units with hand held devices, the locations are not being pre disclosed, therefore no media information as was previously the case. Some Police Officers have taken it upon themselves (unofficially) to place false warnings of a speed camera/police presence onto Waze. Whilst we are all law abiding people on the forum, a spirited ride can lead to points and fines not insignificant amounts when you think of the fine, costs and victim surcharge are all added. Ride safe all from an ageing Rocker.

 

You are right there, it has very little to do with safety, stats show hardly any accidents or incidents on a number of the roads targeted, some of the roads have no junctions, houses or schools etc, not even farm gates for the tractors to suddenly pull out of, unfortunately it would be a political nightmare to acknowledge anything other than the "road safety" crap.

 

All in the name of road safety con, expensive machines out of taxpayers money

 

There are average speed cameras being installed very soon on the stretch of road from Caton in Lancashire to Kirkby Lonsdale (Devils Bridge) in Cumbria, alternative routes to Devils Bridge are to be target by unmarked police vehicles and mobile speed camera vans, There are mutterings to impose a 50mph limit instead of the 60mph NSL on this section.

 

Hi Sandi, first of all I haven't forgotten about Ian Hutchinson, there was no follow up to that article, however I do have an excellent book that Hutchy wrote, I am at our local Post Office tomorrow so I will ask about the postage, if it is not to expensive I will send it to you FOC, I will keep you updated and PM you (if I can remember how). Back to the original post it sounds like you have a different set of problems, albeit a lot more serious consequences wise, an aggressive driver in a car or truck are a lot more likely to cause riders more harm. It is similar here in the UK, a lot of drivers, and it is drivers not riders who run both amber and red lights, an awful lot of cyclists run red lights and all manner of careless riding, we have a new hierarchy of road users now, it's incorporated into the Highway Code, in real terms this means if a prosecution takes place re an accident or incident the Court takes the view anything in breach of the Highway Code is an offence. It places the greatest responsibility on HGV drivers, then car drivers etc etc with the most vulnerable being pedestrians, if driving or riding and you intend making a right/left turn and a pedestrian is waiting to cross the road, we are now supposed to stop and let them cross, this has already caused rear end collisions through vehicles travelling to close to one another, one real big issue on our UK Motorway networks are vehicles travelling to close to the one in front, car drivers seem to forget the 2 second rule and that stopping distance at 20mph is around 3 car lengths, at 50mph it's around 13 car lengths, If you're travelling at 70mph, the stopping distance will be more like 24 car lengths, given a lot are only 2 to 3 car lengths behind it makes you shudder to think what gets in their heads. On reflection I think I would prefer the average speed cameras that what you describe Sandi, at least the average speed cameras account for all vehicles, and not just targeting us bikers. I haven't seen any evidence based paper that sets out the reason for the introduction of these cameras, nor who funded them, especially at a time of austerity with lots of people struggling financially. I don't know why countries do not follow say Switzerland, they have had a system for years that if a road user is going above the speed limit where there are traffic lights, then they automatically turn to red, jump that red light and the vehicle is caught on camera resulting in a letter through your letterbox (fine), we do have camera traffic lights in the UK but only in selected areas, ironically more and more local Councils are imposing bans on more than 3 people riding together through towns, similar to Australia, although that was more about criminalising the 1% clubs, that ironically have very strict laws in place re criminal acts anyhow. Ride safe all from an ageing Rocker.

 

They did use some of that stretch, however they where on the B6254 near Over Kellett in north Lancashire, 4 Police in the car, one was the advanced instructor, giving instructions, one was driving and the other 2 observing waiting to drive another section of road, the black box in his police car showed the driver, had reached 104mph seconds before the fatal crash on the narrow winding country lane. I have ridden and drove on that road thousands of times over the years, and to reach those speeds is beyond reckless and dangerous, it is so narrow, many blind bends, always farm traffic and cyclists, there was actually 2 police cars on training, I recall the Prosecutors remarks saying, the road was peppered with hidden hazards, blind spots, entrances to properties, junctions, bends, dips and a hidden hump in the road, tragically the victim died the following day.

 

Well people my original post outlined Police Forces intending using high performance vehicles to educate the driving/riding public regarding road safety, absolute horseradish, this article appeared in todays MCN, re North Yorkshire Police (NYP), if taken at face value the statement by NYP "the force previously struggled to engage with segments of the biking community" the newly acquired Kawasaki Ninja H2SX will hopefully allow us to do so", what a load of rubbish, if that is the real reason why purchase an unmarked 197bhp supercharged high performance machine costing £25,649, money well spent I think not.

 

Beware for our friends north of the border in Scotland, I understand from a trusted source that there is a UK, Wales and Scotland high Police presence this summer for motorcyclists who commit road traffic offences, the intention is to catch (sorry educate) speeding bikers etc. There is already a strong deterrent from speeding in place by every council in England, Wales and Scotland, it's called "POTHOLES", or in some cases sink holes.