Near Miss of the Day 482: BMW driver in high-speed close pass

I feel exactly the same, some of the worst stretches of road for close passes near me are double whites.

It's got to the point that I just don't ride some of them unless it's a weekend (Or a lockdown).

IanMK wrote:

I'd be disappointed if the police didn't follow it up for the white line infringement. The HC couldn't be clearer on that and in one short clip 4 clear breaches, more importantly the drivers are happy to cross the white line without any hesitation. It's almost like they are totally unfamiliar with the regulation.

Well...You 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. (Rule 129) It's hard to tell what speed the rider is doing but as he's building up momentum and going uphill it doesn't look far off 10 mph, so the first driver could certainly claim justification. I'd far sooner drivers used that law than close pass me in the way that Beemer did, which is, obviously, inexcusable.

True and I'm not familiar with the road. However, most of the drivers that overtook him barley lifted the accelerator so they equally have no idea what speed he was going. I think that I was merely suggesting given the potential multiple infractions, specifically in the close pass, that the Police should really take it seriously. 

it would be interesting to see the front facing view for the last 2 that crossed the white line, the visibility over the brow of the hill must have been pretty limited

Rule 129 is another stupid rule where an arbitary speed has been added. A bit like the 'leave as much room as you would when passing a car' - the HYC is not fit for purpose.

I think we all know that whether the cyclist was doing more or less than 16km/h is irrelevent. Close passes are done those who dislike cyclists and/or a few who think they aren't allowed to cross the solid white lines at all. A careful driver pass safely, end of.

I had a look - it's not actually the brow of a hill ahead - in that the road doesn't dip when you get to the top of the rise - it turns a fairly gentle left hand bend. 

Certainly the last overtaker would have had a good view of the road ahead including beyond the bend, especially once they'd pulled out.

The last but one maybe less so, but I think probably still pretty safe to pass me.  But probably not if e.g. instead of me it was a car doing 40-50mph, which would have taken longer to pass and would have been nearer the bend by the time they were passing it.

Whether  or not the rider was doing 10mph or more, the driver of the blue Subaru did at least hang back and passed at a reasonable distance. The rider was likely doing more than 10mph when the driver of the white car at the end of the clip overtook, but this person also gave plenty of space. But the BMW driver just didn't give a shit. It'd be a real pity if the cops didn't take action against the BMW driver. 

Fully agree.  Also, looking at the wording of Rule 129, it is not beyond argument that the 10mph relates only to the road maintenace vehicle - and that could make sense given that they are by far the largest of the list and therefore if they are moving at, say, 20mph then it is less likely to be feasible to get round, past and in again safely on the type of road that is marked in this way.  

Caveat - I haven't looked at the actual legislation, which may be clearer.

I would also note that, certainly at the beginning of this section of road, I see no reason that it would not be safe to pass a cyclist or horse-rider well over the line if the road ahead is clear.

Velo-drone wrote:

Caveat - I haven't looked at the actual legislation, which may be clearer.

I had a look and it is clearer. Also includes a horse being *led* at more than 10mph - can't imagine that's a frequent occurrence!

I'd be worried about the road maintenance vehicle moving at 10mph while not in use. I certainly wouldn't want to risk trying to pass it.

Good for you - how did it go? (One day I'm going to find or at least hear about a motorists who actually says "oh, I'm really sorry mate...")

Years ago an old woman turned right in front of me into a side road. I yelled at her - she stopped and apologised having not thought I was going as fast as I was.

This morning I got hooted at by the driver of a Tesco HGV.

I never actually saw the back of the lorry, but I imagine it had a "don't pass this vehicle on the inside" sticker.

Here's the thing: he overtook me.  Specifically, he passed me without looking far enough ahead to see the pedestrian refuge and the queue of cars.  So, he slowly went past me then had to stop before he'd finished passing me.  I kept going, hoping he was going to look before moving toward the kerb.

Luckily, he did, noiced me level with the side of his cab, and hooted his horn, presumably thinking that'd slipped up his inside like a Bl00dy Cyclist...

(I wonder if he had even noticed that I was there when he'd started passing me...).

David9694 wrote:

Suprisingly not a long wait then!  I did the same to a trailer tower, few months back, old guy towing a HUGE caravan and very wide. After a chat about the inches pass he gave me, I & he realised that he had no idea, was very apologetic and agreed he wasn't used to pulling it. I can count chats like that on the fingers of one hand though.

It is indeed.  I'm not on it all that often - and in this case only to hop between the road out of Grandborough and the one into Leamington Hastings.  

I do enjoy the occasional blast down from Dunchurch up to Draycote - can get a very decent speed up down that hill, and/or a good leg-stretch doing it the other way.  But on the whole if I'm heading past that way I'll go round Draycote itself - there's a way in from Coventry Road that avoids the A426 altogether, and it's such a beautiful place to cycle round it's even worth adding to the journey to do so (spotted five herons going round it last week ..)

To be honest when I have gone on it, I haven't had much trouble usually ... unlike if I go out the other way and hit the A5 ...