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news
Near Miss of the Day 902: “I can’t believe I wasn’t hit”
A cyclist who changed the way he approached a roundabout in Gloucestershire after receiving two close passes, has said “I can’t believe I wasn’t hit” when the driver of a SsangYong Rexton SUV subsequently made a very close pass on him at the same location in Bishop’s Cleeve, just north of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire.
Richard, the road.cc reader who submitted the footage, told us just as with the two previous incidents, no action was taken against the motorists involved other than a warning letter being sent to one driver, and also gave us some more detailed background of his experience of dealing with police when sending them videos of close passes.
“After a year of hearing nothing from my OpSnap reports to Gloucestershire Constabulary I’ve started asking for the outcomes of my reports after a year has elapsed,” he said. “After a short delay and chasing up for the first one I've been getting speedy responses to my requests.
“From January to March 2023 I've had warning letters and one points and fine. That was the first one I've had since my first report in August 2020.
“I've recently had the results for April and all 3 were NFA [No Further Action]. One of them was a close pass at the roundabout which featured in NMOTDs 674 and 848 so I thought I'd send it in to show how things are progressing in Gloucestershire.
https://road.cc/content/news/nmotd-674-driver-inconveniences-cyclist-288521
https://road.cc/content/news/near-miss-day-848-299017
“After the first two I've been taking the centre gap in the traffic calming humps before the roundabout,” Richard continued. “It has mostly worked but not this time.
“In my submission I mentioned Highway Code Rule 153, allow cyclists to pass through traffic calming and don't overtake in traffic calming areas. I mentioned not overtaking before a junction and not overtaking at roundabouts if turning left. I also mentioned the fact the oncoming car had to pull in and stop. I also mentioned I was very frightened. It turns out all these fell on deaf ears.
“Any way, I'd value your readers' opinions of the value of taking the central gap at this point in the road. As I said it's worked well apart from this one.
“Having not viewed the video for a while, I can't believe I wasn't hit. It certainly felt very, very close at the time.
Richard added: “I’ve attached a graph which shows outcomes of reports to OpSnap in Gloucestershire for 2023. You will note a sharp rise in NFA from March 23 to April 23 when this occurred.”
> 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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106 comments
If you live in London you get used to a rough average of one close pass every 5 km or so, or 10 a day if you ride 50 km most weekdays as I do. Absolutely nothing to do with road sense or training, I know trained bike instructors who would definitely agree that this is the case.
On average it's between 1 and 5 close passes on 15 daily kms.
You clearly haven't got a clue have you? I suggest you get your rusty bike out of the shed and try riding around your neighbourhood. You might need stabilisers as it's obvious you haven't ridden on the roads for a very long time.
I thought the entire point of these gargantuan SUVs was that the drivers are higher up and get a better view of the road ahead? And yet somehow this one completely failed to see the upcoming speed bumps 🤷🏾♂️
No, no, no, you've misunderstood. The entire point of these gargantuan SUVs is to bully anyone in a smaller vehicle out of their way.
From drivers and their problems
What a splendid cowcatcher. Have you any idea what country that is? I could just see little President Putin driving around in something like that.
I understand it is Melbourne.
I get in the outback there would be reasons for it but in a city ? Hit a ped at 25 or T bone or rear end a vehicle and it's going to be terminal.
But we have kangaroos*.
* And crocs. And sharks. And sea snakes, and box jellyfish. Don't forget to check for snakes and spiders when entering the vehicle also. And wildfires, and flash floods, and aussie rules football ... in fact pretty much everything in Australia seems to be out to get you.
Ideally suited to the school run.
Keeps you and a couple of children safe on the dangerous streets of e.g. Cambridge - offers protection against 16th century stonework, 20th century concrete and 21st century bollards*. Can even cope with above-average drizzly weather.
Room for a couple of junior longbows or kids' mountain bikes also!
* Despite ground clearance may not be suitable for use above automated rising bollards.
In this case, I would not blame the motorist. At 0:02 of the video it's clear to see that the car is on the opposite side of the lane. When the front of the car is at the half maybe even the quarter of the rear wheel of the bike, the cyclist moves fully onto the right side of his lane. so the where should the car go?
The speedbump could also be avoided on the left side … I don't think this one has to be in "Near Miss of the Day"
At two seconds of the front-facing camera video (14/15 seconds into the clip) it's clear to see that a car has appeared in the oncoming lane. As soon as they saw that the motorist should have pulled out of the overtake and tucked back in behind the cyclist, rather than choosing to plough on with their manoeuvre as they did even though it forced the oncoming car to come to a complete standstill.
But but but they had to overtake a cyclist!
It's clearly psychologically favourable for some to plough on and risk a collision rather than to drop anchor and be sat in front of someone else. At that point not only are you exposed as having made an error (rather than making a hasty exit) - you're in the way.
The front video starts at a different spot!
If you want to compare front and back camera you should use markings as reference points.
So, lets first take the back camera.
It's starts when the bike is at the end of the bus stop marking and and the car is approaching. When the rear of the car is at the end of the bus stop it already 3 quarters on the opposite lane.
Next reference point: The manhole cover
At that point the front of the car is nearly aligned with the rear of the bike. The car is fully on the opposite lane.
Also at this point, the cyclist starts to move to the center line of the road.
Now the front camera: The fottage starts much later, which is indicated by the curved wall to the left. This is about 10 Meter after the bus stop, and where the car is already started overtaking and is at least 3 quarters on the oppopsite lane.
Now at the manhole cover:
The cyclist is at this point when the silver car comes up, remember the ront of the car is already aligned with the rear of the bike. Also the car is on the far right of the street and the upcoming car come around a right turn corner the motorist might have seen the upcomming car when he is aligned this the cyclist, which is, due to his movement to the centerline much closer to the car as the motorist expected.
So the motorist had quite possbile seen the upcoming car way later and may has misjugded the situation and tried to pass instead of back off.
And to off course it's a stuipd spot to overtake, but if the cyclist would have moved in his lane, that situation wouldn't have been as dangerous.
If you want to do video analysis, look at the pictures below using the drain cover before the speed bumps as a reference point. The oncoming car has already appeared before the cyclist reaches the drain cover (top picture). As you can see in the second picture, after the cyclist has passed the drain cover the overtaking vehicle is still behind him and therefore the driver had ample opportunity to see the oncoming vehicle and pull out of the manoeuvre instead of carrying on and putting themselves, the cyclist and the oncoming driver at risk.
"It's a stupid spot to overtake" but you don't blame the motorist.
Motorist ignored various HC requirements that the overtake should not even have been comtemplated and ended up forcing oncoming traffic to halt but you aren't going to blame the motorist. OK...
as to "The speedbump could also be avoided on the left side"
It's already been addressed in the article and by the cyclist. Perhaps you could read those comments.
But the motorist is arguably to blame for overtaking despite the oncoming traffic and then having to cut in immediately in front of the cyclist to avoid colliding with it.
No argument from me... would they be able to do that and pass a driving test?
I've no idea. At any rate I wouldn't do it.
The intention of speed bumps is to calm traffic. Rule 153 reaffirms this by stating drivers should not overtake other road users in a traffic calmed area. The driver is 100% at fault for ignoring the traffic calming. RTFHC.
The driver should not be overtaking in a traffic calming area. It's in the Highway Code in black and white. The driver is at fault.
The Rexton driver moves to overtake completely onto the wrong side of the road because he or she knows they can clear the speed bump without slowing despite the possibility and in this case the reality of oncoming traffic. Where the cyclist chose to pass the speed hump is almost irrelevant...to the left or over the centre the Rexton driver would have pulled in dangerously close to avoid the oncoming vehicle....the problem is the dangerous high speed overtake. That's a full stop
That is how Darwin awards are won. The cyclist moves towards the center of the road, not even his lane.
I know the law stuff, of course there is poor driving for many reasons, but there must be some common sense too. Be prepared to face reality when riding, not what the law dictates, unless you fantasize of becoming a martyr.
WOW. Victim blaming at its finest.
There are only two lanes in this road. The cyclist did not swap lanes, the driver did. The driver overtook on a speed bump, in the oncoming lane, with a car coming towards them in that lane. As you say, there must be some common sense and neither you or that driver seem to have any of it.
I am not the one grumbling about being close passed.
I try to stay safe on the road, and while as I said there was very bad driving, there was also bad riding too. I think not many truck drivers will be at this site, so let's try preventing bicycle riders from doing things that can be similarly dangerous.
There was no bad cycling at all, and the cyclist didn't do anything dangerous. Unless you think that just being on a bike is dangerous?
BIB ... whats truck driving got to do with this.
and yes plenty of truck drivers ride bikes. Some of us carry the bikes behind our cabs or in the load space so we can go for a ride when the working day is over.
By "truck", I mean real trucks, not thoes pissing little pick-up things that the Americans like to call 'trucks'.
In order to reinforce rule 153, maybe there ought to be double solid lines in the affected section...?
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