Near Miss Project: 'Very scary' incident once a week

every time I see in the press comments like “a cyclist appeared out of nowhere and nearly caused a crash” I want to put my fingers down my throat .....anyway think mentioned this before but this research from ACT (Australian Capital Territory) could be seen as being complimentary to the work of the near miss project....commuter cyclists were fitted out with cameras and incidents analysed – with the intent of  making an “objective record of road users’ experiences and can be analysed without the potential biases and omissions that may be generated by a cyclist recalling events.”

One of the findings:

"No collision events were recorded. A total of 91 potentially unsafe cyclist-interactions were identified. In the majority of events (93.4%), the behaviour of the driver led to the event. The most common event type was left turn (37.3%) which involved a driver turning left across the path of the cyclist, drivers turning across cyclists’ path from the adjacent direction (32.9%). Unexpectedly opened vehicle doors accounted for 17.6% of cyclist-driver interactions. In the majority of all events, a crash was avoided due to the evasive actions taken by cyclists"

My emphasis – full report here:

http://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/217306/muarc322.pdf

Are all of these near misses even illegal? I say this because all the person has to say is this is the amount of space they would have given when passing a car and considering drivers don't get anything more than a parking fine for GBH'ing cyclists, why would they ever get in trouble for not hitting a cyclist?

Legally, we need to specify the actual passing distance, put it on road signs around the country and change the liability law to be like that of shunting someone from behind. Put some adverts on the TV like they have done for years for drink-driving.

Since changing the liability law doesn't cost anything much so I can't see a reason for not doing it, it certainly won't make the situation worse. It's not a this or that choice, we still can take other measures.

Until distance passing and liability laws are changed then I won't believe the governent is in the slightest bit bothered about cycling levels. This government seems to be keen for there to be less cycling, not more.

I'm starting to realise that the roads in the UK are very close to the Wild West for levels of law enforcement.  If a driver actually kills someone, there are usually consequences - not as serious as they should be.  But anything less is pretty well consequence-free, leaving the ignorant and arrogant to drive how they like.

i already have the camera.  It's only real use is to (hopefully) leave behind some useable evidence for my widow's benefit.

im thinking that my next bike-related purchase ought to be that baseball bat, so I can re-educate some of the halfwits in their little metal boxes.  They don't seem to be able to learn any other way.

(You can tell that I've had a worse than usual commute this week, what with the rain bringing out the worst of the loonies.  Added to which one of the f-wits had a very good go at ruining my Saturday ride (although he decided not to get out of his car and fight me as he'd promised to do, instead choosing to blame the close pass on my being too close to him!)

I find when overtaking in my car that as I hang back and move safely into the other lane giving a wide berth to any cyclist that the car behind me also does the same, the effect slowly wears off as you count subsequent cars that follow.  I therefore think that the majority of car users need reminding of their overtaking responsibilities.  

I also find car users who overtake horses do so more consideratly (in general) than cyclists, all this leads me to believe that if this behaviour was reinforced people would be more aware and safer overall.

Still wouldnt solve the issue of Bus and Audi Drivers though !!!! 

This research reinforces Cycling UK research from about twenty years ago, which discovered that it was the time you spent on the road which indicated how many incidents you had.

I'll be honest, that I don't remember ever having tuition in how to overtake during driving lessons. But my car isn't the speediest so it's rarely an issue on A roads as I don't overtake. The comment earlier about overtaking with lots of room in case the cyclist comes off is interesting, and makes sense, and is totally ignored by most motorists...

There was an article in The Herald sometime back that something like 75% of motorists were not confident in overtaking other road users while 85% I think it was unhappy in other motorists overtaking skills. It seems to be a skill set that is not practised in driver tuition and only discussed if that at all. I think the vast majority of 'scary' passes that we endure can be attributed to this while sadly there is a handful of tossers who just don't give a damn and either go all out to scare/intimidate vulnerable road users off the road. My dad when he was being taught to drive was told when passing a cyclist he needed to move across into the other lane when safe to do so. One of the reasons was if the cyclist fell off their bike into the road their body would take up most of the lane. If this happened as you were overtaking you would totally miss them. 

Strangly enough i was was giving this some thought on the way home this morning when a moped passed me and was actually only a couple of mph faster than I. Yet. Vehicles were hanging back before they passed her and then gave plenty of room when they did. And yet as they passed me I received very little courtesy, consideration or care. Then at the roundabout where I experienced a taxi driver who was going straight over while I was taking the first exit deliberately swing his vehicle at me as I sailed past him on his inside. I got his permit number and haven't decided what to do.

Sounds about right - average daily commute is ten miles (5 each way) and I'll get one near miss each way.

Probably the only thing that I'd class as "Very Scary" would be an artic/bus close passing at speed and I probably have one of those once a month.

Biggest fear is out cycling in New Forest and the risk of head-ons on blind bends

Some reject in a van and trailer from a cleaning business? called Landys or something around Peebles today tried to bump me off in the cycle lane when he has a full unobstructed road. Every other car seems to be able to move along fine but he needs to drive like a drunk twat in the cycle lane pulling in as he passes me and staying there. Seemed intentional to me. Been trying to find the business online since I came back now but maybe got the name wrong. Really considering getting a cam. Literally was inches away from my elbow and if I didn't brake hard he'd have hit me. 

If anyone knows this company let me know, want to send them some e-hate.

Correct link:

http://www.nearmiss.bike/

Broken link to the near-miss site (last paragraph)