More and more cyclists are fitting video cams to their bikes – facing forward, backward, or both – or to their helmets.

By recording every journey, you have evidence that can be presented in court if you encounter illegal driving or other actions, or if you are accused of wrongdoing.

And if there is no incident on a journey, just overwrite the recording next time.

Here’s a tip from the police:

At the start of the journey, give a “preamble” (and leave the video running continuously thereafter, to stop any suggestion that you have cut bits out, edited it etc):

Speak to camera: announce the date/time/location, say who you are, the identity of the video operator (if different) and the purpose of that journey. eg, “I am going from xx to yy destination and the video is to capture any poor driving.”
If you encounter any bad driving, shout out loudly the license plate number for the video cam to record. Sometimes it is difficult to see from the video record this important piece of information and the voice record will be very helpful.

Check out related advice from Australia and the UK.

Of course, it is not necessary to have video evidence to successfully prosecute a driver who drives dangerously near you, but it does help.