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news
Near Miss of the Day 596: Dublin cyclist gets close pass
It's one of our occasional forays abroad today in our Near Miss of the Day feature, with this video captured in Dublin by road.cc reader Soeren showing a driver making a very close pass on him, giving him 50 centimetres' room at the most.
Soeren hasn't reported the incident to the Gardai, explaining: "I tried that before but it's like in GB, sometimes or most of the time you get no feedback.
"The road was Enniskerry Road after the junction of R113 and R117 towards Dundrum.
"I usually don't have a camera on my bike but it was running at that time and seems it was worth it.
"Drivers do many close passes here as there is no enforcement," he added.
"We have a recommended overtaking distance of 1.5m and most drivers give plenty of room ... but then there are others like in this case."
> 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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20 comments
I also cycle in Dublin, and know the section in this clip. It is busy, and potentially dangerous a lot of the time. The section after the busy junction is quite fast downhill so most cars don't bother passing cyclists doing decent speed, but obviously the motorist in this video could do with being educated. I luckily have a much safer route to work with lots of mostly decent bike lane at separate level from main road, and am only ever on section in this vid on weekend mornings, when it is rarely that busy.
Blatant punishment pass. The offender probably passed the cyclist on their way to sit in some traffic and didn't want to be passed on the inside, so pulled the car close to the kerb. The cyclist then either had to stop (as the driver wanted) or carry on filtering on the outside (as he chose). The driver obviously was annoyed that their petty little tactics hadn't worked so chose to close pass (when the opposite lane was clear). This is clearly an act from a coward that doesn't understand the difference between privilege and entitlement and is prepared to endanger others simply to prove a point. Ultimately the act of a bitter coward.
I dont think it was a punishment pass, they tend to be alot more obvious in their intent to frighten you, this whilst its close, just looks like a typical unthinking driver with a kind of lazy youve been given enough room if I havent hit you overtake.
I doubt the filtering played any part in it, though I personally wouldnt ride like that.
I get worse than this on the morning commute...
*cough* https://youtu.be/cThPjLvDd4E *cough*
That was my thought; the cyclist had the temerity to go around on the offside, as the driver had blocked the nearside, so as to stop any filtering from cyclists. As a result, the driver decided to hand out some justice to the cyclist....
Doesn't really matter what you think about the filtering, that had nothing to do with the close pass. Anyway, the driver carried on and close passed another cyclist. Both times there was an empty lane the other side ('though they'd have had to wait 2-3 seconds the second time owing to the unbroken line). The driver needs education - even before they are taught that, yes, you can cross the centre line where permitted, they need to learn that it is never OK to endanger another person.
You just know that this will be one of those where the driver's 'justification' for their poor driving will be that "the cyclist is happy to be really close to me when I'm sat in traffic, so why should I give them room when I overtake?" or something along those lines. I've had a few drivers fail to comprehend that (perfectly legal!) filtering closely past a stationary car by the cyclist is in no way comparable to being overtaken at speed by a much heavier and far more destructive vehicle. They will of course also fail to appreciate that their dangerous actions were completely futile when passed some time later by the very same cyclist that was "holding them up" so unnecessarily.
Hmm not sure about this one. Some pretty aggressive filtering there. Ok I'm at risk of victim shaming, but is it ok to complain about a close pass if you've spend the previous 30 seconds close passing cars in some cases with less room than they were given?
Just imagine if you had seen a boy racer car make some of those manouvers. My first though would have been "look at that tw*t!"
when you walk along the train platform next to a stationary train to get to the door do you need to stay behind the yellow line? Would you be comofortable standing at the dge of the platform when the train goes throughat 60mph?
can you see the difference now?
Stationary cars do not wobble laterally, cyclists may do for a number of reasons which are spelled out in the highway code in the section on giving vulnerable road users space.
Perhaps you can point to some examples of motorists being injured by cyclists misjudging a gap while filtering?
I notice the driver also passes the next cyclist closely despite indicating before overtaking, and that this motorist had taken the extrem left position in the traffic queue in a attempt to block filtering. Imagine if the cyclist had taken a position 2/3s to the right of the lane to prevent the overtake, everyone would considert hat unreasonable.
Obviously. That's why it's there. Are you insane?
The yellow line is to protect people from fast moving trains, not stationary trains.
If you have stay behind the line all the time no one could get on or off!
You are only supposed to cross the yellow line - perpendicularly - when boarding or disembarking from a train. It is there to keep people back from the edge of the platform to prevent accidents while trains are in stations. The gap between the train and the edge of the platform is dangerous.
You should be much further back than the yellow line when trains are passing through without stopping.
Sorry - but that is wrong. The yellow line is there for when trains are passing at speed - https://www.railengineer.co.uk/unseen-hazard/#:~:text=One%20result%20has....
I often filter like that, but it's not nearly the same thing as cars passing close by. Even my most aggressive filtering is unlikely to pose any danger to anyone other than myself and cyclists have skin in the game. I'm quite happy to leave only a few cms space when overtaking a car, but will definitely leave more space when overtaking another cyclist (or wait behind them to catch my breathe and wait for a good opportunity).
I particularly enjoyed the swerve around the car that was too far left.
"I particularly enjoyed the swerve around the car that was too far left."
Same car which makes me think they have a thing against cyclists with their actions (or a phobia of being too far right in a road).
I was actually interested if the car did it again on the bridge but I assume not if the video cut out then.
I didn't realise that. As annoying as it is, there's nothing particularly wrong with cars keeping left but it grinds my gears if they're not in line with cars in front and behind them.
I like to justify threading through traffic like that as ensuring that drivers see you.
I agree a 'left-hand-side-hugger' is the other option - someone who doesn't have good spacial awareness nor driving skills.
That's as maybe, but the driver performed the same action on a second rider a few seconds later.
Plus, we might say "that boy racer's a twat", but we wouldn't follow up by cutting them up to prove a point. And a boy racer is protected by a couple of ton of steel.
Was there, though? I was watching it and thinking it had all been slightly speeded up, and was waiting for the Benny Hill music...
Theres always the bennyhillifier.com if you feel it needs that extra flourish.
As for the filtering when they shifted right the 2nd time to then get stuck betwixt a lane they didnt want to be in and moving traffic on their left, with no room, not the smartest bit of riding I've seen from these videos