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news
Near Miss of the Day 577: Motor scooter rider in very close pass – on junction where one of London's Cycleways takes a detour
If you live in London, or indeed any big town or city, you’ll be well aware that recent years have seen an explosion in the number of motor scooters on the road – or indeed often parked at right angles towards the kerb – creating yet another hazard for urban cyclists with many food delivery riders weaving in and out of traffic on their way to a pick-up or drop-off.
Today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series shows the moment one scooter rider zooms past a cyclist – who wishes to remain anonymous and did not send the footage to the police – at the junction of St George’s Circus and London Road in South London, leaving just inches to spare.
One thing worth noting here is that the roundabout lies on the route of the mostly segregated Cycleway 6 – indeed, the cyclist has just ridden down Blackfriars Road towards Elephant & Castle.
The problem at this particular junction, though is that instead of heading down London Road, which leads straight to the Elephant – as plain a desire line as you’ll find especially for anyone who is heading on to the New Kent Road afterwards – Cycleway 6 takes a bit of a detour in its final section.
Take a look at the map here, which is centred on St George’s Circus and you’ll see how Cycleway 9 – the green line that comes down from the top centre of the image – veers off course before turning back towards Elephant & Castle, bottom right.
> 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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31 comments
This should be reported. It looks like a deliberate close pass to me. Points on their licence whilst a learner will cost them significantly on insurance, which will be a good incentive to ride sensibly.
Is it around vauxhall where the cycle route goes through tiny archways under the bridges? Not sure on which cycleway it is.
No it's St George's Circus, at the bottom of Blackfriars Bridge Road - 150 north of Elephant and Castle.
Sorry, the question is more on general cycle routes in the area and not this particular case.
Found the one I was thinking of.
Go through there most days, it's a lovely little bit of infra!
I ride that route all the time and I can't get on board with complaints about the tiny detour - literally five seconds - the cycle route takes. There's a superb two-lane totally segregated cycleway running all the way down to St.George's Circus (the roundabout in the video) from Blackfriars. When it reaches St.George's, it turns right into a no-entry-except-buses/cycles road (Lambeth Road) for about fifty metres, then left down an equally excellent two lane totally segregated cycleway running straight to Elephant. This is a very sensible alternative to trying to run the cycleway across the busy St.George's Circus (don't think it could be practically accomplished) and, as I say, takes an extra five seconds, far less time than it would have taken the cyclist to get out of the cycle lane on the approach to SGC, cross three lanes of traffic and then wait at the lights to cross SGC. There's plenty of poor cycling infra to complain about but this isn't it, it's brilliant.
None of which excuses the twat on the 'ped, obviously.
Scooter rider is guilty and should be prosecuted. I don't think powered 2-wheeled vehicles, except regulated ebikes which are speed-restricted, should be allowed in cycle or bus lanes. Is this laxity only in Bristol?
Same for ASLs. Cyclists go in the ASLs to get away from the motor vehicles, so find you're sitting next to a pair of Deliveroo scooters in one can be disconcerting...
Although, it's quite pleasing when the lights go to 'green for bicycles' and you leave them sitting there...
Yes, they are breaking the law, but it's one transgression I don't worry about it too much. PTWs are still vulnerable, and they are taught to filter forward. When they get to the front, is it reasonable to expect them to jostle alongside the lead car, both of whom are then also negotiating cyclists across the ASL; or pull forward to be clear in the ASL?
As long as they keep a distance from the cyslists there, I live and let live. But they are on our turf, so if they're being a knob, then they deserve the criticism.
The far bigger problem is cars and vans that just roll ignorantly or arrogantly into the ASL when the lights have been on red for ages. Dante describes a particular circle for those who edge forwards or rock back and forth on the clutch... and then don't even get going when the lights change.
Ah yes, that's right next to the special hell for people who talk in the theatre...
Motorcycles of any size are allowed in virtually all London bus lanes - and I have to say 99% of them are very careful and respectful around cyclists (after all, they have just as much to lose as we do in a collision). Unfortunately there has been a massive rise in Deliveroo/Just Eat/Uber Eats etc moped riders who ride incredibly dangerously and fast (probably the only way they can scrape a living wage, one assumes).
Only TFL controlled bus lanes, not normally in Bourough council bus lanes which form the vast majority in London.
Cycle in London and this will happen to you a lot. Always seem to be on L plates too!
Why are they allowed to ride for money (I won't say "professionally") when they haven't passed any test apart from the basic CBT?
Very good question!
That should be sent to the cops. The scooter rider needs to learn to ride properly. As a cyclist and motorcyclist I'm often appalled at the terrible riding standards of so many scooter riders. I've even had close calls with them when I'm on my sportsbike.
^This. Just about every one seems to want to be 'on brand' moaning about cyclists, but Scooter riders are a whole, special breed of Danger Muppet.
And with scooter riders, you don't even get to escape them in 'protected' cycle lanes (not in Bristol anyway...).
Yes, the genesis of how motorcycles are allowed in bus lanes in Bristol is interesting. I've been told that it stems from when Avon was abolished, and split into four. Apparently a few days before the split, this was proposed, and since everything was pretty chaotic, it sailed through, and Bristol just kept it.
Didn't know that, burt: thanks.
I was actually talking in particular about all those pop-up protected cycle lanes around the city centre.
My office overlooks Park Row/Perry Road, and I see scooters haring down the cycle lanes there Every. F-ing. Day.
(That's when the wands are still there and haven't been knocked over by motorists or punched over by disreputable looking men (yes, I've seen that too!)).
I doubt your experiences and I have witnessed much of the same but please don't generalise about scooter riders otherwise you're doing exactly what so many car drivers do when talking about cyclists (and cyclist talking about car drivers for that matter).
Yep I'm generalising. But I'm commenting on what I see on a regular basis. Just as it seems BMW and Audi drivers have a far higher rate of driver aggression than those in other makes of cars, so do scooter riders have a higher rate of poor riding ability than other powered two wheeler riders.
I'm not talking about the mod riders on old school Vespas and Lambrettas here.
I'm talking about the (mostly young male) riders on twist and go scooters. They do ride them flat out a lot of the time. And they do crash a lot too.
I've seen an awful lot of smashed up scooters by the roadside in recent times, far, far more than smashed up motorcycles for instance.
The three wheeled scooters are bad too adn I've seen older riders, who clearly have never taken a motorcycle test, doing some really stupid riding on them. They're allowed to use them if they have a car licence due to the fact that they're three wheelers. I even saw an older couple on a three wheeled scooter a couple of weeks ago not wearing helmets, which again is legal as it's a three wheler. That doesn't make it either safe or sensible. The guy was filtering very dangerously.
I totally understand where you're coming from, share your frustration, and I hold similar views re Audi and BMW drivers. It's just that we can't take the moral high ground when people complain about "cyclists" if use the same language.
A while back I was riding my classic motorbike at the posted 30mph limit along with South Circular when some dimwit delivery rider made a very close pass at speed. He was only a few cm away from my mirror. His scooter was in a very poor condition, with a flat, bald back tyre that was badly out of line and a stretched chain hanging down. I had a good look at it when I came up behind him at the lights and was appalled at the state it was in. So many of the delivery scooters I see are in a clearly unroadworthy condition. I'm curious if people give a s**t that the person delivering their fast food is earning buttons while riding to the limit and using a vehicle that shouldn't be on the road. Probably not.
You're correct - it 'seems' like more BMW and Audi drivers are aggresive but the reality is that they aren't any worse or better - just the same. Confirmation bias at play - all cyclist run red lights etc etc etc
I'm a road cyclist AND a BMW driver - I'm sure there's a special place in hell for the likes of me!
There is at least some evidence that drivers of expensive cars are on average less considerate/less likely to obey the rules of the road.
Of course there will be people who drive expensive cars and are considerate and I imagine you're one of them.
Interesting but as the saying goes, 'only in America'. Comparing our US team to our UK one - we're like chalk and cheese!
My experiences of good scooter rider behaviour in London are very much the exception than the norm, and I'll justifiably call them out for it, just as I do bad cyclists, thanks.
Agreed.
It's not generalising if about 90% of them are doing the thing we are saying that most of them are doing.
Oh yeah, being surrounded (as a cyclist) by idiot moped riders in ASLs too (that's illegal, especially so if they've illegally filtered past the motorvehicle at the front of the queue), and then they pull away one-handed while they play around with their sat nav for the next 300m.
I totally agree with you. Call them out along with all other road users who put others at risk by flouting the law, but let's not generalise otherwise we should be calling out cyclists for red light jumping etc (it does happen).
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