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news
Near Miss of the Day 434: Cyclist starts using camera after driver forces him off road – and captures three close passes in a week
A road.cc reader who fell off his bike after a motorist cut him up decided not to venture out again without being able to record his rides on film – and captured footage of three close passes within the first week of doing so in mid-June, all on Surrey roads.
“I recently experienced several cut offs, near misses and close passes involving reckless and irresponsible drivers,” road.cc reader Jack told us.
“After one of the Audi drivers cut me off three weeks ago and I fell on to the pavement (The driver did not stop) I decided not to move from home without a camera on my bike.
“Here is what I captured within a week of cycling only and I would like to share it with you and the road.cc community.”
First, in the video above shot on the B376 in Staines, we have a Ford Fiesta driver who is overtaking the rider but there is a van ahead waiting to turn right, so the motorist holds back until it is safe to pass the rider, yes? Well, no. They squeeze into the gap between the cyclist and the van, of course.
That incident wasn’t reported to Surrey Police, but the other two were. Next up, we’re on the A320 heading towards Chertsey, and it’s one of those close passes we see all too often as the overtaking driver cuts back in because there is a car approaching from the opposite direction.
And finally, on the A380 as Jack was riding towards Windsor, there’s another close overtake, this time on a road with double white lines.
Under Rule 129 of the Highway Code, where the carriageway has “double white lines where the line nearest you is solid,” drivers “MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road.”
It adds that they “may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less.”
Clearly Jack is riding above 10mph but few would have a problem with the first driver overtaking him; the road is clear, and they give the cyclist plenty of space.
The second motorist however is a different case altogether, squeezing past the rider with traffic coming the other way, and going over the double white lines in the process.
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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12 comments
This is routine driving behaviour in Lancashire- to a large extent this is the fault of the police for treating the offence as a joke, and proposing joke remedies. Lancashire, at this offence blackspot, introduced Mobile- wait for it!- not the Mobile Infantry from Starship Troopers, but the fearsome Mobile....Messaging Trailer. This one had 3 screens- Look Out For Cyclists, Please Drive Carefully and 30. Right next to the trailer, the day after it was installed a posh car performed 3 offences at once- very close pass, across the unbroken white line and about 50 mph. The driver statement was clearly 'Get St***** Lancashire Constabulary'
Seeing these day after day, on NMOTD and in real world...I'm rapidly coming round to a new way of thinking. We should all be cycling in the primary position ( guess that's why it's called that ). And we only move to the secondary position when WE judge it is safe to be overtaken. If it becomes the norm, then motorists will get more used to staying in their position rather than going for these ridiculous gaps
I'm going to air this in the forum as I want to see how it is received
( have now raised as a subject in Forum )
I have been doing this for some time now. My friends mostly say that I am deliberately annoying drivers but I think I have cut down on close passes by drivers who don't know any better but are not malicious. Every now and again I stay in at pinch points when I feel traffic is slow and risks are reduced, sure enough 9 times out of 10 they try to squeeze through.
Unfortunately it doesn't change the behaviour of "get out of my way drivers" who still overtake very closely and very quickly.
"blurb" indeed.
"Clearly Jack is riding above 10mph but few would have a problem with the first driver overtaking him; the road is clear, and they give the cyclist plenty of space."
I must be one of the few that was taught not to overtake at a junction then, so this was also a dangerous move before the close pass
I had a very near miss with a lad on a superbike once. I was left turning out of a side road on to a 50mph single carriageway, he was overtaking at typical sunday morning missile speeds (it was red and exotic looking, so probably a Ducati). He somehow squeezed between my OSF wing and the van he was overtaking, across horrible broken tarmac and cats eyes. Chances are he'd have killed us both. Double whites there of course. I developed a habit of checking the lane I'm joining after that.
Even with the double white lines, traffic emerging from a side road must give way to overtaking traffic on the main road.
The highway code advises not to overtake across a junction for precisely this reason. You are putting your life in the hands of a driver that might pull out without looking. Hopefully the motorcyclist had learnt a lesson there too!
Ah, The Highway Code; something most of these idiots haven't looked at since they were learning to drive - so they wouldn't know about Rule 129.
I myself have a road nearby that is double white lines for about half a mile, and I will avoid it; but during the quiet part of 'lockdown' did venture onto it; I rode at about 20-25 mph, and still a few cars decided to ovetake. We're stopping them from 'making progress'......
Three in a week isn't unusual; sadly. Just an indication of the regard in which many drivers hold the life and limb of cyclists.
The first vid is a perfect illustration of very bad cycle provision; a cycle lane that disappears exactly where it is needed, thus giving the driver the excuse that he wasn't in the cycle lane because there wasn't one.
Been along that road in vid1 a few times. Intrastructure around there seems mainly to be cycle symbols painted on the road. You have to go to Kingston for proper provision.
Have to say experience would have kept me away from the problem, as it was obvious what would happen.
The other 2 are much harder to defend against. Last double white lines I was centre lane and 20mph and still got overtaken towards a blind corner.
depending on "how jumpy" I would rate my "cyclist over-reaction" I would dare say I get around 3 close passes on ever commute home... most of the time I think I can avoid them if something happens, so it doesn't immediately flag as something to report, but I'm tempted to take a weeks footage and compile all the instances to have people vote and help determine at what distance an overtake usually becomes a close pass that will hold up its report.
I think most of the problems I've encountered recently have been at traffic lights.
tl;dr - "Grrrrr"
or...
A few times in the last few days I've had motorists haring past me at the last few metres up to traffic lights - either going straight through a red, or sitting next to me in the ASL.
Fun one the other evening was a club ride ahead of me (lycra, road bikes) so I waited and left some space. So an SUV came alongside but the driver didn't have room to get past us all so he just sat there, right next to me.
I was a bit unhappy at this so moved forward and over into the lane a bit in front of him.
I had anticipated that he would wait until I started moving and then move around me (you know, as I would have done if I had been driving a car).
So I don't know if he hadn't noticed me move, or what he considered a safe distance to pass me at, but the lights changed and I moved to pull away only to hear his brakes screech as he suddenly realised he wasn't allowed to actually drive over me. I was startled and lost my footing (flat pedals, rat-traps), just as he started shouting at me for getting in his way or something. Even if I'd not wobbled, he would have passed me with at most about an inch of clearance...
He pulled out around me, put his foot to the floor, and raced ahead and through the now red (again) traffic lights.
(The SUV behind him pulled alongside me, and the passenger asked if I was OK, and a couple of the roadies ahead who hadn't made it through the lights also asked if I was OK).