View Full Version : Police "Ride" Course
Morning everyone....
Ok, so confession time first - I got pulled by an unmarked police car a few weeks ago for undertaking on a dual carriage way. Not defending my actions but all the cars were sitting in the outside lane doing well under 70, I moved myself all the way over to the left and slowly undertook then after about 12 cars moved back over to continue. It was then I saw the blue lights and got pulled over.
Anyway, enough of that... I have been offered a Ride course or the fixed penalty - I will of course choose the Ride course but I am unable to find any information on the format or content of the course. Anybody on the Org know of this course ?
Cheers
Gav
I may have understood the scenario wrong, but as I recall it is not an offence per se to pass vehicles on the left on a dual carriageway/motorway if the traffic in the right lane is moving "in queues" generally at a slower rate than you in the left lane, this is what regularly happens on congested motorways and you are not expected to hold back simply because the numpties in the right hand lane are going slowly.
From the Highway Code
268
Do not overtake on the left or move to a lane on your left to overtake. In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake.
If you were indeed "undertaking" then fair cop I guess. It's a question of what actions you took to get there . The Ride course is a fair outcome.
Oh its bang to rights in the eyes of the Highway code and I've no complaints on that score just wondered what the course content was.
Here is some info from the AA - sounds like a good course.
http://www.theaa.com/aadrivetech/driver-awareness/ride.html
Sounds very similar to the naughty boys club I had to attend the other year for my first ever speeding ticket in 45 years,it was very informative I've got to admit,and would recommend it to everyone !!!
Shame that they overlooked the cars who sit in the overtake lanes and never bother to follow the highway code.
Craig380
23-07-15, 11:28 AM
I moved myself all the way over to the left and slowly undertook then after about 12 cars moved back over to continue. It was then I saw the blue lights and got pulled over.
This is why the law is questionable and stupid on this point.
If you had continued in the left lane and not moved back out again, you could not have been pulled, as you were simply moving back to the left-most lane (as per the Highway Code) and proceeding at the stated speed limit for the road (as per the Highway Code).
Totally agree with NTECUK,went on the A1 at Peterborough where its 6 lanes wide and people were still staying in lanes 4 5 and 6!!!
Red Herring
23-07-15, 01:52 PM
Personally I'd decline both of their offers and invite them to take me to court where they can explain to the magistrates why exactly they thought I was riding without due care and attention or without due consideration for the car sitting in the outside lane..... but then again I'm a bit of an argumentative git....:)
i'm with RH on this one. every single car that you undertook should have been pulled over and fined for lane hogging so i say it was unjust that you were targeted for doing the correct thing.
Red Herring
23-07-15, 02:10 PM
That might be a bit strong Bibio, there may well be circumstances where a line of traffic could be justified in the outside lane, for instance if they were waiting their turn to pass a significantly slower vehicle in the inside lane. If a car were to effectively "jump" the queue by coming up the inside and pushing in at the front that may well constitute an offence under section 3, however a motorcycle doing it properly is another matter as they are unlikely to impede the progress of the other vehicles so it would not be inconsiderate.
knowing my luck if I went to court (which I wont) I would end up like that lad that got £800 and 8 points for undertaking... but then he did speed up to 95 after...
It is frustrating though - I will take my punishment, but I thought they were going to push more to stop the lane hogging etc...
On the upside, in the 5 weeks I have waited for my letter my MPG has gone right up and my petrol bill down...
i dont see that RH, if everyone was in the inside lane then all it would take is to wait their turn to overtake not all jump out into the outside lane and cause a queue which in turn causes the people in the inside lane to slow down and get stuck behind the slower moving vehicle. i see nothing wrong with what chezza done and in fact i would say that he was correct in what he done as long as he was not breaking the speed limit. its not his fault that the outside traffic was going slower than the speed limit due to lane hogging and when time come to overtake he done so. the only time i would say that its not the done thing is contraflow where you have to get into the correct lane for upcoming junctions and usually directed by overhead gantry signage.
my 2p's worth.. :-)
Red Herring
24-07-15, 09:33 AM
Only in the perfect world would everyone sit in the inside lane until they came up behind the slow moving vehicle. In reality someone will decide they want to catch up a little bit quicker than the others and they will come down the outside and stop the "next" vehicle from being able to pull out. A couple more will follow them and eventually you end up in the situation where the lane one drivers have now had to slow to match the speed of the vehicle ahead of them and they can't pull out into the faster moving lane two....
The reality is we live in reality......
Red Herring
24-07-15, 09:38 AM
With regard to what the OP has done it would very much depend on how he did it. From what he said it sound as he has taken due care, so how did he go about passing the slower moving vehicle. If he pulled out and set of a chain of brake lights in the following vehicles that may have been enough for the officers to justify their position.
Chezza, did they offer any kind of explanation or "lecture"?
Course booked - £120 later, and the closest available to me was Ealing - Im Brighton based.
It looks like its 6 hours in a classroom and no riding which is a shame. But I will feedback once I have done the course (12 Sep).
Cheers
Gav.
Hi RH,
Yeah there was a lecture about the amount of time not really saved by undertaking etc... nothing really patronising. He said he counted 12 cars that I undertook let alone the amount I may have done previously that he didnt see. He was ok about it all really and almost seemed embarassed to pull me - I wonder if the unmarked cars now have video on all the time and have to submit the video at the end of the shift and then maybe justify if they didnt act on anything they have seen.
Weird thing is, a few weeks before I was coming down the road and the traffic was doing 40-45 in a 70 so I went down the middle slowly past a marked police car that moved over, I nodded my thanks and on we went.
Either way, it has made me think twice about filtering, undertaking etc...
Red Herring
24-07-15, 10:26 AM
It would be extremely unusual for the unmarked car not to be running video, and no, nobody sits and checks through it later to see if they've been working or not. Even Traffic Sgts have better things to do!
Unless he can show that you either acted without due care for the potential dangers involved (high passing speed close to the traffic, maybe past one of them indicating left etc etc...) or without due consideration for the other road users (pushing in and effectively blocking them from passing or causing them all to have to brake) then it's unlikely they have a case.
The new rules allowing officers to issue penalty notices for driving without due care were primarily aimed at drivers who hog the centre of offside lane causing other drivers to bunch up and slow unnecessarily. The legislation hasn't changed, it still has to be a Sect 3. offence (driving without due care/attention/consideration).
Unfortunately when something becomes a fixed penalty offence there is a tendency for officers to be less attentive to something called "evidence". Beforehand they would have to write a section 3 up properly and submit a file through their Sgt, who would bounce it long before it made it to CPS if the evidence wasn't there. Now they can issue a ticket which goes to their central ticket office (which is often run by civilians in a joint partnership with local authorities) and 9 times out of 10 people pay the ticket because they don't want to "risk" challenging it. The situation is made even worse by partnerships now running "driver diversion" courses on which they can make even more money. I bet your cheque wasn't made out to your local police force was it....?
Sounds to me as if the officer who stopped you could benefit from the "Ride" course more than you could.
It's a case where a considered national approach is needed.
If it was an offence that was well known.
I did exactly 70 mph in to work this morning.
Past 3 cars held up by a van by just sitting in lane one (cruise on as its a averaged speed cam part).
Once we got to marks tey 3 lanes bit ever one speeded up.
Mind you as soon as I got into town I passed most of the same cars in the traffic que :)
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