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news
Near Miss of the Day 679: Close pass followed by left hook (includes swearing)
Today in our Near Miss of the Day series, we have another video of the type we seem to be seeing increasingly more of nowadays – a driver who simply has to get past a cyclist before immediately turning left.
Alan, the road.cc reader who sent it in, told us that he filmed the incident while he was on the way to work.
“I passed by the usual parked cars, heard the car coming up behind me, as usual thought it was just overtaking, indicator on to show that it was moving back in,” he said.
“But no, this idiot was turning in, cutting straight across me, I had to brake. They were going that fast that they crossed to the other side of the road they turned into.
“This isn't the first time this has happened at this same spot, so I bought a front camera and captured this idiot,” he continued.
“I now have a front and rear camera.
“Admittedly I did shout ‘arsehole’ as a knee-jerk reaction, but I really need to get into the habit of shouting the registration plate, just in case the camera doesn’t catch it,” he added.
> 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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12 comments
I have had this happen to me in broad daylight. It was much closer for me though, I had to slam on to stop myself from going underneath the wheels, as the driver turned before he had passed me. I chased him down the road to his house. The elderley man said I had passed him on the inside. I begged to differ and told him I had the footage, if he apologised I would take it no further. He refused point blank so I reported him to the police.
In the one and only time that Lancashire police acted on one of my videos, probably helped by the fact that the officer was a friend of mine, the officer went to see the old man. He maintained that I was at fault and that I had undertaken him. She made himaware that she had a copy of the footage, an asked him if he would like to view it. He declined, and apologised, so knew full well what he had done. He was issued with a section 59 on the vehicle.
I had it happen three times in the space of about 10 mins when riding through the city centre on the way home from work one Saturday.
First was here where taxi driver (black cab variety) decided to pass me on the outside and then turn left. As I flicked a hand in disgust at the manouvre he held up his hand in apology.
A mile further on as I was in the cycle lane in this patch, a car who had just come off the flyover passed me then decided he wanted to park up outside the set of shops there. He suddenly indicated so I slowed down, then he suddenly stopped. I think I just waved him through as we had both stopped, and if I then started and he then started in confusion.......
Then the third and most deliberate came at these lights. Golf GTI mess was at the lights waiting to turn left. I had come along the cycle lane but was going straight on but got in front at the ASL. We waited about a minute for the lights to change and as soon as they hit green, he revved up suddenly swung past and across missing me by about a foot on his left swing.
After that the rest of my cycle home was fine. I just blamed the weather as the sun must have been in lots of eyes.
I think many car drivers plan their manoeuvres around cyclists on the basis that the bike is a stationary object. They make no allowance for the cyclist moving forwards.
This.
I think most drivers think they're more important than anyone else on the road and don't give a flying f*ck who or where you are, you are not fit to occupy space in their consciousness.
But I'm Australian, drivers might be more considerate elsewhere…
From comments by others, to improve the video, it would be useful to have a cycle reference point. CycleGaz likes to include his front wheel, for example. It allows better perspective for proximity and position.
From my own observation, while Alan has done nothing wrong, his position as he passed the parked possessions on the left could have been further right towards the centre white line: especially to avoid the door zone; but also because primary is further out when parked possessions are there, and it might have deterred the senseless pass. (Moving from secondary to primary should be done with good observation and an early, gradual move out rather than a sudden swerve to the centre, of course.)
The camera was mounted slightly right of centre on the handlebars, I am making a bracket to mount on right side front forks, don't like on handlebars.
I was the recommended 0.5m away from parked cars, I'd prefer more.
There is an island on the road before the parked cars, and is a short distance to the street the car flew into, basically in order for the car to pass me in that short distance they had to put the foot down, wait g 1.5 seconds to safely turn in to the street simply wasn't an option.
Not sure where you are getting your "recommended 0.5m" from but I would question any advice from the same source. Car doors are 1m wide minimum, I would stick for about 1.5m of safety space
Possibly a misreading of the Bikeability definition of secondary position?
That's not really relevant to passing parked cars, though (all they say on that is to 'allow plenty of space', without defining what plenty of space looks like).
Anyone know why he shouted out NIGEL at the end there?
I thought he recognised the driver and shouted "Ah. So!"
Well, if he had a personalised plate, it'd probably read R 5 OLE.