Cycling on the roads can be dangerous. You may be a confident wonderful law-abiding cyclist, but you cannot account for those around you. We’ve experienced ourselves, and seen many videos online of cars over-taking riders far too closely, and it’s something that has become an unfortunate barrier to curious wannabe-cyclists.

Things we wish drivers understood

There have been petitions, organisations and discussions on how we can make road cycling safer for everyone. However, Cycling UK have developed a simple solution by going to the root of the problem. Rather than educating drivers themselves, Cycling UK are approaching the emergency services and supplying them with the tools necessary for them to police and educate drivers who violate over-taking rules.

The idea came from the West Midlands Police who cycled their local area in plain clothes, then stopped any drivers who overtook too closely, and educated them. Using the means of the safe-pass mat, officers were able to demonstrate what the driver had done wrong. Sounds simple, and yet it was so effective that they saw a reduction of 50% in reported close pass offences.

Cycling UK set out to raise £12,000 to mass produce these safe-pass mats for emergency services nationwide. Within 48hrs of going live on Kickstarter, they had smashed their goal, with pledges still coming in.

We think this is a fab idea, and despite reaching target, you can still make a donation so that more of these mats can be produced and rolled out throughout the UK. More information can be found on their Kickstarter page here.