Surrey Police's slapping down of anti-cycling idiots on Twitter while determinedly explaining why close passing cyclists is illegal, and what the punishments are, is to be admired.

Surrey Police Twitter replies about cyclist close pass operation

In the last couple of days in Ireland we saw some pretty childish, and dumb, remarks on Twitter about cyclists by the biggest traffic management office in the country.

To be fair, Dublin City Council's traffic management office deleted the Tweet and apologised.

But at the same time in the UK a very different form on social media engagement was taking place. Surrey Police were doing a close pass operation and they took to Twitter to explain what it was all about.

We think their engagement, below, speaks for itself. They firmly dealt with people who didn't understand the enforcement or were against it.

All the while, Surrey Police remained resolutely fair and determined to simply foster greater knowledge about why it's not cool to close-pass cyclists.

If you have a look at the wider thread, the kudos and compliments coming from the public were clear to see.

All we need now is somebody in the Department of Justice in Ireland to decide mooted new close-pass laws are enforceable after all and the Garda might crack on with a similar attitude to Surrey Police.

They began with a general Tweet about close-pass operation

E Rota have been out & about enforcing drivers passing cyclists too close.

Ensure you overtake with sufficient safe distance.#OpClosePass pic.twitter.com/uSITWRUmvq

— RPU - Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) October 26, 2017

The first idiot is slapped down

Please feel free to return your licence to the DVLA with a brief cover note saying ‘Too childish to drive, thanks for the opportunity.’

— RPU - Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) October 27, 2017

You just made my day ????

— GOSIA0801 (@Gosia0801) October 27, 2017

Class

— Yeti Pilot (@TransAlpUK) October 27, 2017

Another gets a good humoured slap

Please explain the legislation on this how many cyclists are allowed to ride aside each other this is an accident waiting to happen. ?

— Lou (@379Lulu) October 11, 2017

Hi Lou,
Find us a piece of law that says cyclists can’t ride two or more abreast, and you can have a years supply of doughnuts from me.
3564

— RPU - Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) October 11, 2017

Some questions if operation is even legal

And finally the right answer. I’m still interested about the legality of the enforcement question though?

— JAC (@JC______DJ) October 27, 2017

Another Tweeter asks about fighting real crime...

Guys are you being serious??? Crime has gone up by 22% in some parts of Surrey and you're out persecuting motorists?? #priorities!

— Martyn (@martynp_uk) October 28, 2017

…being given when stopped.

Road casualties need to be reduced, a combo of enforcement and advice is a good step.

— RPU - Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) October 28, 2017

Fantastic firm but polite engagement

Banter earning lots of public kudos

Swatting away more nonsense

No one fined yesterday as result of close pass on our operation. Given a driver alert, a form of road sude education. If we see a cyclist...

— RPU - Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) October 27, 2017

Commit an offence we will stop them and, as we do for drivers, taking into consideration previous record, any aggravating factors, and ...

— RPU - Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) October 27, 2017

But, but, but.... they don't pay road tax

No such thing as road tax since 1935. Tax paid on bike when bought, council tax all sorts of tax pays for roads.

— RPU - Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) October 28, 2017

Spreading fact about the law

No offence of using a mobile whilst cycling, walking, horse riding. Just driving.

— RPU - Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) October 26, 2017

No such offence. Not saying it’s a good idea merely stating the fact there is no such law.

— RPU - Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) October 26, 2017

Taking the opportunity to (gently) hammer home the law

If we had been there we would have stopped him. This isn’t about picking on one set of road users. We have all sorts of ooerations..

— RPU - Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) October 26, 2017

Stop a cyclist who commits an offence. We will how ever concevtrate on the bigger risk on this particular operation.....

— RPU - Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) October 26, 2017