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news
Near Miss of the Day 555: Driver nearly left-hooks cyclist; rider who filmed shocking footage says it underlines need for safe infrastructure
An Edinburgh cyclist who filmed another rider coming within a whisker of being knocked off his bike by a left-turning motorist says the shocking footage highlights the need for safe cycling infrastructure in the area of the Scottish capital where the incident happened.
Dr Mark Hartl was riding on West Harbour Road, Granton, when the driver of a black hatchback cut across the cycling in front of him, barely missing the rider who was forced to brake and unclip his left foot.
Dr Hartl told road.cc that he spoke to the other cyclist afterwards. “He was a bit shaken, but unhurt, as he managed to stay on the bike,” he said.
While he was able to note the motorist’s registration plate, he said that since “no-one was hurt or worse, I did not consider reporting it to the police.”
With the footage going viral on Twitter after he posted it to the social network, and the story picked up by local media, Dr Hartl said that he “would rather see the publicity used to expedite the installation of a cycle path along that route.”
Highlighting “the lack of a safe cycle path between the Lower Granton Road cycle path and the Silverknowles Esplanade that leads to Cramond,” he added that “the road surface is very poor, ground up by heavy HGVs and is now since the lockdown becoming more popular with cycling families.”
> 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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61 comments
Quote: With the footage going viral on Twitter after he posted it to the social network, and the story picked up by local media, Dr Hartl said that he “would rather see the publicity used to expedite the installation of a cycle path along that route.”
I'm all in favour of the instalation of good cycling infrastructure but the instalation of a cycle path is not the remedy for that sort of driving.
in one sense it might be as an off road cycle lane might well be installed with give way lines, giving drivers priority and removing this offence by putting the onus on the cyclist to know who is coming up behind them that might be turning left.
Not an ideal solution though as the cycle lane should have priority over turning traffic.
Totally agree with you - I hate cycle lanes that cede priority at every side road junction.
What I'd like to see are tiger/zebra type junctions at the entrance to side roads - either just paint on the road or even better would be raised humps similar to traffic calming measures. Then it's more explicit that vehicles have to be careful when entering or exiting side roads.
Of course none of that helps if the driver is dangerously incompetent.
should be standard on all roads to remind drivers that pedestrians crossing side roads have priority. The majority seem to think otherwise.
Your less than ideal solution is not a solution at all.
Indeed, but to the non cyclist planning roads it seems like a good idea, improve safety for cylists, don't inconvenience drivers.
Dr Harti
Please. Please Please. Report this to Police Scotland. Even though nobody was hurt (does mental trauma count?) they may take action. It may actually lead to the Fiscal processing as the cyclist had to take evasive action which is one of the caveats required for a charge in this case. Also the reporting may highlight a vehicle that is illegally on the road which in turn could trigger a load of other offences. There may also be an anti social order on the vehicle which will lead to its seizure.
At the very least they will have words if you get a sympathetic constable.
As negligent as the driver, then.
"With the footage going viral on Twitter after he posted it to the social network, and the story picked up by local media, Dr Hartl said that he “would rather see the publicity used to expedite the installation of a cycle path along that route.”
Not a fan of this argument, the infrastructure would only help at that location, and not the hundreds of other places where this happens. However the publicising of the proper conviction and punishment of the offender and significant sentence would hopefully help everywhere. Especially in conjunction with an increased chance of being caught and charged
A point for discussion here, does the left turn signal from the camera rider give the eegit in the car the impression they are both turning left as he assumes that they must be together (both on bikes afterall) and he then thinks it is OK to pass them around the outside of the bend. Not that the driving would be in any way acceptable if this were the case.
I know I have mistakenly assumed in the past that folk are together because they happen to be fairly close together, not that I have then tried to run them of the road but have been suprised to see them seperate.
Actually, that's a good observation. Very likely that is what was going on.
I was going to make the same observation. I recall an incident in the past where a driver pulled out in front of a group of us as they assumed the cyclist we were catching that indicatd left was part of our group and we would all turn left.
I think that's exactly what happened. The perils of indicating, sometimes it's better just to keep 'em guessing!
I hadn't even considered that as a possibility, but you might be right...
If true that only serves to emphasise how poor some drivers' understanding of the roads is. If a car indicated to turn left, it would never cross their minds to assume that the car in front of them was also going to turn left when they hadn't signalled to do so.
Yes riders do often ride in groups, but assuming that all groupings of more than one rider are actually a group, and all going the same way, is dangerously careless, as this video might indicate (no pun intended).
Totally agree.
NOT a 'mistake' at all. It was in all accounts MGIF at whatever the cost and harm to.the cyclist.
Why else would the scrote behind the wheel veer on the wrong side of the road and flooring it?
That really does need reporting. Unless you've reported incidents before and got a very poor response?
With driving like that I wouldn't be surprised if there were other offences e.g. insurance, license, tax, mot etc , etc. Should report otherwise what's the point of recording?
It's taxed & has MOT, though that doesn't make the driving less bad.
That definitely needs reporting!
Atrocious bit of MGIF driving. This driver should not be allowed on the roads. If you know who the other cyclist is, report it to the police and he can be the victim, you can be the witness, since their normal practice seems to be designating the person with the camera as "just a witness."
Does it count as MGIF when it looks to me like the motorist didn't even see the cyclist who's ahead of the camera?
Motorist did nothing wrong. If the cyclist had been wearing a lid and hiviz this would never have....... oh
Bet he breaks read lights
Is that satire?
It's very hard to tell these days....
I don't think it counts as MGIF when they don't even care whether they've actually managed to get in front or not.
Yes it does, because the pass is 'MGIF' even for the camera cyclist. The speed at which the car overtakes and corners says to me that the driver kept his speed up to get past the first cyclist. The cornering is then too fast for a junction into which he cannot see clearly until the last moment when he clears the corner building. There could have been any number of obstructions in the side road that would have caused him to stop and come into conflict with the cyclist(s) he was overtaking.
I think it makes sense that he did see the front cyclist, and he assumed he was also turning.
OK: consider my wrist well and truly slapped
Would you use the same excuses if you were the victim of this callous dangerous driver?
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