Surrey Police trying to Bully Cyclists off the road.

Surrey Police have decided to clamp down on inconsiderate cycling around the Surrey Hills. To do this they are threatening £1000 fines for inconsiderate cyclists.
Why does this make me so angry?
Yes there are a small minority of cyclists who ride like idiots. On average they manage to kill less than 1 person in the UK a year and when they do the courts treat them more severely than if they had killed while driving a car.

Meanwhile motorists are killing cyclists daily. Literally daily.

Now as a cyclist if you want to reduce your risk of being killed the current best advice is to follow John Franklin’s advice and claim the lane. It puts you where motorists are looking and prevents them from overtaking when it is inappropriate. However many motorists feel that this is done to inconvenience them and a small but significant number will react aggressively and deliberately drive very close or even at the cyclists.

All Surrey Police need to do to know this is ride a bike.

They talk about riding two abreast or in groups as anti-social. It is the very opposite of anti-social. Riding along having a chat with a friend is very social. If the road is not wide enough to over take a pair of cyclists is is invariably not safe to over take a single one and even less so to pass two riding one after another.

All Surrey Police need to do to know this is ride a bike.

Yet they choose to threaten cyclists, a group of vulnerable road users who do no harm with disproportionate fines for doing things that are almost certainly not illegal.

In my book that is bullying and bullies should stood up to.

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