https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2017/jul/21/undercover-police-target-london-drivers-who-pass-too-close-to-cyclists

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.

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.



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.