ACT Policing are to get tough on drivers who drive too close to cyclists.
"The police will be out in force trying to detect people doing the wrong thing such as overtaking a cyclist too close," Acting Sergeant Andrew McKellar said as the month-long campaign started.
"When driving at a speed of less than 60kmh and passing a cyclist they have to leave a minimum of one metre distance. When travelling at a speed of above 60kmh, they must leave a minimum distance of 1.5m between their vehicle and the cyclist," he said.
The maximum penalty in the ACT for driving too close to a cyclist is a $292 fine and two demerit points.
Sgt McKellar urged cyclists not to ride too close to pedestrians but said there was no law against it.
Apart from watching for drivers, the police will also be looking for drivers going too close to other vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, motorcyclists and riders of electric scooters.
Pedal Power, the cyclists' lobbying group, welcomed the police action.
Its director in the ACT, Simon Copland, said often close encounters between cyclists and drivers were nobody's fault. His organisation wanted separate tracks for bikes to avoid those clashes.
But he said cyclists also detected some resentment from drivers. "We think that the way to deal with this is to build separated infrastructure so so that cyclists can get off the roads. Most cyclists don't want to ride on the roads," he said.
"We know that there is a huge cohort of people who want to ride more but who don't do so because they don't want to ride on roads. If we could build better infrastructure, we would get rid of these problematic interactions."
But he dismissed the idea of penalties on cyclists who ride too close to pedestrians.
"This is an issue that gets raised with us from pedestrians from time to time, and we know that it is certainly an issue and so we encourage cyclists to use good behaviour when they are riding past pedestrians - to pass in a good distance; to use your bell or if you don't have a bell to call out so that people know that you are coming," he said.
