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Close pass, traffic island and left hook

Near Miss of the Day 375: Close pass, traffic island and left-hook - all by one driver in the space of seconds

Our regular series featuring close passes from around the country - today it's Berkshire...
by Simon_MacMichael
Wed, Feb 19, 2020 12:22
10

Today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series is a three-in-one encompassing a trio of issues that regularly crop up in the feature – a close pass, an overtake approaching a traffic island, and a left-hook.

They were all made in the space a few seconds by a van driver, with the footage filmed by road.cc reader LastBoyScout.

He told us that it happened on the A329 Wokingham Road at the junction with Mill Lane in Winnersh and that it is "a location of lots of near-misses over the years with cars turning into/out of Mill Lane (when I'm cycling in either direction) but that one was especially bad.”

The incident was reported to Thames Valley Police and the vehicle owner has been sent a letter with advice on passing cyclists.

> 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

Near Miss of the Day
NMotD traffic island
NMotD van
NMotD left hook
Simon MacMichael

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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10 comments

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bobbypuk | 4 years ago
2 likes

I use this road everyday and this exact thing happens a lot.

The whole of Wokingham road is covered in these riduculous markings telling me I should mount the pavement and then cross the side road as a pedestrian. As I see it the markings though the cycle lane does not end with a give-way (that would be a double line) but with a single line. (no idea what that means). So the person coming past is overtaking and its my priority.  In theory.

Getting TVP to send a letter is not a result, its a sop to make you think action has been taken. A few weeks back I was almost taken out on the Showcase roundabout by somebody who claimed not to have seen me. My camera showed she had been waiting behind me at the lights so that really is not paying attention. A letter from police even though i had no brake sharply in heavy traffic to avoid her crashing into me.

They have tigthened up on their plan to do SFA. Just tried to report an taxi incident yesterday and Kings Road is apparently not covered by TVP so their website won't let you report it.

Avatar
Judge dreadful | 4 years ago
1 like

I think I can work out what happened there. The van driver assumed the rider was going to take to the path, ( where the little picture of the bike and the arrow is ) because the 'cycle lane' had come to an end. The cyclist decided to stay on the road, and the driver probably assumed the rider had taken to the path, He was already committed to the left turn, and the rider was in his blind spot, so unless he stopped dead ( but he wouldn't because he'd probably assumed the cyclist was on the path ) that was always going to happen. It's a lesson in why it's never a good idea to assume ( for the van driver.)

Avatar
Podc replied to Judge dreadful | 4 years ago
13 likes

Judge dreadful wrote:

I think I can work out what happened there. The van driver assumed the rider was going to take to the path, ( where the little picture of the bike and the arrow is ) because the 'cycle lane' had come to an end. The cyclist decided to stay on the road, and the driver probably assumed the rider had taken to the path, He was already committed to the left turn, and the rider was in his blind spot, so unless he stopped dead ( but he wouldn't because he'd probably assumed the cyclist was on the path ) that was always going to happen. It's a lesson in why it's never a good idea to assume ( for the van driver.)

I think you are being way too generous. I think the van driver just didn't give a shit.

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LastBoyScout | 4 years ago
3 likes

Yes, that was me. And a letter is one up on the usual response of no action taken.

The problem with that junction is that it is a total rat run for drivers going between Woodley and Lower Earley via Mill Lane and Loddon Bridge road in order to avid the Showcase roundabout at rush hour. Particularly bad this week, as the roundabout has been flooded, so this has been the only way through.

The van driver is a local business, so would be expected to know the road pretty well.

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ChrisB200SX replied to LastBoyScout | 4 years ago
0 likes

Anyone taking that road knows the area very well, there is no other reason you'd take that route (unless you lived down there).

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LottieChaCha replied to ChrisB200SX | 4 years ago
2 likes

Unfortuantley this is the way I have to go home everyday to get back to Woodley.  I take a right into Pond Head Lane just opposite Meadow road.  There is not one week when there is some muppet close passing me.  Most of the time taking the lane (if that is possible) sorts that out.

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cycle.london | 4 years ago
2 likes

Well done for getting plod to send a letter, at the very least.  On my commute (which I hope to restart once this effing sciatica sods off), left hooks are the rule rather than the exception. And the Met just tell you to piss off if you report it.

Avatar
ktache | 4 years ago
3 likes

The moment you said Berkshire and I saw the pic I knew it was the Wokingham Road, no protection for this MurderStrip, the arbitrary switch from mandatory to advisory murderstrip and the pointless switch from road to very pedestrian pavements.

The amount of parking on it is atrocious.

Something on here made me look at Reading councils webpages, minicabs and their regulations, and there is meant to be a mostly off road ncn 422 being done.  It cannot be done soon enough.

Avatar
ChrisB200SX replied to ktache | 4 years ago
5 likes

ktache wrote:

The moment you said Berkshire and I saw the pic I knew it was the Wokingham Road, no protection for this MurderStrip, the arbitrary switch from mandatory to advisory murderstrip and the pointless switch from road to very pedestrian pavements.

The amount of parking on it is atrocious.

Something on here made me look at Reading councils webpages, minicabs and their regulations, and there is meant to be a mostly off road ncn 422 being done.  It cannot be done soon enough.

Love how you're suppoosed to give way to vehicles coming from behind when the lane conveniently ends just before a traffic island and junction. Dotted line should really be on the main carriageway instead, but you know, designed by motorists who've never riden a bike. The only way to navigate this is shoulder check, signal if necessary and pull out of the cycle lane well before you get near the abrupt end. 

Weirdly, I've rarely seen any cars parked on that stretch for about 12 months or so, the straight bit is actually a decent, albeit totally unnecessary cycle lane. After the Three Tuns cross roads is probably still an entirely different story though. That's the bit where I've been rammed into parked cars for not using the cycle lane which had *officially* been removed and so did not exist. There are 67 bikes painted on that stretch going into Reading, no cycle lane there though. The epitome of white paint as cycle infrastructure provision!

Curiously, the road is rather wide but it would be safer and less conducive to close passes if there was no intermittant cycle lane at all.

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EK Spinner | 4 years ago
12 likes

Yet another one where the atrocious road markings will be excusd by some to make it the riders fault.

The compulsory cycle lane suddenly stops with  left turn arrow and the driver will argue (with a certain justification though still wrong) that the rider changed lane without giving way to the traffic in the lane he was entering.

Its about time many of these musder strips were got rid of, or the designers/approvers of such schemes were held to account for thier shocking design

 

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