Drivers who fail to give cyclists enough space when overtaking will be pulled over, and officers will explain how to overtake cyclists safely

London’s police force has launched a new initiative to tackle drivers who pass cyclists too closely, using plain clothes officers.

From Friday, the Space for Cyclists initiative will be carried out by UK’s only cycle-mounted police command, the Met’s cycle safety team, after months spent adapting the tactic for London’s roads from a West Midlands Police initiative, introduced last year.

Earlier this year the Guardian was invited to an early on-road trial of the initiative.

How to overtake cyclists – the video all drivers should watch Read more

Beside a south London park, a group of police officers waited beside a marked van set back from the road, one on a motorbike – as a man on an electric bike passed back and forth along the road.

It was a matter of minutes before a woman driving a small red car overtook within 10cm of the officer’s bike. The motorbike-mounted officer headed off, returning moments later with the driver behind.

She said she hadn’t seen the cyclist.

Sergeant Simon Castle, the man responsible for the Met’s adoption of this strategy, says that though the risk to cyclists from close passing drivers is low, the effect of near misses is enough to deter all but the quick and the brave. With population growth, congestion and air pollution worsening in the city, more people cycling is better for everyone.

Castle explains the aim of the initiative is not simply to ticket people, but to educate drivers on how to safely manoeuvre around cyclists. Ultimately, he says, risk to cyclists comes from a variety of behaviours.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest PSNI and Cycling Ulster launched a similar campaign in Belfast, Northern Ireland, last month.

Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

“Some affect everyone,” he says. “Speed, red light jumping, unlicensed drivers and so on. But others disproportionately affect cyclists: close passing, turning across a cyclist’s path and tailgating are all incredibly intimidating when you’re on a bike, and are only a split second from something far worse. These irresponsible manoeuvres share a common theme – failing to give space for cyclists.”

This is the latest in a series of close pass operations launched by police forces across the country, following the West Midlands operation. While other forces use a 1.5m guideline for overtaking, the Met are focusing on the Highway Code rule stating drivers must give cyclists as much room as they do a car.

Says Castle: “If you’re following Rule 163 of the Highway Code and you’re leaving as much room as you would a car then it doesn’t matter whether the cyclist is in the gutter or the middle of the lane. You still should leave them the same amount of room.

The initiative’s impact is helped by the public’s knowledge that any cyclist could be a police officer.

“The point of it is we can’t be everywhere, but we could be anywhere,” says Castle. “We can pop up for a day, or half a day, tweet about it for several days, and we’re not going to tell people where we’re going to be.”

“The idea is for those people who don’t ride a bike to understand how it can feel. Now, you can’t get across the danger, but you can get across the ‘that was just bloody rude’ feeling.”

Officers will also hand out “I give space for cyclists” car stickers to help drivers understand why others may hold back before overtaking a cyclist.

In the case of professional drivers such as bus drivers or lorry drivers who attempt dangerous manoeuvres, they will be reported for an offence.

For Castle this operation is the pinnacle of seven years heading up the cycling unit, which he left in June, and months of work to persuade Met superiors of the merits of an operation that doesn’t necessarily result in arrests.

Some have complained that this kind of initiative unfairly targets drivers, or that it is entrapment. One Sky News programme last year asked the slightly absurd question: “Cycling close passes: are drivers being victimised?”

Castle believes if people feel unsafe in a public space, regardless of how they get about, that’s an issue for police.

“I’m not about cycling,” says Castle. “I’m about people on bikes. If people are feeling at risk and vulnerable in a public space, that is absolutely a policing matter. I rarely talk about road safety; if 80% of London’s public spaces are its roads, then we’re actually talking about public safety.”

“We’re not going to ride in a different way just so people do drive closer – there’s no entrapment to it whatsoever. We’re going to do what everybody else does when they’re riding a bike; what we do when we ride to and from work. That’s the point.”

Not all police forces are keen on the initiative, however – or with tackling dangerous driving around cyclists. Olympic gold medallist Chris Boardman, whose mother died a year ago in a collision with a motor vehicle while cycling, expressed frustration at what he described as “polite inaction” from the justice system in response to traffic violence.

Cyclists who have been a victim of road crime may take some comfort in the Met’s stance, not least because evidence shows near misses can put people off cycling altogether.

“I use the phrase: we’re the cyclists who bite back,” said Castle. “There are lots of drivers out there with points on their licence, given to them by a cycling cop, who are now looking out for cyclists because they don’t want to meet us again.

“That might not be quite the right motive for looking out for cyclists, but it’ll do. So long as they’re looking out for cyclists, through fear or respect, I don’t mind.”

He adds: “I think most people are decent, and most decent people want to do the best they can [when driving]. So we’re going to help them. Those that absolutely don’t want any of those things, we’ve got other ways of dealing with them.”