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news
Near Miss of the Day 578: Pinch point close pass (includes swearing)
The first section of London’s Cycleway 4 opened last September, running 3.4 kilometres from Tower Bridge to Rotherhithe – but today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series shows what cyclists currently have to deal with further east on the same route as a cyclist is subjected to a close pass at a pinch point.
This is Evelyn Street, with the Pepys Estate on the left and Deptford Park on the right. Eventually, there will be a segregated two-way cycle track on it as Cycleway 4 continues towards Greenwich.
But you can see for yourself not only the poor condition of the road surface that riders have to contend with, especially closer to the kerb, but also the danger the layout puts cyclists in – with the second driver pretty much repeating the same manoeuvre as the first.
The cyclist on the receiving end, road.cc user Trialobike, sent his apologies for the swearing – although as ever, in such circumstances, it seems fully understandable.
> 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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13 comments
Even without all the advice about "taking the lane", which drivers don't always allow you to do anyway, your default position should be further from the kerb than that. If you ride around 3 feet out you'll find drivers give you more room on average. Also, if you have to swerve to avoid a pot hole or something, you can swerve into the kerb instead of out into the traffic, and there's less broken glass and stuff further out.
It's called secondary position, whereas taking the lane is called preimary, and with a tight pinch point like that you couldn't be passed in primary or secondary. Primary would have made the overtake between the pinch points harder, and drivers shouldn't be overtaking at junctions anyway.
Wing mirrors cost more than manners, these idiots need to learn that. Ninja rocks are also lots of fun.
DOOR mirrors.
I enjoy your persistance swldxer, any idea how many of your 128 posts were on this particular pedantry?
Think you'll find that languages evolve - common usage has altered meaning
Cambridge
Collins
Oxford
Macmillan
Merriam-Webster
Take the lane with that surface.
In no way am I victim blaming here - these should be reported if they haven't been already - but you know what's coming next. The cyclist should really be slap bang in the middle of the lane here.
Yeah I do this all the time, ride into the middle, so the driver has absolutely no leeway to sqeeze passed you
you do then risk getting rear ended though. I will take the lane in those circumstances, the reactions you get are hilarious.
I'm inclined to believe that while there are a great many drivers who over estimate their skills or under estimate how much space is needed for a safe pass, there are very few actual sociopaths who will drive into you from behind to make a point. I have had one beep at me for being in primary going through a pinch point, but I explained the reasoning between not overtaking at the narrowest part, and he seemed to take it on board.
Exactly, stay central when any road furniture is in the near distance
for once on the riding central thing, I agree in so far as Id have ridden that particular stretch of road as central as I could, but and its a big but, its important to realise, it wont stop them trying to pass you.
Ive had several instances recently where a car has come alongside me when Im riding central approaching a pinch point, to like mid thigh/hip level and try to intimidate me to move across, and its only at the last moment they fall back, which isnt a great experience to be fair even before you know youll then be highly likely to get punish passed.
Pretty similar experiences here. Regularly take a bullish primary while clearing traffic islands and always hear the driver racing their engine to bully me out of the way and attempting to pass. They then realise that they will fail and bail out. I inevitably receive a punishment pass on clearing the pinch point. Other times they just go for it and cut me up while narrowly missing the island as they cut in!! It amazes me that people allow their driving to deteriorate once they receive that privileged piece of paper!