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news
Near Miss of the Day 530: ‘Must Get In Front’ driver forced to bale out on manoeuvre
It’s another of those MGIF – ‘Must Get In Front’ – drivers that features in our Near Miss of the Day series today, although on this occasion the motorist had to sack off the manoeuvre after coming to the belated realisation that there just was not enough space to pass the cyclist.
The clip was filmed in Glasgow by road.cc reader Alun, who said: “On the way home from work I was approaching this roundabout where the lane splits into a right turn and ahead lane.
“I was in the ahead lane and deliberately once on the feature itself I take a wide line rather than hug the kerb to discourage motorists trying to squeeze me on the exit. This ploy usually works and forces a safe pass once on the main carriageway. Until yesterday that is.
“I’d shoulder-checked before entering and clocked the Citroën. On exiting I shoulder-checked again and the Citroën was right on my wheel and braking hard mainly as my line was blocking the exit.
“My first thought was, ‘Damn, that’s close!’. On reviewing the footage it was, ‘Damn that’s even closer than I thought!’.
“If you look carefully you can see the nose dip and the wheels actually briefly lock before the braking system takes over.
“Fortunately the roundabout wasn’t greasy or slushy like further up the road,” Alun added.
“Hopefully it will have put the frighteners up the driver and he will have learnt his lesson.”
> 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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51 comments
The driver seemed to expect the cyclist to follow the kerb around the roundabout, which would have given the car room to get past; instead, the cyclist took the shortest line straight across, causing the driver to cut short the attempted pass.
The driver did nothing wrong here, just a pointless video.
The Citroën was in the wrong lane for going straight on, left lane is ahead only, right lane is right turn only. Regardless of the cyclists position, the Citroën was in the wrong lane trying to pull off an overtake on the roundabout. Another example of poor quality driving.
Except of course for the sheer imbecility of trying to overtake on a roundabout. Part from that, fine....
I really hope you do not drive with observation like that.
Not sure why that roundabout approach has a separate right-turn lane, when it doesn't look there would be space for two vehicles to go round at the same time in any circumstance, and there don't appear to be any lane markings on the roundabout itself.
It's a shoddy piece of infra dumped on a T-junction that serves a trading estate. If you hug the kerb when going ahead in your car it allows others to turn right. Motorists tend to ignore this and cut straight across and effectively cut up any right turning vehicle. As a cyclist you can effectively take a strong primary even up to the imaginary line without hindering right turners and deterring those hell bent on cutting you up on the exit. As I've said elsewhere to hug the kerb puts you into conflict with ahead motorists on exiting.
In my experience locals have a tendency to use the r'bout to overtake cyclists due to the number of pinch points along that particular road and their impatience to wait until the bridge. The Citroen driver miscalculated my speed on this occasion.
In the past I've actually even had motorists overtake on the wrong side of traffic islands!
pic of static view from giveway
"I was in the ahead lane and deliberately once on the feature itself I take a wide line rather than hug the kerb to discourage motorists trying to squeeze me on the exit. This ploy usually works and forces a safe pass once on the main carriageway. Until yesterday that is."
As a motorcyclist I was taught by my police instructor to always try to take the shorter route across roundabouts for the same reason as gif77. I often see cyclists and moped riders 'hugging' the gutter and mentally tell them to 'take the lane'.
Me too, it's for stability and safety, it doesn't load the tyres and reduces the chance of sliding off. The other thing is, one is entitled to position oneself in any part of the lane they are occupying. If there are no white lines, it's generally because it is too narrow but also there is an 'imaginary line' where 2 widths if tarmac meet. The other reason to straight line a roundabout is because they are where most lorries dump their overfilled diesel tanks.
It's rare that I've had a ride in an urbanised area and this exact thing hasn't happened.
Not sure what you can do when the driver behind chooses to use the wrong lane to try to squeeze past... pretty sure you're still not supposed to overtake on a roundabout?
I agree with you, although I'm not sure that the HWC explicitly mentions it. HWC 167 details over taking in generall
1st bullet "....approaching or at a road junction on either side of the road"
This pretty much covers it for me, but many drivers won't be able to get their tiny little minds around that and know how to apply it to R'abouts.
9th bullet "....stay behind if you are following a cyclist approaching a roundabout or junction, and you intend to turn left"
Also this, although that is more about left hooks
HWC 187 is specifically about R'abouts, and more promising, but doesn't explicitly prohibit overtaking
5th bullet "...In all cases watch out for and give plenty of room to
cyclists and horse riders who may stay in the left-hand lane and signal right if they intend to continue round the roundabout."
It's nice to see the driver had fully working brakes and probably even a legally insured car. Please take note road.cc journolists and get your own house in order before criticising others. Check out hambini . com if you don't know about this hippocracy. He did a decent bit of investigative journolism. I expect I'll get deleted and banned from posting for informing people of this.
FTFY
I don't entirely see the point that you are trying to make, to be honest... Are you implying that cyclists don't have brakes on their bikes (possible, but veeeery unusual) and/or that they don't have insurance (very rare, in point of fact, but you ought to check the statistics on uninsured motorists).
EDIT: PS - hambini appear to be a bike parts manufacturer. Is this some weird form of viral marketing?
https://www.hambini.com/daf-j-maurice-brennan-michelle-arthurs/
The number plate was too small which apparently invalidates the insurance in some countries.
Hambini seems a little unhinged looking at that article. Also the subjects of the rant don't work for road.cc
Anyway back to MGIF nmotd 530
But it's nice to see Hambini's not carrying this whole one-sided feud around like some sort of mental boat anchor.
Wow. Well, that's ten minutes of my life I'll never get back... Hambini really seems to have a few "issues" (and a lot of free time).
Can't make your point out tbh
Working brakes isn't "nice to see", it's a prerequisite. Even then, they only make a difference when they are actually used.....
The criticism actually comes from the contributor and anyone who cares to post a comment. You can also defend if you wish.
Not sure either why you are scared of getting banned (and from what?).
Dude, just make your point and let it stand any stones that come its way on its merits.
Well, that told road.cc...
What on earth are you on about?
What exactly are you failing to inform us of?
Go see what roadcc journolists get up to on hambinis youtube (community). He has all the facts on there. It's relating to driving rather than bikes. I don't care about the personal stuff he wrote (although some comments from doctors are interesting) but people should live by what they preach. Today is my last day visiting this site written by hippocrates. So you'll find the piece on the community section on his youtube. Well worth a read.
What on earth are on you about ?
Did you forget your medication ?
Something to with a Deep Cycling satanic conspiracy that will be exposed once the fraudulent road.cc awards have been overturned, I believe.
Yikes - when I tried to post this I got a whole series of 'Request Delivery Failed' messages - maybe I was closer to the truth than I thought...
Cue the "X-files" theme...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocrates
What does he have to do with bikes (or cars)?
No, not that hippocrates. He means something to do with transporting horses......
Horses?
Magic, nice graphic!
Hippos is ancient Greek for horse.
Incidentally Hippopotamus comes from a contraction of hippos and potamos, AG for river. River-horse.*
*The author makes no guarantee as to the accuracy of his ramblings. Repetition is strictly at your own risk.
You are right. I love a bit of etymology. (The etymology of helicopter is my favourite, but that's for a different thread.)
Me too, thanks for the tip on Helicopter. That reminded me that a friend (fluent in German) told me that the german for helicopter was hubschrauber, which literally translates as air screwer. (although etymology freak that I am, I was looking this up just now and Schrauber is indeed screwdriver, but Hub is, well, hub... Still kind of makes sense but got me wanting to find out more)
Hub gets used in different ways but I wouldn't say lt means air in hubschrauber.
E.g. Hubraum is swept volume in an engine.
I had a combi woodworking machine that coud be moved using a long handle with a pair of wheels and a hook at one end. That accessory was called a "Hubdeichsel" which translates as "lifting stick/pole". I reckon hubschrauber translates better as "lifting screwer".
Ash, that makes sense. Thanks!
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