A petition you may wish to sign

C Frank is petitioning the Government to make the police take the close passing of cyclists by motorists more seriously.  I agree with him and have signed his petition.  My experience is that some police officers do take this problem seriously but many do not.  My account here of a morning with the Metropolitan Police Cycle Task Force includes the defeatist sentiment expressed to me by a police sergeant that close passing was all too subjective to take any action.

It is very difficult to know how often close passing results in tragedy and I have a sneaking suspicion that when it does many motorists would prefer to claim they had not seen the cyclist than to admit that a close pass went wrong.  Whatever the figures though, close passing is unquestionably precisely the sort of subjectively terrifying experience that drives a lot of potential cyclists off our roads.