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news
Near Miss of the Day 44: White van close pass
Riding in the driving rain can be highly unpleasant and challenging enough without some motorist deciding to ruin your day with a close pass – but that’s what happened to road.cc reader Jon Griggs as he rode along Birmingham’s Hagley Road.
West Midlands Police launched their widely-praised close pass operation just over a year ago, with the message getting through to most motorists that they need to provide a safe passing distance when overtaking a cyclist.
Clearly, it didn’t get through to the driver of the white van 1 minute 50 seconds into this video who not only overtook Jon on a bus lane with inches to spare, but also undertook a car that was being driven in the outside lane.
Writing on YouTube, he said: “Typical standard of driving on Hagley Road. And so soon after someone from work was killed in another part of town on her way in.”
> Near Miss of the Day 42: Cyclist in Birmingham on way to vigil meets aggressive driver
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.
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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From the article above.
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22 comments
Jeez! I normally think the close passes posted on here aren't actually that close. But this one...SO CLOSE!
This is part of my daily commute! What you also don't get a good understanding on is how bad the road surface is along here, Earlier on there is a lovely raised hump runing with the crown of it about 2' from the curb. But then we have trunking for aseveral miles up the road which is all deterioating so there are many potholes, the rider did well to avoid them in such rain. I would concur that for the most part people give you room but as you can see it is only just wide enough for two lanes of travel in both directions. But you still get the occsaional person who thiks that bikes have 0 width...
Great video quality!
.....also I believe without looking it up and pertinent to the Hagley rd two lane layout "no overtaking"
would say indicates late then moves drivers side wheels of van just to white lines then close passes the front cyclist, plenty of space to move across completely
might be reading too much into a rain spattered video but looks to me like the cyclist slows after the close pass
Pedant mode:
"Our regular feature highlighting close passes caught on camera from around the country – today it’s Birmingam....."
Oh dear. I'm sure Brummies everywhere will be writing in and making their views known.
wait, what? there are Brummies everywhere? and they know fancy reading-writing skills?
why weren't we warned of this outflow of literate midlanders by the daily mail?
A valid point, but I'm sure most Brummies could spell the name of their home town.
What odds are Ladbrokes offering?
To be fair I used to work down south and everyone pronounced it Birminham, so another missed character isn't going to bother me.
Anyway nice to see other parts of Birmingham roads are just as bad as the ones I travel on......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N7RRdIZFmg
(Apologies I swear a bit on that video)
What are the double yellow lines on the left for? We don't have that in Canada. I assume the wiggly white lines are a caution for a crosswalk or something?
Yellow lines on the edge of the carriageway are for no parking- strictly the legal term is "No Waiting". A single line applies at certain times, displayed on a nearby sign, double lines are "At Any Time". You could however at any time, as long as you not deemed to be obstructing, stop to load or unload. Prohibition of that is marked using marks on the kerb- single yellow for part time, double for at any time.
The marks apply legally to the entire width between the centre line of the carriageway and the highway boundary, including any verge or footway.
The wiggly lines are for pedestrian crossings- they mean "no stopping" with the obvious exception of allowing pedestrians to cross or in emergencies.
In london and some other places the yellow markings are instead Red, which are more restrictive.
Unless you're a taxi driver, in which case double yellows indicate Taxi Rank.
The double yellow lines are to emphasise that parking is prohibited and complement road-side signage. And yes, the zig-zag lines either side of a crosswalk (or zebra crossing as we call them) show the zone where you may not park or overtake stopped vehicles.
Van driver was probably pro-Europe and sensed the guy was breaking rule #24
I think the first 1:45 shows that in fact that is not the ‘typical standard of driving’ on that road. It all looked rather civilised and well-behaved to me, a predominantly-London cyclist, until WVM hove into view.
Not all the point, considering the very close pass, but good to see that many other drivers were giving him suitable space.
I watched it all (kudos to Jon for making good progress throughout) - and this was my thought exactly. The big story is - always - how respectful and courteous motorists are. The headlines occur when, on occasion, a cyclist encounters a driver like the tit in the van.
And the van didn't undertake the car in the righthand lane. I'm guessing he wanted to, but ran out of time, and pulled out again behind it to turn right. Even signalled his intention to move out. Still a tit though.
I also watched the whole video, and thought it was useful for context.
I don't think that's what quite what happened - ironically enough the indication appears to be to overtake another cyclist. Though it looks awfully like the other cyclist also got a close pass, as the indication stopped whilst the van was still in the left lane behind the cyclist and the van still seems to be in the left lane after passing the other cyclist (I wonder if the driver also indicated before close passing Jon).
Reminder to self: Stop watching these before you are too scared to go out on the roads ever again.
A dangerous overtake indeed, especially in the weather conditions, and I hope the police take action.
Slightly off topic, but why not edit out the first 1' 45"? It is irrelevant.
Jump to 1:45
Tell me about it. I thought I was watching my idea of hell on loop.