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Near miss of the day 34: A non-vehicular near miss

Our regular feature highlighting close passes caught on camera from around the country – today it’s Reigate

An interesting twist for today’s near miss in that for once it doesn’t involve a car, van or truck.

Instead it features that other old staple which will be familiar to many cyclists – the pedestrian who steps out into the road without looking.

This particular incident took place in July 2012 on Gatton Park Road in Reigate.

The cyclist clutches at his brakes, but is forced to ride behind the walker to avoid a collision. For their part, the pedestrian seems largely oblivious to what happens.

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 (link is external).

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.

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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36 comments

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OldRidgeback replied to Kendalred | 7 years ago
1 like

KendalRed wrote:

fenix wrote:

Unless this is addressed god you're going to get an increase in pedestrian fatalities when quieter eject vehicles are more common. We need to get the green cross code man back.

Yes, pedestrians will soon learn to use their eyes as well as their ears when a few get mown down by electric cars (I presume you meant electric not eject!).

Bring back the Tufty Club! (showing my age)

 

 

Tufty was a proper British red squirrel but his descendants have now been forced northwards by the immigrant grey squirrels. Of course leaving the EU means that these immigrants will be properly controlled.

Oh, so they came from America?

Well maybe we need to breed more good old British whippets to catch all the grey invaders.

 1

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drosco | 7 years ago
6 likes

That's where I live and ride it every day. That stretch of road is a nightmare. There is a shocking speeding problem, so anyone crossing there without looking must be absolutely insane. As for the traffic islands forcing cars into the path of bikes, words fail me.

Avatar
Zebulebu replied to drosco | 7 years ago
2 likes
drosco wrote:

That's where I live and ride it every day. That stretch of road is a nightmare. There is a shocking speeding problem, so anyone crossing there without looking must be absolutely insane. As for the traffic islands forcing cars into the path of bikes, words fail me.

I feel your pain. I used to live in Reigate and commute to London via Croydon. Coming down Gatton Park Road to the A23 was a nightmare. Lost count of the number of imbeciles in Imprezas and Audis who came past me at 60mph down the hill, and more than once had stupid pedestrians walk straight out onto that crossing without even pressing the button first - not really fair when you're doing 30mph yourself cos of the hill and have zero time to react

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pjm60 | 7 years ago
14 likes

pedestrian wasn't wearing a helmet, very irresponsible

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Ush replied to pjm60 | 7 years ago
7 likes

pjm60 wrote:

pedestrian wasn't wearing a helmet, very irresponsible

Was also wearing track shoes off the running track.  And we all know what that means.

Avatar
CXR94Di2 | 7 years ago
6 likes

Green cross code, look right, look left, look right again, listen

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