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Uber driver overtakes and cuts me off

Near Miss of the Day 170: An Uber close pass

Our regular feature highlighting close passes caught on camera from around the country – today it’s Birmingham
by Alex Bowden
Fri, Aug 17, 2018 10:59
12

Today’s near miss sees an Uber driver apparently attempting to turn left through a Birmingham cyclist.

The incident occurred on Pershore Road on Thursday July 12.

Despite wishing to continue straight on, Leigh, the cyclist, turned left as well – a wise course of action given the alternative.

He says he did consider submitting the video to police, “but I'd only just started commuting by bike again and since it was the first incidence of bad driving I'd experienced in ages I let it slide.”

Exactly a week later, Leigh was forced to take evasive action when a Land Rover driver saw fit to overtake even though this put Leigh on a collision course with a parked vehicle.

On that occasion he did report 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 (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

Near Miss of the Day
NMotD
Birmingham
Alex Bowden

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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12 comments

Avatar
Dr_Lex | 6 years ago
0 likes

^ Note that one effect of the Deregulation Act is that your local cabbie can get a licence from another, easier authority - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-44849364 - example being Wolverhampton. As per “Minder”, a nice little earner...

Avatar
fenix | 6 years ago
0 likes

Is there a national site now to upload the bad driving videos to ? I mean Police - not just on here...

 

oh here it is  - 

https://www.nextbase.com/en-gb/national-dash-cam-safety-portal/

Avatar
JohnnyRemo replied to fenix | 6 years ago
0 likes

fenix wrote:

Is there a *national site* now to upload the bad driving videos to ? I mean Police - not just on here...

 

oh here it is  - 

https://www.nextbase.com/en-gb/national-dash-cam-safety-portal/

Except for viewers in Scotland...

Avatar
leaway2 | 6 years ago
3 likes

I get concerned when stopped next to a taxi, by the amount of technology they appear to have stuck to the windscreen and other places. Phone, satnav, fare meter. All this has to be a distraction.

Avatar
ktache replied to leaway2 | 6 years ago
3 likes

leaway2 wrote:

I get concerned when stopped next to a taxi, by the amount of technology they appear to have stuck to the windscreen and other places. Phone, satnav, fare meter. All this has to be a distraction.

That, and their firmly held but so very wrong belief that, because they do it lots and are paid for it, that they are even remotely competent drivers.

Avatar
mike the bike replied to ktache | 6 years ago
0 likes

ktache wrote:

leaway2 wrote:

I get concerned when stopped next to a taxi, by the amount of technology they appear to have stuck to the windscreen and other places. Phone, satnav, fare meter. All this has to be a distraction.

That, and their firmly held but so very wrong belief that, because they do it lots and are paid for it, that they are even remotely competent drivers.

 

Some, but not all, local authorities make their taxi drivers sit a test.  It is run by the DVSA and includes stuff not found on the standard "L" test.  You can always lobby your council to bring in such measures, it is entirely within their remit.

Avatar
brooksby | 6 years ago
3 likes

That's a particularly nasty piece of driving - I suspect, though, its down to incompetence and not to malice (not this time, anyway).  Click, swipe, swipe, click, kill cyclist, swipe, click.

Avatar
burtthebike | 6 years ago
1 like

The classic left hook.  Should have reported it, the next person might not be so lucky.

It might be interesting to see the collision figures for Uber drivers, as I suspect they might be higher than average, given that many of them seem to be working two jobs and are tired as a result.

Avatar
ktache | 6 years ago
5 likes

I was wondering if anyone would like to suggest that he should be "sharing the road"?

Once again good skills from the poster, he rode out of another potentially nasty incident.

Avatar
John Smith replied to ktache | 6 years ago
3 likes

ktache wrote:

I was wondering if anyone would like to suggest that he should be "sharing the road"?

Once again good skills from the poster, he rode out of another potentially nasty incident.

 

Oh so very clever. Totaly diffrent situation... Are you going to post this on everything now? You do know that kind of behavior is bullying and just feeds in to the belife that some people have that cyclists think they are never wrong?

Avatar
Mungecrundle replied to ktache | 6 years ago
2 likes
ktache wrote:

I was wondering if anyone would like to suggest that he should be "sharing the road"?

Once again good skills from the poster, he rode out of another potentially nasty incident.

Nope. Good skills from the rider, saw the situation developing, took control, avoided a collision and didn't make a mountain out of a molehill.

Shit driving though.

Avatar
Hirsute | 6 years ago
7 likes

I'd have been banging on the car.

You should send off to the local council who are responsible for licencing such drivers.

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