- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Tubeless valves
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
news
Near Miss of the Day 699: Roundabout close pass from driver speeding off slip road
As cyclists we all know at least a few roundabouts that can be dangerous at the best of times, especially if someone decides to come flying past on the inside.
road.cc reader Lyndon was holding position on the right-hand lane as he was not leaving at the first two exits.
"I was turning right at the roundabout to head home after work when a driver coming off the slip road drove straight through," he recalled.
"I saw they were approaching with speed so I slowed down, and lucky I did. I had less than a metre from the vehicle as it barrelled through, not that it bothered the driver. They continued racing through the 20mph zone on their way to whatever business was worth killing me."
The clip has been uploaded to Thames Valley Police, but Lyndon does not hold high hopes of hearing a positive outcome since the registration plate cannot clearly be seen in the footage.
Anyway, he said: "In my experience TVPD wouldn’t do much as there was no injury, so no incident."
> 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
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
Latest Comments
- kingleo 1 hour 7 min ago
Crossing the road is the big danger for pedestrians, not the cycle path.
- Hirsute 2 hours 26 min ago
More of an oblique reference to a cyclist being taken out when in the cycle lane in the same scenario. Of course the cyclist pretty much gets the...
- Jaijai 2 hours 36 min ago
How many have you seen posted on Social media with cars ? The police don't handle this well in any way .Wether it's cars or bikes. This is a not to...
- slc 4 hours 2 min ago
Lavable neigbourhoods? Could be handy on bins day
- chrisonabike 5 hours 18 min ago
Wait - have those wafers been upgraded to chocolate wafers now (or maybe those pink ones?) Or is it all the sugar in the communion wine?
- Scribe Cycling 6 hours 2 min ago
Hi username983, thank you for the comment, and it's great to hear you rate the wheels. The new models have a slightly different design which come...
- wtjs 6 hours 23 min ago
I'm pleased to say I didn't 'do' Latin, but I was also pleased to learn the origin of 'laconic'
- Surreyrider 6 hours 28 min ago
Looks like Specialized dusted off their blueprint for the Tarmac circa 2012-14 to 'create' the Aethos.
- Tom_77 6 hours 35 min ago
Was looking for things to do in Winchester and came across this - Adrenaline Comedy Bike Tour Experience at B3335...
- whosatthewheel 7 hours 7 min ago
A re-offender too, having been disqualified for speeding in the past. I don't believe in the "reaching for a chewing gum" bollocks either. More...
Add new comment
39 comments
The driver's a bit of a berk
Low sun mate.
After consulting the Nick Freeman advice to all road users web site
You don't have leg to stand on - totally your own fault.
After posting my cynical comments above I had a look at Nick Freema's Website.
It comes as near to saying, "I can get you off even if you are guilty as hell" as it is legally possible to do.
One good thing It looks like he hates E Scooters even more than cyclists!
Re E-Scooters. Of course he would. Using a mode of transport that mean less chance of killing someone means less road rules so less chance his services would be called upon.
Driver didn't appear to slow down enough to look, never saw him. Very very dangerous.
I am not sure about this one. When I cycled in the UK, on scary WTF no marking roundabouts like that one, I used to stay far far left (about a foot way from verge) the whole way around, until i needed to skip an exit, would then check I was clear - trusting no-one, and then continue till leaving my exit.
Seems alot of taking primary there with very little assuredness that phluckers like that wont rip past you. Risky.
The trouble with that approach, is you end up getting vehicles assuming you are taking an exit and overtaking you as you are going around. So you now have an additional danger from vehicles behind you, which are a lot harder to keep an eye on.
At least with the approach Lyndon took, the danger is mainly reduced to vehicles entering the roundabout ahead of you, which are a lot easier to see coming.
You can't just go around the outside lane or drivers will legitimately expect you to leave at the next junction and if you don't you stand a good chance of getting hit broadside.
I just gave way to them. Better to wait than to be minced on an inside lane... I dont think you two understand.
Wait where? If you stop on the edge of a roundabout, you're a sitting duck for a turning HGV. Often at commuting times, there's not much of a gap in traffic, so you'd be waiting a very long time in a dangerous position.
Cyclist was in the correct position for their exit and to deal with other traffic.
If you cycle too close to the left, there is little room for escape when someone pulls out. This is even worse for you where driver in L1 with no view due to vehicle in L2 pulls out anyway.
Also if you are too far to the left, you can effectively get left hooked despite rule 187 which hardly anyone has even read.
might as well just get off and walk every time you come to a roundabout, perhaps you can even doff your cap and bow to the important drivers as you get out of their way.
They may assume it, but not legitimately. If they were familiar with the Highway Code they would know that they should
Thanks @mdavidford and others for educating me wasnt aware of that, neither are I expect most drivers, so please take the word "legitimately" out of my previous post.
In my experience going around the outside is very dangerous even if you intend to give way to cars exiting across the front of you.
Not something I would do or recomend.
It depends where you are in the lane. You can be in L2 in the wrong part of it and then be subject to traffic entering from the left and cutting across you or making your exit risky or impossible.
I often use L1 to take a third exit but I am close to the lane divider line, then I only have to worry about drivers in the lane outside me potentially cutting across me.
At your funeral, we'll be sure to say 'but they should have followed the Highway Code'.
Hope that makes you feel better (and safer).
Except that I wouldn't ride there (or advise anyone else to ride there), so I'm not sure what your point is supposed to be.
Yes you can, and drivers would not have a legitimate expectation otherwise:
Rule 187
In all cases watch out for and give plenty of room to
Can't remember the exact rule number but the NMOTD the other week where the Plod gave the submittee the wrong advice actually applies here doesn't it.
Cyclists can around in the left lane to go exit right, however they need to be aware and make allowances for cars entering and exiting at each lane.
Of course, but you need to be aware of vehicles joining or leaving wherever you are.
Just to be clear, I was not suggesting that is definitely the correct action in all circumstances, but pointing out the HWC is clear that drivers need to expect people on bikes to do that.
Yep, the HWC covers the cyclist doing it, but also for them to look out for drivers and drivers to be aware the cyclist is there. The trouble on islands is there is so many rules for both parties (whatever the vehicle) that actual faults in driving is hard to prosecute as neither are then classed as in the wrong.
Highway Code literally says to ride in the outside lane if you feel it's safer.
Yes but theres what the highway code says and theres heres what bitter experience has taught me, and it will be a very cold day in hell before I choose to ride around a roundabout like that in the very outside lane past exits/entries I'm not taking
Well I can't speak for anyone else, but my boiler's being replaced as we speak, and I can only describe the cold as hellish.....
Shouldn't you have dragged a job lot of dry bracken and grass down into your sett last autumn?
I smoked the last of the grass back in November. Can't remember what happened to the bracken..... whatevs....
HC says you can, but if you do ride round the outside watch out for vehicles crossing your path, not clear if this means you should yield to them, but 187 says they should yield to you
"77 You may feel safer walking your cycle round on the pavement or verge. If you decide to ride round keeping to the left-hand lane you should
be aware that drivers may not easily see you
take extra care when cycling across exits. You may need to signal right to show you are not leaving the roundabout
watch out for vehicles crossing your path to leave or join the roundabout."
however the previous clause 76 directs to the normal rules for roundabouts, this would be considered the default and in my opion the safest way to manage a roundabout.
The roundabout in THIS clip is a single lane roundabout anyway, so by moving to the edge you are inviting drivers to overtake you within the lane at a junction. why would anyone do that? make them wait and pass after the junction they may not even be taking the same exit.
It's not clear to me whether it's meant to be one lane or two - it looks like one of those horrible ones that has two lanes worth of width, but with no clear lane division. I'm not sure there is a safe position to ride around ones like that - wherever you put yourself you're liable to get someone doing something stupid to try to get past you, or assuming you're going somewhere you're not.
No, no, no! Take the correct lane for the exit you want and behave like regular traffic.
If you are on the inside track as it were, nearest the island in the middle then you are further away from the dangers of traffic joining the roundabout* and if it all goes a bit wonky when time to exit with respect to tangling with other vehicles then you have the option of aborting and just going round again.
*As demonstrated in this NMOTD where the cyclist was able to avoid a collision due to creating a larger margin of safety.
Pages