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news
Near Miss of the Day 280: London bus driver changes lanes into cyclist's path (+ CCTV footage from bus)
The latest video in our Near Miss of the Day series shows the moment a London bus driver changed lanes into the path of a cyclist.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling
> What to do next if you’ve been involved in a road traffic collision
The incident, filmed by road.cc reader Gaz, happened as he travelled northbound just after crossing Vauxhall Bridge.
Gaz told us: “An interesting one as I got the CCTV from the bus company by doing a subject access request for it.
"The lane the bus is in eventually turns left towards Pimlico, the lane I’m in splits just after the junction with Millbank into two, both lanes going straight towards Victoria, but the rightmost lane is used for turning right at a junction as well.
"In this case I filter through traffic, merge back into traffic and get up to speed, at the split I move to the left lane as there is a van ahead waiting to turn right.
"The bus driver decided to change lanes at the same point, without indicating or looking at where I was going," he 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.
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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19 comments
While I appreciate that he obviously has the right to use the road, there is a massive great segregated cycle lane over the other side. It's lovely. Avoids the absolute horror of the southern end Vauxhall Bridge gyratory, whips you satright across the junction at the north end (with options to get onto the E/W CS8) and then pops you into a nice Quietway up towards Victoria.
There is an enormous difference between you thinking the cyclist is taking a risk by going through a gap... and a dangerous idiot steering a 12ton bus at speed at a vulnerable road user. One does not make the other acceptable either.
I found Vauxhall to Victoria a very quick stretch of road on my Brompton and generally not much trouble with vehicles, but you do get the rare idiot that wants to bully you out of their way. It always seems a quiet road so there's nothing to be gained from it.
This is from CycleGaz, he has been making riding videos in London for a very long time, he has the skills and knowledge. Watch some of his other videos, it might teach you a thing or two.
The bus driver was probably expecting him to turn right, which isn't unreasonable based on the cyclists road positioning. However the bus driver shouldn't keep getting closer, should have hung back.
Firstly, he needs to slow down while filtering through traffic. Secondly, he's obviously a very experienced cyclist and if he thinks that's a near miss on a London commute he needs to get a grip.
Can't see what the bus driver did wrong here. The cyclist was going to fast for the conditions and must have appeared out of nowhere .
*Yoda* The sarcasm is strong in this one. (I hope)
Nope no sarcasm here. The cyclist was weaving in and out of traffic like a numpty. There is only 1 winner between a bus and bike regardless of who's at fault. Protect yourself by riding carefully and don't expect others to anticipate you.There are no prizes for riding fast in traffic.
So are you of the opinion that the drivers of large vehicles have no requirement to watch out for smaller vehicles?
So another power-worshipping survivalist? Do you ever go outside? Do you carry a gun at all times? Or do you expect other people to take your safety into account on the basis that we live in a society with rules?
Tell that to the bloke (I presume it was a bloke) driving his big p£nis extension car at significantly more than the 20 mph speed limit past my office this morning...
So he was going too fast and then the bus that was behind him came up his side and started to push out against him. So if the bike was going too fast, the bus was definitely going too fast for the conditions as well, and the driver can't see anything in front of him at all if the bike in front appeared from nowhere, which is not good if you are a bus driver.
I don’t think the cyclist had anything to do with that. I can think of a few junctions where drivers do that and it just becomes the norm. When someone follows the road markings they get upset.
Grafton Street on to the north grafton roundabout people go from the right lane to the middle lane without looking, and causes regular near misses.
Oxford A44 wolvercote roundabout they do the same.
I see the same on roundabouts a lot too. People make up their own rules and get upset when other people obey the real rules.
Not wholly true in my experience - a family member worked for a couple of London bus firms and they treated complaints pretty seriously. There was some difference in attitudes between firms though.
Yeah a clearly a deliberate act to try and intimidate. But because of our messed legal system it’ll be careless driving at best.
It'll be nothing of the sort. London bus drivers are, let's say 'protected'.
Bus driver didn't like being overtaken. Nothing to do with not looking as he pulled out - his hand up in exasperation telling the cyclist he should move over tells you everything you need to know. He used his bus as a form of intimidation - and frankly with that level of understanding of the road layout and laws of the road, coupled with the aggressiveness of the manoeuvre he shouldn't be driving a fucking dinky truck, let alone a ten ton vehicle with 80 passengers
Have you complained about it to the bus company? Their own footage damns the driver, IMO. Either bus driver just didn't look or else they looked but thought "Why is that bl00dy cyclist in that lane, hey-ho...".