Oh how I wish I'd been wearing a helmet cam this morning

Aidy

I keep going through phases of wanting to have regular helmet cam footage. Always end up going without it, it's a bit too much faff, and I hate the feeling that I'm going out preparing to be hit.

I managed to be assaulted about a year ago, after I refused to let someone go after he'd been making a muppet of himself and then proceeded to knock me off my bike.

Police really weren't interested. Told me that if I continued to make a nuisance of myself they'd be looking at having me for breaching the public order as I'd had the nerve to shout back at him when he was shoving me around.

cookdn

Aidy wrote:

I keep going through phases of wanting to have regular helmet cam footage. Always end up going without it, it's a bit too much faff, and I hate the feeling that I'm going out preparing to be hit.

You know what, you have exactly described the misgiving I have about using a camera. This expectation of being at the sticky end of somebody else's bad judgement or poor behaviour. But as an everyday cyclist isn't this the reality? To a casual observer all the discussion here may seem disproportionate or about freak 'unlucky' occurrences. However I know this isn't true as I have experienced (and will experience again) these things first-hand.

From his most recent postings it looks like bails took this as far as he could. It may not have gone to his or our liking but it is what it is. Bails was let down, seriously let down, by West Midlands Police.

On one hand I feel a bit guilty for stoking this discussion by digging out bails's video link (sorry bails :sad:). However we are right to feel strongly about the apathetic response of the Police. Ultimately every time a motorist behaves badly towards a cyclist and it is inadequately challenged it reinforces two perceptions. To motorists that this type of behaviour is in some way acceptable, to cyclists that this type of behaviour has to be tolerated.

Back to spasypaddys original post, the Police should be interested because this 'prick in a white van with his two mates' could seriously injure somebody if they think it is a good sport and continue playing the same game with more cyclists. Will the Police be interested - no, well not until that nasty incident has actually happened.

Best regards
David

walkingbootweather

Bails - not seen your video, but it sounds nasty. Clearly you have considered what courses of action were possible and have settled on one that allows you to put the incident behind you and get on with your life - well done!

Should such incidents be reported to the Police? Absolutely! Are the Police likely to take action? Probably not. However if you don't report it, and the action is repeated, resulting in injury (or worse) to another cyclist, then part of you will wonder if reporting your incident may have changed things. If Police fail to act and a tragedy occurs then you will have a clear conscience and the Police may have difficult questions to answer. The resulting publicity might make the Police treat future reports more seriously.

I've got a cheap cam which I do use irregularly. To be honest the quality isn't great and the lens isn't sufficiently wide to be much use for identifying dangerous road users, but it has been useful to film my kids as I try to teach them to ride safely on the road, and I have captured some interesting stuff. Yesterday for instance I think I saw a car capturing images for Google Streetview and shall look forward to see if I appear in all my commuting glory on the interweb sometime soon.

SteppenHerring

Bails: I watched your video. What a total and utter lady's-front-bottom. How you kept your cool I do not know. I'm guessing that, unless you have your cam mounted on the spike of a Prussian helmet you are taller than the little fornicator as well. Very tempting to mash him.

Aren't you even a little tempted to report his car stolen every few months?

cje

Bails video made me angry, especially when the guy put his victim voice on. "You hit my car, why did you do that?" The same 'you made me hit you' argument favoured by wife-beaters.

I'm sorry the police did sweet FA, but rest assured you're the better man.

Initialised

cje wrote:

Bails video made me angry, especially when the guy put his victim voice on. "You hit my car, why did you do that?" The same 'you made me hit you' argument favoured by wife-beaters.

Police aren't interested in domestic violence until someone dies either.