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news
Near Miss of the Day 895Near Miss of the Day 895: Cyclist close passed by multiple drivers in space of seconds, including shocker from lorry driver
A cyclist was left to conclude that "cycling in Sheffield is just awful" after a series of close passes on an A-road that make up the latest edition of our Near Miss of the Day series, highlighting the dangers that cyclists in the UK face on a regular basis simply for using the roads.
Ann shared the footage on social media, tagging South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, the region's Active Travel Commissioner Ed Clancy, and Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Cox, a leading traffic police figure. It has been viewed more than 325,000 times since last week when the incident occurred on Hathersage Road, with the cyclist saying the driving has been reported.
When the first lorry overtook I was chuffed, but then . . . #Cycling @Ed_Clancy @olivercoppard @AndyCoxDCS Cycling in Sheffield is just awful pic.twitter.com/yzq4ezbBYf
— Greggs 💙 🇾🇪 🇵🇸 (@AnnGreggsRN) March 8, 2024
"When the first lorry overtook I was chuffed, but then..." she recalled, the series of overtaking manoeuvres that followed featuring multiple close passes, finishing with the closest of the lot by the driver of a lorry, despite oncoming traffic on the uphill stretch.
Some of the replies to the post have attracted accusations of victim-blaming, the cyclist told by one that "if you are genuinely worried about the distance these cars are leaving then you need to go to a park or closed road until your are confident to ride your bike in public".
"I've been confidently cycling for over 10 years — use a bike for my daily work commute across the city of Sheffield, this was a ride out into the peaks on the first decent weather day for ages — I'm sick of near death on a daily basis just because I choose to use a bike," Ann replied.
The region's former active travel commissioner — Dame Sarah Storey — who has since taken up an equivalent role in Greater Manchester, joined South Yorkshire Police on a close pass operation back in September 2021 on the A57, not too far from the stretch of A625 where Ann's video was filmed.
The operation saw almost one in five drivers get pulled over for overtaking too close, Storey and another team of cyclists communicating to officers further up the road which drivers to stop for education on safe passing distances.
"The A57 is a long climb with lots of double white lines due to some blind bends,” Inspector Kevin Smith said, describing a road not dissimilar to the A625 as seen in the video.
"It is often safer to cycle two abreast on these sections to reduce the temptation of some motorists to try and 'squeeze' the cyclist to the side of the road by overtaking on a blind bend and then pulling back left to avoid a head on collision with traffic the other way approaching at 50 miles per hour.
"Even when cycling solo, it is often safest to ride in primary position on these bends, to ensure that you are visible around the bends. Unfortunately, it was not the most stress-free afternoon of cycling, with lots of people apparently unable to overtake without the assistance of their horn. Sarah's Garmin radar detected 110 overtakes over the two laps we completed, and of those 110 overtakes, 20 were stopped for advice purposes, which is disappointing.
"Our other pair were also close passed a few times, taking the total to 25 vehicles stopped for advice purposes, and another five that we will catch up with through the post. In total 10 prosecutions for a range of offences from careless driving to contravening double white lines. It seems many drivers are unaware that if a cyclist is travelling at more than 10 miles per hour there is no loophole to allow them to overtake on double white lines, and we saw a depressing level of selfish and poor behaviour throughout the day."
> 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.
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16 comments
I reached a sad milestone last week. On a 10km commute in London for the first time there were two incidents I deemed serious enough to report - a close pass and a narrowly avoided T-bone - and both resulted in the Met Police saying they will take action. My evidence is that motorists' behaviour towards cyclists - which seemed to get better in the 2010s is now worse than ever. And surely few can have read the updates to the highway code?
I had 3 the other day. One slow speed pull in forcing me out of the way on the approach to red traffic lights, inconsiderate but not realy dangerous, they say they will take action. Two close passes on a 50 road, but I think they were faster, could have been killed but no action from the police. Completely pointless passes as they just joined the queue at a road works red light a few seconds earlier. The driver before these two slowed down, waited behind and went to the other side of the road to overtake.
I disagree about driving in built up areas though. In my experience most drivers are giving me more room and slowing down but the aggressive drivers are probably worse now, especially since the pro driver stance from the government.
Standard.
It seems many drivers are unaware that if a cyclist is travelling at more than 10 miles per hour there is no loophole to allow them to overtake on double white lines, and we saw a depressing level of selfish and poor behaviour throughout the day
It's even more important that Lancashire Constabulary is made aware of this, because their opinion is that everybody does it so it must be OK. There was another one this morning
https://upride.cc/incident/b6hol_harrisonoils_uwlcross/
https://upride.cc/incident/pk17ulc_vwpolo_uwlcrossclosepass/
And some oldies but goodies:
https://upride.cc/incident/ku15ekc_royalmailbigvan_dwlcrossclosepass/
https://upride.cc/incident/md68fwc_apcovernight_whitelinecross/
That last one got as far as a complaint about the NFA- this was the occasion of LancsFilth's terminally stupid idea that 'confirmatory video is necessary from the offending vehicle, and there isn't any so we couldn't do anything'- this predates the conceptually similar ScotRozzer dodge: the driver couldn't remember the incident, so we couldn't do anything
My close friend of 30yrs was killed last September, not too far from here. The dismissive depersonalisation is what really upsets me. 'A cyclist'- no - father of 2, a devoted husband, a generous friend to many. His death has affected many people deeply.
"Aren’t you too slow to be impacted? At these speeds even a close pass will not have my effect !"
What hope is there ?
...that one day cycling along a road like the one in the film will be a requirement for passing the driving test?
I think the problem is that many motorists really have no idea what it feels like for a cyclist to be close-passed like that. It's not something that a motorist, sitting comfortably cocooned in his/her vehicle, will intuitively be aware of. When driving it's very easy to think that if you don't touch the cyclist, then where's the problem? And even if you brush against them they're probably not going to come off. And even if they do it's not the end of the world: a little fall's probably not going to do any real harm.
It's only when you've ridden yourself that you know how easy it is come off and that even a little fall is quite likely to result in serious injury or worse.
Because they simply haven't related it to why there's a yellow line set back from the edge of railway platforms...
Good summary. Many obviously have no idea what it feels like to be close passed and currently this kind of driving is seen as ok. There isn't enough public education, and there is almost zero enforcement. Presumably all these drivers will face NFA.
It's south Yorkshire police, so they will be prosecuted.
It's South Yorkshire police, so they will be prosecuted
I think that's rather too optimistic! You're thinking of Sheffield NW NPT and one enthusiastic cycling Inspector who, I suspect, is regarded as a leftie cycling weirdo by the horde of standard cyclist-despising coppers elsewhere in SYP- those can't all have migrated to Lancashire or Scotland. The number of vehicles close passing in succession on this video suggests that drivers in the vicinity are not too worried about the possibility of police action- they may have heard about some special operation back in 2021, but they know they get away with this hostile driving all day, every day. I think close-passing is getting worse, and it definitely isn't getting any better. Passing like this is routine in Lancashire
https://upride.cc/incident/sf56wfc_hyundaitrailer_closepass/
https://upride.cc/incident/b5hol_tanker_closepassdwlcross/
https://upride.cc/incident/bg61ugv_vwcaddy_closepassillegalload/
and although the speeds on the roads I endure are not generally as high as on those roads west of Sheffield, (not always, though and there's no speed limit enforcement around here)
https://upride.cc/incident/sd15ulz_bmw_speeding/
we do have our own Death Highway where you can be sure LancsFilth couldn't care less about offences against cyclists
https://upride.cc/incident/pe69ooc_clio_closepassspeed/
I hope the OP, Ann, tells us about what the police actually did and whether they are treating her like a victim, or merely a witness!
I think, at least part, of the issue is that the cyclist is seen, by the police, DPP, as only a witness. It reminds me of being a young boy walking through the park and Mr Flasher masterbating in front of me. No harm done only someone behaving badly. No lasting fear. Crack on.
They would not have been the only cyclist on that road on that day, those drivers will have had many more opportunities for further close passes. Some of the victim blaming on Twitter is disgusting, and they don't like it when challenged. Funny that!
Yes it's dangerous out there. I now train indoors and no longer venture out. Some 'red meat munchers' might well say good, however I have to say that my chain lasts for thousands of virtual kilometers and I no longer spend any, and I do mean any, money in town or on 'coffee stops.' There's the expense of Trainerroad and Zwift but, let's remember, that not a penny of that money goes to a British business. If only great cycling infrastructure existed.
I reckon that after a couple of those I'd have moved into the middle of the lane or beyond and stayed there until I got home. Those people are nuts.
Thats all well and good but I get plenty of bad passes with absolutely no reason to them. Empty roads. Like some of those in the above video. Being in the middle of the road won't make those people give you any more room. They are either doing it intentionally and you just piss them off more or they are just unaware that they are passing you dangerously and will do the same whereever you are on the road.