Today’s near miss features a motorist so enraged by a cyclist (legally) filtering past him at traffic lights that he is moved to call him an ‘imbecile’, a ‘dickhead’ and a ‘cunt’ while intimidating him with his car.
The confrontation began at the junction of High Street and Wellington Street in Slough on Friday.
Lyndon said: “As I filtered to the front of the line of traffic at a red light, the driver of a green Mercedes clearly thought I was breaking some sort of law.
“I didn't realise at the time how close he came to driving into the back of me, and only noticed when I watched the footage when I got home.
“I turned right and figured the one honk from the driver was the end of it, but he soon pulled beside me when I entered the bus lane and shouted some obscenities as he pulled in front of me in the left lane.
“He indicated left, and I could see he was going to pinch me into the kerb, so I figured it was best to go around him in the right lane to simply get out of his space, which according to the driver made me a ‘fucking dickhead.’”
In the video, you can see that having almost come to a stop, the driver then sets off again, changes to the right hand lane and honks a bit more.
He shouts for Lyndon to pull over and calls him an ‘imbecile’.
“I shouted back that he was the idiot, and the driver slammed his brakes on and opened his door in moving traffic, getting out and shouting at me again. At this point I just wanted to leave the situation and headed for the junction.
“I saw a pedestrian and shouted at her to, ‘get your phone out and record this, this guy behind me is nuts’ – but she probably assumed I was the crazy one.
“He pulled up beside me at the lights and shouted, ‘You want to pull up? You fucking cunt,’ and continued with a tirade to that effect.
“He was wished a nice day and I headed into Windsor where I flagged down an officer and reported the incident, making a formal complaint with the footage when I got home.
“Piecing it all together, it appears the man was angry at the fact I filtered to the front of the line. Angry may he be, but it is not acceptable to use a vehicle to threaten and intimidate other road users.
“I just hope Thames Valley Police see it the same, and have the resources to prosecute this driver.”
> 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
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39 comments
Yeah, I appreciate that, but what I'm proposing is to change the law so where there isn't an ASL at the lights, allow cyclists to cross the white stop line, thus treating it like an ASL.
(I tend to do this if a driver blocks the ASL box, though I do it more out of pettiness than anything else).
I wonder what the town planners expect cyclists to do when they get to the front and find there's no ASL?
Turn around sheepishly and go to the back of the queue?
Stop?
That's a rather disingenuous response. If there's no ASL, and you can't cross the white line, then where exactly are you supposed to stop? Without an ASL, and without crossing the white line, there won't be anywhere to just stop and wait...
I'm genuinely struggling to understand what it is you are trying to say. You just stop where you got to. You're already there - so I don't understand how you can say there is no such place - you just cease moving, in situ. This all happens before you cross the line.
Sorry if I wasnt clear.
I'd meant that stopping 'in situ' will leave the cyclist (who has filtered up to lights to find no ASL but just a white line) either stranded between two lanes of about to be fast moving traffic, or to the outside or inside of a single lane of about to be fast moving motor traffic. Neither option is desirable or safe.
I wonder if a sign saying 'there is or isn't an ASL at these traffic lights' would be an option...?
Your mistake is in assuming that town planners expect cyclists.
Carist enraged at being delayed 1/2 second stops multiple times to complain about being delayed . . . Do these people not see the oriny in themselves ?
I must admit I tend not to bother filtering in these situations for this reason. in less I can see traffic is back up for miles. In some ways that line of cars in front of you are less people who are able to try and kill you.
Also an old Merc like that are on the danger list, they're normally driven by Neanderthals who'll see a cyclist moving in front of them tantamount to being told they have a small penis and they can't help but react like this, they can't help themselves.
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