Near Miss of the Day 548: Driver makes exemplary overtake ... but almost takes out penny-farthing rider coming in opposite direction

This is no ordinary near miss, this is a ... oh hang on, forget Marks & Spencer, this is an 'ordinary' near miss, that word being the one by which the bicycles we now refer to as penny-farthings were once known.

And it's one you have to have a bit of respect for, however grudgingly; a driver makes an exemplary overtake on some cyclists, giving them plenty of room ... but in doing so goes so far over onto the other side of the road that they almost hit the penny-farthing rider coming in the other direction.

Having come off my bike a couple of times in the past couple of weeks, the first of those knowing well in advance it would happen as I encountered some black ice ... well, I'm just glad I wasn't having to find an emergency bale-out option from that height.

The clip, filmed in Bowdon, Greater Manchester on Sunday, was sent in by road.cc reader Bob, who said: "The car that overtook gave us plenty of space, but not so the rider of the Penny Farthing who was going the other way!"

This isn't the first time we've used the Marks & Spencer ad's strapline in this series, of course ... we did so in the very early days, and more accurately reflecting the actual wording of the ads, but we just could not resist the pun on this occasion.

> 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