A View from the Handlebars: How bike-cams could transform cycling on Hull’s roads
Cycling Mikey is famous for using helmet-cam video evidence to secure convictions for motoring offences. CycHull member Kevin P recently joined the growing number of cyclists, who carry video cameras on their bikes to record driver behaviour that endangers cyclists. In this blog post, he describes his experience of uploading videos of offences to Operation Snap, Humberside Police’s new web site for citizen-generated footage and explains why he thinks widespread use of video could increase safety for all cyclists. Click here for his tips on the right camera to buy and how to use it.
Anonymised still from Kevin’s video cam
I started uploading video of offences to Humberside Police at the end of January 2023. I was prompted by a particularly outrageous incident where a motorist punishment-passed me, then stopped, got out of his car and tried to push me into the path of a bus driving in the other direction. I can only guess that the driver objected to me occupying primary position when there was a dangerous and inadequate cycle lane. Other motorists witnessed this but nobody stopped. I was so shaken that I couldn’t remember the car registration and had only a vague impression of the man, so I didn’t report it.
Instead, I bought myself an action camera to mount on my handlebars.
Like many cyclists, I had previously been sceptical about the police attitude to submitted videos. Between 2020 and 2022, almost 55,000 videos were submitted to the National Dash Cam Safety Portal. But a Freedom of Information request in November 2021 showed that 81% of uploads in the Humberside Police region resulted in no-action or an advice letter. It is likely that many videos were not looked at before the 2-week time limit, between the offence and notice of intention to prosecute, had passed.
The NDSP has subsequently been rebranded as Operation Snap, with each police force running its own video portal. Since April, Humberside Snap has had a dedicated member of staff, PC Andrew Place, who has 17 years of road safety policing experience. Since then, victims have seen a step change in the quality of service. The Humberside Police Operation Snap website states that the operation “has one desired outcome: making our roads safer”. It recognises cyclists as vulnerable road users and undertakes to “hold drivers to account on every occasion where we identify that the standard of driving falls below that of a careful and competent driver.” The site also provides a summary of outcomes so far this year. For the five months January 2023 to May 2023, the 494 submissions, 302 (61%) resulted in a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) being sent to a motorist. These are broken down into: carelessness 90, close pass 105, red light 4, mobile phone 4, failure to comply with road signs 60, other 49. In June and July 2023 there were 429 submissions, of which 190 were from cyclists, of which 120 resulted in action (63%).
In seven months, I have uploaded 14 videos of offences. Given the large number of offences I routinely witness, these 14 were particularly outrageous and generally exposed me to some risk. The majority of offences were left hooks (overtaking then turning left into the path of the cyclist - as in the two images above), vehicles being driven at me on the wrong side of the road, and close passes. Lately I have uploaded less serious offences just to test the limits of the system. I received no feedback from Humberside Police for videos submitted before April. A significant weakness of NDSP and Snap, is that people who upload video are treated as witnesses, not victims, and so are generally not informed of resulting actions. Since April, I have received feedback on most video uploads. Five have resulted in action against motorists. These offences were a left hook, being pushed off the road by a SUV, a close pass by a HGV, parking across access to a cycle track, and driving into a Cyclist Advance Stop Zone (CASZ) through a red light. Other uploads generated no response or no action. A list of possible reasons for no action was provided. Some reasons are clearly not valid (e.g. “unable to read number plate”) and so the most likely reason is that Humberside Police do not consider an offence occurred.
Some offences are ubiquitous in Hull, such as parking in cycle lanes and entering CASZs when traffic lights are red. Many professional drivers, such as bus and taxi drivers, routinely commit these offences. Most video uploads of both these offences resulted in no action, even in extreme cases. It is difficult to video motorists entering a CASZ when the light is red. Video of a motorist stopped in a CASZ is not enough as they may have entered before the light as red. On the occasion my video captured both the red light and the vehicle entering, a NIP was issued.
Dangerous parking is endemic in Hull and there are serious and systematic failings in the way it is dealt with. Rule 140 of the Highway Code makes it clear that it is an offence to stop or park in a mandatory cycle lane. For advisory cycle lanes, it is an offence if the motorist cannot justify the violation as “unavoidable”. Many cyclists consider parking in cycle lanes to be dangerous, especially when it forces them to move out of the lane into faster moving traffic. Appropriate laws covering dangerous or reckless driving are available to counter illegal parking and councils are allowed to enforce them using cameras - but rarely do.
The Snap web site says it does not deal with parking offences. PC Andrew Place clarified that Snap can take action against wilful or unnecessary obstruction, and parking near pedestrian crossings. This is why a NIP was issued for the car parked across the access to the cycle track on Park St (see image above).
When a motorist receives a NIP they are offered three options. The first option is a place on the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORT), which they must pay for, engage with and complete. Alternatively, they can accept a fixed penalty, probably 3 or 6 points on their license. Finally, they can go to magistrates court and argue their case, but face the risk of higher penalties if they lose. All the options are a significant burden in terms of time and money. The standard feedback email states that they cannot say which outcome is selected due to the Data Protection Act 1988.
SNAP verdict
Some offences against cyclists are genuine accidents, such as opening doors into the path of cyclists. Some are calculated actions, such as close passes, left hooks and violation of cycling infrastructure. The Highway Code recognises cyclists as vulnerable road users, so these offences show indifference to cyclist safety. Many cyclists face frequent verbal abuse implying some offences are deliberate intimidation. My bike-cam experiment was prompted by an attack that I consider to have been attempted murder. Pre-pandemic there were over 100 cyclists seriously injured in Humberside each year, and 1 or 2 were killed. For comparison, there are about 850 arrests for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, in Hull and East Riding, per year. Offences committed on our roads against cyclists are, in my view, a large component of violent crime in our region. Policing based on evidence of harm would make it a high priority. Despite this, the experience of many cyclists is that crimes against them are systematic, ubiquitous, and generally ignored (and sometimes committed) by the police. Many cyclists feel dehumanised, victims not worthy of the protection of the law, and consequently have little or no confidence in the police.
My experience with the Snap system suggests it is a step towards addressing this situation. Over 7 months, my £34 camera has been instrumental in five very bad drivers learning that they can’t treat cyclists with contempt. In the future they will wonder if every cyclist they encounter is videoing their driving. Motorists appear to behave better when they see my camera, prominently mounted on the front of my bike. Overtaking motorists may not see the camera so there may be benefit from also fitting a rear-facing camera, or a dummy, or a sign saying “you are being videoed”.
I think it inevitable that increasing numbers of cyclists will carry cameras, and motorists will have to treat all cyclists as though they are. When motorists accept that poor driving around a cyclist carries a sizeable risk of punishment, then driving standards will greatly improve.
The Snap system is a big step, but still has some weaknesses. Given the number of cyclist casualties, it is unreasonable that they are treated as witnesses rather than victims. Greater transparency in feeding back justifications for decisions would lead to greater confidence in the system. Every vehicle parked in a cycle lane is a highly visible advertisement that crimes against cyclists are condoned. By failing to take action against dangerous parking, or treating it as the much lesser offence of obstruction, Snap is failing in its stated aim of making roads safer and holding motorists to account. Finally, the uploading process could be simplified.
Overall though, the Snap system is a good thing and we’d all be safer if more cyclists carried video cameras and uploaded clips of offences.
Which CAM to buy and how to use it
There are many different action cameras available, with GoPro being the most well known brand. Prices vary from a few tens of pounds to many hundreds. The major differences are the picture quality (lenses, resolution), image stabilisation and audio quality. I bought a new Akaso EK7000 from eBay for £34. It comes with a waterproof housing and a range of brackets to mount the camera on a bike or helmet. I have set the resolution to Full HD and the frame rate to 60 per second. As a bike-cam I use the Loop Video mode where the last 10 minutes of recording is saved at the press of a button. Around town I don’t wear a helmet, so I mounted the camera on the handlebars facing forward. I have found the image quality to be easily sufficient, but the audio is very poor.
PC Andrew Place recommends a forward facing camera as it gives the best view of most offences. Close passes are most easily judged from the front, for vehicles approaching from ahead or behind. The minimum 1.5 m separation specified in the Highway Code is measured to the end of the handlebars. Some expensive cameras estimate the speed of vehicles and superimpose the measurement on the video. This can be useful to give context and gravity to an offence. He recommends that a video should include at least 30 seconds before and after the offence as this allows the full context to be interpreted. The most common reason for no-action is when video has been edited into too short an interval to give the full context.
Submitting a video to Snap takes about 20 minutes. The 10 minute video needs to edited down to a clip with 30 seconds to a minute before and after the offence. To do this, I connect the Akaso to my laptop and use the free software Shotcut. The original and clip need to be stored safely until the case is resolved, which could be a year. The clip can be uploaded to the Humberside Operation Snap website, along with your name, contact details, specification of the bike-cam and a description of the offence. The vehicle number plate needs to be clearly visible in the video and input into the Snap web-form. You need to confirm that you are willing to attend court as a witness if required, although I am not aware of this ever happening. This takes a further 10 to 15 minutes. Action needs to be taken within two weeks of an offence, so video needs to be uploaded within a few days to allow time for consideration.