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news
Near Miss of the Day 274: Turning driver almost hits cyclist riding in bus lane
The latest video in our Near Miss of the Day series shows a common hazard cyclists encounter when riding on the inside of a stationary queue of traffic – when one motorist invites another who is waiting to turn right to carry on, both unaware that there is a cyclist approaching.
It happened on Friday morning as road.cc reader Andy, commuted through the South Side of Glasgow. Luckily, Andy, who was riding in a bus lane, managed to swerve out of the motorist’s way.
“I think the driver was lucky I wasn't something bigger as he had no hope of seeing anything past the van in the other lane,” he said.
“Not bothered submitting to police, as I'm sure they'll do nothing apart from maybe phoning the driver,” Andy added.
> 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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71 comments
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I see this situation regularly. The when I'm riding down the inside of a queue like this, i ease off and cover the brakes at junctions. Especially where there's a gap in the queue. It flags to me that exactly this is about to happen - driver waving car across not realising that I am coming down the inside.
So 50/50 - sometimes sh*t happens. And car stopped when he saw the cyclist.
This is so predictable it doesn't even need a "near miss of the day" tagline to tell you what is about to occur.
A genuinely useful instructional video for all road users.
The driver was going sufficiently slowly to be able to stop when they saw the cyclist, who didn't need to deviate from his line and didn't need to shout as though he'd just taken a baton round in the bollocks either, really.
2/10
I see this most days whilst cycling to and from work. I would say that, in my opinion, whilst the standard of driving is shit, partly down to modern cars being so comfortable and easy to drive that they almost drive themselves, and more so, the lack of traffic officers, who were everywhere when I learnt to drive. Another factor is mobile phone use. Tests show that even if a driver has made a call or sent a text before getting behind the wheel, for a few minutes after they are not concentrating fully. Everyone seems to be in a rush these days, whilst not paying attention to their surroundings, not just behind the wheel. How many times have you walked down the street and have to sidestep people walking along staring at their phones? Finally, equal blame has to go to the rider. Travelling at 24mph down the inside of stationary traffic is a bit reckless, whilst you have the right of way, it means jack shit when you're laid up in hospital for months, safe in the knowledge that you had right of way. The rider should have been aware of the approaching junction, and anticipated what may happen. Far better to overtake on the outside, something I always do in traffic. Six of one and half a dozen of the other, in my opinion. If the police have a word with the driver, they should also give words of advice to the rider.
As a retired Driving Examiner I'd call this one 50/50. Cyclist makes rookie mistake.
"Fail to notice potential hazard" . The driver should have checked the other lane was clear.Both would have failed a test.(I know there's no cycling test). Rightly or wrongly I'd expect better from a cyclist as they've the most to lose.
A couple of years ago I was riding to work in the bus lane on Chiswick High Street. There was stationary traffic to my right and I was slowing down as there was a red light ahead. A Corsa cut across the stationary traffic and the bus lane to turn into a side road and I ended up flying into its windscreen.
Bike was a write-off, car was very damaged but amazingly I got away with some minor cuts and a small scar just below my eye. Full liability from the driver and all my kit (which had been cut off at hospital), glasses, helmet and bike were paid for by his insurance.
My point I guess is that I had no way of seeing him, or stopping in time despite the fact that I was slowing down anyway. Sometimes, sh*t happens.
I think the factor that makes this just that little bit different from when we normally see this kind of situation is THE VAN that the car is turning in front of. Even small vans are 6 inches or so taller than most cars and (you may have noticed) they don't have windows you can see through. I used to drive a wee VW Caddy van and I was very aware of how much less visibility I had and it is the same dfor other road users in the vicinity.
The turning car should have been more aware that his visibility was resticted and proceeded with caution (some may argue he did since he didn't have a collision).
With the benifit of hindsight and Jacko's camera I would suggest that Jacko could also have checked his pace a little when an important piece of road was not visible.
Lesson for me in the future is how I will view this film, and try and avoid this happening to me
So this is my video. To answer a few points, I did eventually decide to report it to the police, meeting them tomorrow morning so will see what they say. I decided it was worth it just for the education of the driver if nothing else. While they might have realised they were in the wrong and have vowed to be more careful in future, there's also a good chance they put it down to bloody cyclists appearing out of nowhere.
According to Strava I was travelling at about 24 mph here, so admittedly reasonably speedy but definitely not speeding. Keeping pace with the rest of the traffic I'd call it.
My issue with the driver's behaviour is the speed they turned at, he/she had no view into my lane due to the van in the other lane.
Someone mentioned you can see the car waiting to turn. You can just about see the top of it over the other cars, but this camera is on top of my helmet so is probably 20cm higher than my eyes, so I couldn't see it.
I should say I'm not annoyed at the driver endangering a cyclist, I'm annoyed at the driver accelerating across a lane of traffic he can't see. If I'd been in my car and that had happened I'd be just as annoyed.
I'm not going to slow down at every side street just incase someone does something stupid, apart from anything else everyone behind me would probably be very pissed off. Normally I do make sure to ease off if I see someone looking like they might be about to pull out in front of me, get ready to brake etc, but in this case I had no idea that car was there until he pulled out. I find slowing down ahead of junctions is seen as an invitation for someone to pull out in front of me and cause me to slow down even more.
That's pretty quick and the rest of the traffic was hardly moving.
It's not really the equivalent to slowing down at every side street as isn't not the same visibility for either party. I'd have clocked that particluar bit as a hazard and slowed a bit more. But as I said above the driver should have not moved at the speed he did or assumed it was ok because the red car pulled out.
I guess as cyclist's losing speed is annoying but I find my self now slowing down more for hazards regardless of the mode of transport, although picking up speed in a car is trivial.
I'm siding 52/48 with the rider and I predict this tread with continue for well over 3 years without satisfactory resolution
Basically expect drivers to do something stupid/careless where ever they have the oppotunity, being right is no help to a deadman
... should add that personally if at all possible I would ride down the right hand side of the line of traffic to avoid just this sort of thing....
Although I have discovered a few times, that does not stop some drivers turning right out of a side road through a gap in traffic. I'm a bit more cautious at those situations now.
Totally agree with Squidgy here. There was no way the turning driver could have seen the cyclist, and when he did he hit the anchors. I saw no attenpt by rider to show care and attention at an obviously dangerous junction.
I realise I'm probably going to get some blow back from this but what exactly do you think the driver did wrong? They appear to be attempting a completey legitimate right turn across stationary tragic and stopped when they saw the rider on the inside. If anything, the rider needs to exert some caution aproaching junctions like, not just go barrelling through
There wasn't a safe gap and the driver had very poor visibility for watching for cyclists.
They shouldn't be performing a right turn if they cannot be sure that it is safe to do so.
Also:
I sometimes despair at this attitude many current cyclists have that their own safety is the reposonsibilty of everyone else. I'm not alone here in thinking that the rider contributed greatly to the near miss and should have been aware of the potential danger. The driver stopped in time and there was no collision. In my mind this is just a case of one road user giving way to another.
If we as cyclists are going to mix it with vehicles we have to be prepared for some give and take. There seems too much take and not much give from either party.
Chris boardman is right that we all need to stop this them and us rhetoric and learn to coexist
Seriously?
A vehicle turning right does not have priority and must make sure that it is safe to do so.
A vehicle (e.g. a cyclist) continuing straight along a road does have priority (excepting crossings etc) and should not have to slow/stop at every possible junction that a careless driver may decide to pull into.
Personally, I'm always careful in this kind of scenario as I understand that some drivers don't understand the rules and how priority is supposed to work, even when it's clearly laid out in the Highway Code. So, I would use the bus/cycle lane but watch out for turning vehicles.
It's nothing to do with us/them - you're getting very confused. If a bus was progressing down a bus lane with a line of stationary traffic on its right, what would you think should happen if a cyclist coming the other direction decided to turn right in front of the bus? Would you blame the bus for not watching out for its own safety? Obviously not.
It astounds me at times that drivers don't take responsibility for the danger that they pose to other people - seems like they expect everyone else to just move out of their way even when they clearly don't have priority and are performing a dangerous maneouvre.
Squidgy.... I'm with you on this, watch the video again, you can clearly see from 50m out that there is car waiting to turn, you can see it edging into the gap, the cyclist was not paying any attention to the traffic conditions and what "could" happen, at the end of the day it is up to the car driver to ensure it is safe, but the cyclist isn't doing enough either, in reality there isn't a car driver out there that wouldn't make that turn, we can argue all day long they shouldn't do it, but as a cyclist I prefer to ride with care on the basis that it makes no difference what the law says, I assume the car driver will do what they consider to be OK, after all my family saying... I was in the right when I am dead doesn't really help them, we can all go high and mighty on this one, but for me, this one was perfectly avoidable if the cyclist was actaully watching the road, there are plenty of others whereby the cyclist could do nothing, this isn't one of them.
hawkinspeter... clearly I don't disagree with the highway code, but you have to realise that no matter how much we cry and scream about the car driver not following the HC there is a standard which falls short, instead of just laying blame to every car driver, we sometimes need to look at how we can avoid the situation, like I said, makes no difference who was to blame if you are dead, when looking up meant you are not.
So, if a bus was travelling along the bus lane where the cyclist was, would you expect the bus to stop to allow the right turning car or would the bus come to the conclusion that though the car would like to turn right, it has to wait for the bus to go first?
As a cyclist, I can anticipate right turning cars at every single road junction, every single empty drive and also anywhere that a car could possibly park. Sometimes, you have to forgo some caution for actually travelling at a suitable speed and that entails relying on drivers not doing dangerous right turns.
Yes, seriously. The driver may have been a bit fast starting their manoeuvre but evidently were paying enough attention to spot the rider appear from the blind side of the van. Why compare a massive bus to a cyclist. That achieves nothing. Any confusion is in the attitudes of the cycling revolutionaries that seem all too ready to give their 2 peneth about the highway code and what drivers are required to do with little or no regard for rider personal safety. I'm all for calling out dangerous close passes and near misses, but this one dosnt register on the radar.
I have been a cyclist for 30 years and intend to carry on being one. Riding like a dick and and shitting myself when a predictable incident occurs isn't something I've done for many a year. Experience counts for much and i learnt a lot commuting into London in previous years. Fortunately I don't have to deal the those hazards any more and my commute is mostly in country lanes, not without their own hazards particularly in darker months. My safety is my priority and not anyone else's. Ive found it works quite well.
I'm still curious what your opinion would be if a taxi was proceeding along the lane where the cyclist was and the right-turning car performed exactly the same maneouvre. Care to enlighten me?
No way in the world would a taxi driver drift into a dangerous situation like that.They've had too much experience.If a collision had occurred the turning driver would be liable,of course.Up to that point it's up to both drivers to drive with due care and attention.
I take it you have never been in a taxi nor ever seen one.
Not in the UK,I'm sorry to say!
I'd like to meet one of your taxi drivers, they seem nice.
In my experience, the Taxi driver would be going more than 24mph, using a GPS device stuck to their windscreen and also sending texts on their phone hidden down the right hand side of their seat.
<p>[quote=hawkinspeter]</p>
<p>[quote=Argus T[/quote]I'd like to meet one of your taxi drivers, they seem nice./</p>
We've evolved a unique transport system on the Southern Moreton Bay Islands.
There are no Vehicle Inspection Facilities,it's an honour system,basically.Ex mainland vehicles are virtually free.Registration is half the normal fee.Inter-Island passenger transport is free.If you're a bit short and need to get to the mainland just turn up at at the vehicle barge and ask a car driver if you can be their "passenger".Even though cars are cheap,bikes are everywhere.Homebrew Ebikes are popular.A mate of mine has a mid drive and a hubmotor on the same bike.The Police use discretion wisely.
A local would never drive past anyone who looks like they'd like a lift.It's somewhere between Communism and Anarchy,and it works perfectly.
We have taxis,but not as you know them.They're superannuated 12 seater Maxitaxis and more or less meet the ferries,picking up other passengers as required. The fare structure couldn't be simpler-$5 up to 5 ks radius,$10 everywhere else.If you're off for a night out at the RSL or the bowls club (there's nowhere else) you're picked up and taken home gratis.
It's cycling heaven-a mix of sealed roads and miles of gravel backroads through the bush,with firetrails and some difficult sections for the adventurous.In most Australian states,riding on the footpath (pavement) is permitted and it seems to work ok.
Sorry to go off topic,but you did mention taxis!
That sounds lovely and quite at odds with a lot of Australian states' attitudes to cyclists (and tailgating being a past-time).
I've eaten some Moreton Bay Bugs when I was visiting a friend in Brisbane - very tasty!
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