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news
Near Miss of the Day 351: Electric cab driver makes very close pass
Electric taxis may be billed as being friendly to the environment – but not all cabbies using them are friendly towards cyclists going by today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series.
This incident is now being investigated by the Metropolitan Police and at their request has been made private.
It was filmed on St Pancras Way, Camden, an area with a lot of cycle traffic both on the road and the towpath – the Constitution pub on the left lies on the Regent’s Canal.
Ian, the road.cc reader who filmed it, told us it was "certainly the worst incident of the type I’ve had in 13 years of riding in London.
"One thing that really alarmed me was not even realising the taxi was there until it was in my peripheral vision. I’d always assumed that electric vehicles would be audible from the road noise, but am now very aware that’s not the case.
"It’s clearly a punishment pass for me not using the cycle lane on the right, however I’m obviously perfectly justified to do that (not least because I’m comfortably doing 20+mph).
"The cycle lane actually runs out only slightly ahead and switches to the left, which puts cyclists in danger of drivers turning right after the zebra crossing."
One point worth noting here is that as Ian mentioned, while you’d get plenty of notice of a diesel London cab coming up behind you, unless you’re shoulder checking regularly you’d get no such warning of the electric version, making a close pass like this even more unnerving.
> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?
Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.
If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.
If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).
Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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14 comments
CXR94Di2, I've seen my wife drive towards me, and all you can see is your life flashing before your eyes.
Count yourself lucky.
We have a couple of EVs. Tyre noise is by far the loudest. I have seen my wife drive towards me and all you can hear is tyre noise. At speed 30mph EVs arent much quieter than a modern ICE. At low speeds they can be silent if they dont have white noise emission
Oh nice, professional driver.......
Wow, that is disgusting driving, lets hope he gets prosecuted
Interested to know the speed of the cyclist and hence cab given the 20 limit that was marked on the road.
Indeed - The cyclist says he was clearly doing 20mph or maybe a bit more, but yeah, you overtake and then speed off mate, 20mph is just an advisory.
CabbieTwat
I've always found electric vehicles to be rather noisy.
Even e-bikes.
Never failed to notice them appreaching from behind.
A close pass from a normal vehicle is scary enough, but at least you can kind of tell most of the time that it's about to happen as you can hear them approaching and not slowing down (or speeding up in some cases, grrr). I've been on country roads travelling at a fair pace, and been given a fright by an electric car overtaking - despite them doing everything correctly and being fully over the white line in the middle of the road ... simply because I couldn't hear them approaching so they seemed to come out of nowhere. A proper close pass by an electric vehicle would be very terrifying I'd imagine. Electric cars shouldn't be allowed to be "silent" when moving if for no other reason that to let blind pedestrians and phone zombies know that there is traffic and it's not safe to step into the roadway.
I was thinking this but also, the lane on the right suddenly ends and starts on the left with no apparent give way signs for cycles or cars. So it is actually safer for a cyclist going straight on to stay in the lane he was in otherwise.....
In the eyes of the taxi driver though, thats still grounds for a PP.
"All that taxpayers money spent on a poxy bike lane & they dont even use it! It doesnt matter that its not convenient for them or leads them away form where theyre going. Im completely justified in potenitally threatenting their life!"
What London needs is a mayor thats not afraid of scumbags such as the LTDR and who will reduce the number of licenced cabs. We really dont need 24,000 black cabs & 124,000 PHVs on the roads, especially as most of them driving around empty.
My money is on a punishment pass - at the start of the footage 2 cyclists filter right onto protected bikelane, driver sees this, decides to send his message to cyclist who stayed on the road - i hope the driver is punished severely
I think there's probably a fair bit of noise from the tyres. If you're riding fast, I suppose it could be drowned out by the wind.
This is where I question those that tell you to always ride primary and force the driver somewhere else, rarely happens, just means the driver will be closer to you!