Near Miss of the Day 259: Cyclist almost taken out on same roundabout where he was knocked off bike a few months ago

This roundabout where I sometimes ride is a menace... imagine there is an oncoming car indicating right, a car entering from the left side indicating right, and you from the picture perspective going straight on, all arrive at the same time.  Who has the right of way?

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4838206,-1.0876142,3a,75y,162.83h,89.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sPzl5Hz2z0yErFEUMWAJu-Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I find often a driver coming the other way at a mini roundabout who wants to turn right across me waits until they are on the roundabout before indicating right.
Either that or the DRLs are obscuring the signal.

I know that roundabout well, and so many drivers don't look where they are going - I always keep things slow there just in case!

Minis seem to completely confuse the average modern driver. Double offset ones deserve a special place in hell, I can't believe they're considered to be an acceptable road design.

Too many mini-roundabouts have a particular entry/exit that drivers barely have to 'break step' on and lends itself to people not looking properly.  Sometimes feels safer in the dark with a flashing light and some reflectives; daylight's when the near-misses occur.  If the risk is too high, find another route.

Oh great, self-driving cars can get dazzled by the sun too (scroll down past the scary AI face generation stuff)

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/02/25/ai_roundup/

Anyone care to try an experiment?

Next time you're riding into the sun and a ped steps out, don't stop.  Run him or her over.

And then, stop for the police.  See if there's the usual 'the [rider] stopped and no arrests have been made' in the news.  

And then when you're charged, claim 'I was dazzled by the low sun'. 

Nah, just kidding.  I wouldn't ask anyone to do that, as there'd be a fine and possibly a custodial.  

low winter sun m'lud

Can't see through the metal bits of your car? Move your head and look round them!

  The A-pillar excuse only works if your head is in some Victorian studio photographer - style  brace.  As above, I'm not sure it even applies in most roundabout/junction accidents. Usually just bad observation and an assumption that, if it's not big enough to see with a cursory glance then it's not big enough to hurt me.

Butty is right, default position seems to be ' keep moving, slowing down to look properly is for wimps.'

Similar thing happened to me - lady pulled without looking - police prosecuted her and she got £500 fine/£150 costs and 5 points on her licence. It helped alot that I had video evidence. So she will definately look in future and if they continue to hand out that sort of punishment slowly things will change - appreciate not fast enough though.

Alan Partridge should do a sketch: 'I've got a massive car and you should get out of my way in case you get hurt, silly bloody cyclists have no sense.'

That vid is awful, that driver gives no care to anything else on the road but other cars. 

Still waiting for someone to tell you that you should have took primary.

I reckon you could get that driver to a cineam and show the video on loop 10,000 times and they still wouldn't see you!

Whilst pillars do obstruct sightlines, there is a clear line of sight in this incident.

This is something I'm really paranoid about when driving and cycling; on my cycles, i assume everybody is blind, murderous and in a huge rush, whilst I will bob my head about and always assume everybody is an idiot and that there are ninjas at every junction when driving. I've got bugger all visibility out the back sides of my S-Max, not helped by the wheelchair(s) and/or handcycle(s) sitting more or less exactly where I don't want them. More than once I've been surprised (but stationary!) by a cyclist in those spots. Luckily, I'm not an idiot and always check twice...

Actually, real talk for a moment; if you see a wheelchair sign on the back of an estate or other large car?
Consider that wheelchairs are tall when in a car, especially if the chair is occupied at the time, and doubly so if there is a hoist or lift - my hoist is on the right of the vehicle, so not so bad, but double sided or left sided hoists make the left rear window basically useless.
Be super cautious about disabled drivers - whilst i have zero desire or intent to victim blame, you should also keep in mind that hand controls can cause vehicles to move in slightly unusual ways, just like adaptive cycles move in unusual ways - a steering ball will cause much tighter turning at low speed, for example.

As the road turns when it approaches the roundabout, the cars A-pillar extractly tracks objects moving across the roundabout.

It's 100% the motorists fault for not moving his head to check, but look out for this when you see cars that do not slow down.

These days I find myself entering a mini roundabout, slowing, preparing to stop quickly, while eyeballing the driver potentially not waiting for me. A defensive mode you might say.

Up to about 5 seconds all I see is unobscured driver face, no A pillar getting in the way.  They might have just not bothered to look properly, or just didn't care, only a cyclist, few scratches to the stupidly large vehicle.  Must get through.

Maybe a small fine if you hit cyclists, and that's when you kill them.  Driving jury would accept the A pillar nonsense anyhow.

Anyone notice if the cyclist released their front brake at any point?  Apparently that don't make it a close pass if they did  ???

Pretty shocking. Not wanting to give the motorist an excuse here, but the A pillars on some cars, especially these 4x4's, can be rather large ... and looking at the road layout and the angle from which the car is approaching the roundabout it's possible that they may genuinely have been looking but the cyclist was in the blind-spot created by the A pillar. My car can be pretty bad for that, but I'm aware of it (and a cyclist) so always look two or three times just to make sure. Still the drivers fault, and not sure they indicated which might have given the rider some warning of their direction of travel. SMIDSY's can be just that, a genuine error, rather than anything malicious.

Sadly this is a daily occurance for myself, and many others. I think that one reason may possibly be that many motorists don't look, but possibly in their peripheral vision, they expect to 'see' a large object. As the large object doesn't hover, they assume it is clear. I have lost count of the times I have seen motorists cut me up, and they are just looking ahead. I was knocked off at a motorway roundabout a few years ago by someone who was coming off the motorway slip road. He slowed at the junction, cursary glance to see if anything of significance was looming, and went. Straight into me. He claimed he 'didn't see me'. I was between his car and where he glanced.

StuinNorway - yes online via Met Police. Last time I go that way I think though, seems to be a jinx for me.

StuinNorway - yes online via Met Police. Last time I go that way I think though, seems to be a jinx for me.