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news
Near Miss of the Day 477: Yellow taxi driver in close pass (video includes swearing)
The latest video in our Near Miss of the Day series comes from road.cc reader who decided to invest in Cycliq cameras for his bike last Christmas following a succession of close calls.
"Within three weeks of using them, I had four close pass incidents, two of which I did not report as I viewed them as unintentional," Scott told us.
The other two, he did report to Police Scotland, telling us, "as in my view the drivers undertook their manoeuvres quite intentionally regardless of my presence.
"Thankfully, I have sufficient experience and road awareness that I anticipated and avoided any collision.
"In both cases, local officers viewed the footage of these incidents and stated they felt there was potentially breached of Section 3 of the RTA, so the cases were passed to the local offices to the incidents.
"Needless to say, Police Scotland said neither breached on criminality as I had not had to alter my direction of travel and there was no collision which seems to me to be a rather dangerous threshold.
"The fact that the taxi driver is a licensed operative and had a passenger in his vehicle defies belief, as after my highlighting his closeness, he proceed to drive alongside me with his window down to give abuse and within 1m of me. Police Scotland felt I had “given a good account” of myself as if, in some way, this was justification.
I was 'encouraged' to report and provide any footage of further incidents however, given the complete waste of time, I don’t think I’ll bother," Scott continued.
"My MP’s response was beyond weak ... 'He will note my comments' ... Scott 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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8 comments
This is one of a number of not very convincing and ancient NMotDs which have appeared recently, at the expense of genuine and recent examples. In the above case the passing vehicle is travelling fairly slowly. Although the speed of passing does not feature in the little official guidance which exists (there is no specific offence of passing within x.x metres of a cyclist, and it's left to the discretion of the police- unfortunately, the police always exercise this discretion in favour of the motorist) but I certainly worry more when the pass is both close and fast. If they go carefully and slowly, I regard this as good driving no matter how close. Of course, if the NMotDs are being kept in a queue based on date of occurrence, then it is clear that there is a very large number of examples. We have to pursue them, rather than just moaning ineffectually about how useless the police are- we all know that already.
I was 'encouraged' to report and provide any footage of further incidents however, given the complete waste of time, I don’t think I’ll bother," Scott continued.
This is, of course, what they want. They aim to discourage reporting in general, so they invent the various stupid 'rules' like 'we must have 2,5... etc minutes of video before and after' and 'we can't prosecute any cases where the video has been on social media because the evidence is compromised'. Neither of these rules is valid, and are merely an indication that they're not going to prosecute any incidents where there isn't 'sufficient' cyclist blood on the road. As far as the police are concerned there is no such offence as close pasing a cyclist, so all this nonsense about Highway Code reviews and '2m minimum clearance by large vehicles' is just that. The police have no intention of doing anything significant about any of these close pass cases and this situation will continue while people just moan about it on cyclist websites. I have bored people with this before, but Lancashire police have never yet prosecuted anyone for this offence. I have made the effort and persisted and have forced LC to at least pretend they're prosecuting a close pass case from 30.9.19- statement completed, hearing scheduled for April 2020- cancelled 'due to Covid'. I think the police are now puting a zero priority on the case in the hope that it will never happen, but I will keep pushing. This is what you have to do to counterract the almost universal anti-cyclist sentiment within the police.
First one with the taxi - rider should've kept left more.
Second certainly a close pass ;-(
No dude, it's not the rider's responsibility to squeeze into the left to mitigate close passes. It's the driver's responsibility not to do it. A competent rider or driver would understand this.
Yet another trollish comment from yourself. It's not a competition, and in any case frankly you are outclassed by others on this site.
When I rode into work this morning I was stuck behind a long queue of cars. If they had moved left in their lane, or moved right in their lane, I could have easily passed them. But no - they all stayed in the middle of their lane, so I couldn't. Dashed inconsiderate of them, I say!
Because the rules as known by dinosaur juice addicts and their sympathisers here, is that when the cars start to move bikes should get out of the way and let them past, but when the cars stop cyclists should know their place and wait.
This way the people that are least responsible for congestion will be most affected, clearly as it should be.
Average speed of motor vehicles in most large towns and cities is way below the average speed of cyclists, but somehow bikes are seen as the cause of congestion by drivers and the media.
The bastards!
I always hate the ones where the junction exit/ road entrance is on a slight bend as it is here. The car driver expects the cyclist to be more left yet if they do they would probably hit the curb taking the bend. However the driver also turns in and comes closer to the cyclist so both vehicles get closer then neccesary. A few extra seconds from the taxi and the spaces would have opened up again.