An illegal turn leading to a PHV almost driving across a toucan crossing on green. And to top it off a close pass... Wasn't planning on spending my evening writing reports, but here we are.

What's wrong with drivers today? One zigzag parker. While I record them, a phone driver pulls up. Then a passenger side almost dooring (dangers of parking facing traffic - I heard the driver scream at their passenger not to open). Luckily I was just about far enough out.

West Midlands Police have in the past acted on obstruction of the footway submitted via OpSnap. Unfortunately, their enforcement has become more lax. What used to be a fine and points (zigzags only) is now just a warning letter...

I did post about that incident at the time... It was close and scary! Full video will have to wait then. bsky.app/profile/cove...

The "court" outcome is a first from me. I haven't received anything by post, so I assume this incident from November is still making its way through the system, or has been dropped...

The warning letters for zigzag stopping are a step back from where we were one year ago. At that time, zigzag stopping would be a consistent fixed penalty. In summer 2025, it became a mixture of FPN and education, but now it's warning letters only.

I had 15 reports to OpSnap from Sep-Dec 2025, 13 I could identify in the dataset. 8 zigzag stoppers: 7 got warning letters, 1 the VRM wasn't clear enough. 3 close passes, 2 got Education, 1 got Court. The other two were NFA, including one for "Misc Inc Crimes", who went the wrong way in one-way.

Still from bicycle camera showing forward view. A CityFibre liveried white van is overtaking the camera cyclist, leaving a gap of less than a metre to the kerb.

Holy f*** CityFibre! That must have been one urgent call you were en route to.

Just saw it as well. On a first glance, fewer out of time NFAs than in April, but will have to do a detailed analysis. Drivers have been comparatively well behaved in my neck of the woods, only 13 reports in those 3 months, compared to 50 in the same period last year.

Under-fire police force missed 14-day window to take action in two-thirds of reports by cyclists, data reveals Concerning West Midlands Police data suggests hundreds of reports are being missed each month, but force insists it is "working hard to reduce backlog" and is "prioritising more serious offences"

This new historical data showing a decline in performance of Operation Snap is concerning. Especially given the great strides West Midlands Police made in transforming the service following our successful campaign in 2023.

If it will be released at all.

I have still high hopes the blip in the second half of April was related to the Easter holiday (staff being on annual leave and OpSnap being de-prioritised).

A couple I saw were mounted too low on their posts, partially hanging over some road signs. I reported them to the LA. Maybe that accelerates their demise.

Screenshot, text: Dear Simon, I am a frequent submitter to Operation Snap, with over 200 submissions since November 2023, when statistics became available on the OpSnap web site. Of those, 131 led to a fixed penalty notice being issued, 33 drivers were sent on an educational course and 16 were issued warning letters. Only seven reports had no further action, and I have not heard back so far for 17 reports. The data is collated from the reports published on https://www.westmidlands.police.uk/police-forces/west-midlands-police/areas/campaigns/campaigns/operation-snap/ As you can see, this is a highly efficient way to obtain evidence against offending drivers, and by curbing dangerous and inconsiderate behaviour, improves road safety for everyone. However, the latest report published for April 2025 on the website shows that a significant number of submissions in the second half of the month were not dealt with within the 14 days permitted by law to initiate a prosecution (from personal experience, the table is sorted by submission number). For me as a submitter this is extremely frustrating, as the work and effort I put towards allowing WMP to prosecute the reported offences just disappears. Can you please assure me this was only a temporary blip and West Midlands Police has now resumed to deal with OpSnap submissions? If not, can you please make sure OpSnap resumes as soon as possible. And if that's also not happening, please do not ask for any more reports to be submitted on the OpSnap portal, saving us all the hassle - but also signalling West Midlands Police does not care about road safety any more and dangerous or inconsiderate driving and parking will go unpunished, even if you have all the evidence to prosecute. Kind regards,

I started with a reasonably polite letter.

Oi. That is concerning. I only had one report in April, on the 5th, which was acted upon. But after Easter they just seem to have given up (in past months, the file was chronological, so I would assume not much submitted in the second half of April got any action).

Grey car running a red light at a pedestrian crossing. Still from a bicycle cam. The car is seen side on, with its rear wheels just about to cross the stop line, in the far lane of a three-lane carriageway. The car is driving from left to right. Green trees in the background. Sunny weather.

Only cyclists run red lights. Drivers always stop.

Will go unpunished, as too far away for my camera.

Rear-facing bicycle cam still: A black Audi is cutting the corner in a right bend of the road.

Rear-facing bicycle cam still: a black car is alongside the camera bicycle, in too close a distance.

Bicycle camera still: A black Audi is pulling over to the right side between two parked cars, mounting the kerb and driving on the footway in the process.

Driver with less foresight than a goldfish on the road yesterday.
1) Aborted overtake on a blind bend.
2) Close pass overtake between parked cars.
3) Pull over immediately after, but drive on the footway to do so.
Gaining these three seconds on me must really be worth it. Reported to OpSnap.

I stopped reading their responses and instead wait for the monthly updates.

... Which you wouldn't have checked if they'd kept their fingers off the phone...

That's an expensive few seconds.

Re: Tödliche Fahrradunfälle - Die ganze Doku | ARTE Radfahren boomt, ob als Verkehrsmittel, in der Freizeit oder im Urlaub. Doch gleichzeitig sind auch die tödlichen Fahrradunfälle im letzten Jahrzehnt wieder angestiegen. Im Jahr 2023 verunglückten übe...

Immer wieder tödliche Fahrradunfälle in DE, mehr als einmal am Tag. Es macht sprachlos, dass hier nicht geht, was andernorts längst funktioniert.
Sind Politiker*innen Fahrradfahrende denn so egal?
#stopkillingcyclists
#VisionZero

www.arte.tv/de/videos/11...

Operation Snap An initiative to educate and prosecute drivers using footage supplied by the public.

The January reports from West Midlands Police #OpSnap are out. I made 13 reports: 11 led to a FPN (9 for stopping on zigzags, 2 driving without reasonable consideration), one warning letter (DWRC) and one report with no further action (zigzags, but no reg). www.westmidlands.police.uk/police-force...

West Midlands Police have acted on my #OpSnap reports of vehicles left in a similar position. Video needs to ideally show, how views between pedestrians and traffic in the carriageway are affected. YMMV with other forces.

This is what those campaigners think is adequate for cycling.
bsky.app/profile/cove...

Wasn't me, the one with 539 entries. 😇

It takes a little work, but with location, make and model, I can usually identify the ones I reported.

Operation Snap An initiative to educate and prosecute drivers using footage supplied by the public.

It's publicly available: www.westmidlands.police.uk/police-force...

West Midlands Police have also fined obstructive parking following an OpSnap report of mine. Still not towed, obviously, but better than nothing.

While I sometimes work up a sweat when cycling, for me as a utility cyclist, transpiration is not necessarily the objective of my riding.

SCNR. That typo was too funny.

I use www.adobe.com/uk/acrobat/o... in a private browser window, which I close and reopen after each spreadsheet.

26 reports over the four months: 14 fixed penalties, 6 educational courses, 4 warning letters (one of which because WMP ran out of time) and 1 NFA (inconclusive video). 13 parking on zigzags, 11 driving without reasonable consideration, 1 each creating an obstruction and number plate offences.