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news
Close Pass Mini OE10EFD 050621 0-41 screenshotNear Miss of the Day 599: The "I'm a cyclist myself" edition
"I'm a cyclist myself" is something you'll often see on social media threads or newspaper columns before the person making that statement unleashes a rant against ... erm, cyclists ... but there is a special place reserved for a driver who utters those words at a cyclist on whom he has just made a close pass.
The rider on the receiving end in this case was road.cc reader James, who said: "This entry is from a couple of weeks ago: not a terrible pass - speed was OK at least - but I was surprised when the driver claimed that he was a cyclist and had assessed that the pass was safe, especially given the parked cars on both sides and my position somewhere between primary and secondary.
"The futility of passing when only 50 metres or so from a junction also didn't seem to play a part in his decision making.
"Reported to Sussex Police who have sent a letter," James added. "Maybe that is fair enough in this case?"
> 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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23 comments
What possible reason is there to allow cars to overtake on a road like that? Ride the centre of the lane and they may beep and swear at you, but they won't drive into you from behind.
Bit of a snowflake cyclist this one, detracting from much more serious close shaves. It's the type of video to get people's backs up with the self-righteousness.
I didn't realise it was a competition.
The danger with this one was most likely not from the overtaking vehicle itself, but with the parked cars if someone threw open a door.
I think you're confused about self-righteousness - the cyclist was attempting to make normal forward progress and it was the driver that decided that they'd force an overtake before reaching the junction even though it made no difference to their journey time (i.e. if they'd just calmly waited behind the cyclist they'd still have waited at the junction to turn).
The lesson to be learned is that drivers should be looking ahead and anticipating. Don't just force an overtake before lights/junctions etc.
Got my back up with the d1ck head driver....
I hope we can all agree that this overtake should not have happened. It left the cyclist no room to manouvre in the case of a car door being opened, a pothole in the road, a child running out, a sudden puncture, etc. etc. The things we are all looking out for as we cycle along at a speed which will allow us to react appropriately. The highway code says drivers should expect cyclists to make sudden movements for just such circumstances. Similary the driver wouldn't have had the time or space to react especially as his attention was on the cyclist, or at least it should have been. The fact that nothing did happen makes it look acceptable. The driver could have waited for the gap on the left which the cyclist could have moved into or even till the junction, they both ended up there at the same time anyway so what was gained from the manouvre. It may not be considered dangerous but I see it as inconsiderate. Typical MGIF behaviour.
There is always a balance between level of risk and speed of travel, I think some of the comments here show that it has moved too far towards the latter. I agree its not worthy of prosecution but an educational letter is a good outcome. Thank you for reporting it.
Even I wouldn't have bothered with that one- vehicle is travelling slowly.
< /end of argument> !!
so would you in a car, overtake a cyclist like that on that road ?
Same scenario in Poland would look like this: Car passes you much closer and faster leaving you in a plume of an old diesel smoke. Instead of having a conversation the moment window goes down you get called "pedalarz" which is a cyclist dedicated slur derived from word "pedał" (literally a crank pedal, but also a derogatory term used to insult gays).
You really know your polish gay slang. Bravo
What's the etymology of that? Do all Polish gay men wear pedal-pushers/Capri pants like characters in a 1970s film?
I believe ancient Poles coined the phrase as a shorter version of "pederast", which happened before cycling or cars were a thing.
Polish gays mastered art of camuflage as others did in majority of former eastern block countries. Recently in the middle of Warsaw guy got stabbed in the back for holding hands with partner. From Police point of view it is an ordinary assault because law does not even recognize it as a hate crime.
That has to be the strangest sentence I've ever read on this or any other website. Is this because they hid in bushes?
The pass above didn't look danngerous at all. Must try harder.
To me the pass doesn't look that bad.
At the start of the video, you can see the centre line along the road.
I'm assuming the road doesn't get any narrower. The Mini looks to be on the "other side of the road" when overtaking.
Well, at least they didn't wait for an oncoming vehicle, before overtaking 😉
It wasn't too bad - I've definitely had way worse - but I could have reached out and touched the car, and my arms definitely aren't 1.5m long
Everything's relative I suppose...
However, overtaking a vulnerable road user who's going at an appreciable fraction of 20, (which in itself could be considered the maximum safe speed in residential streets) is less than wise.
The cyclist was close to if not in the dooring zone, the driver was well in the opposite dooring zone. so due to this driver's actions neither really has anywhere to go if things go wrong.
Lastly parked cars + residential streets = high risk of kids darting out into road before you're aware of their presence.
The situation probably seemed more benign than it potentially was, but the driver apparently was not aware of this, in spite of it all being predictable basic HWC stuff. And of course, he's a cyclist himself.
Highway code is not to overtake another road user in a traffic calming zone. These zones are normally designed to reduce the road to one lane. A residential street with cars parked on both sides will likely have the same width remaining as a traffic calming zone. It would be good if the HC was changed to state no overtaking of other road users in residential streets where the road has insufficient space for two cars to pass each other. Any driver using one, that gets stuck behind a cyclist will need to wait until they can join a main road with restricted parking or a segregated cycle lane.
Nice. I have a similar view on 20 limits in general - I believe that o/taking should be blanket banned in these areas
but it must get narrower as you can see the red mini needs to pull into a parking space to allow an oncoming car to pass. This is not normally required for two cars where there is a centre white line.
Look at the gap between the mini and the parked car just after passign the cyclist at 9:11:01 the cyclist must either ride in the door zone or dangerously close to the mini.
I feel this is on the border of rude and uncomfortable on my passing scale of
fine > rude > uncomfortable > scary
It was exactly there, between rude and uncomfortable - I think the letter he received from Sussex Police was the right action.
Being on the other side of the road is immaterial. The current requirement in the Highway Code is to give cyclists as much room as you would when overtaking a car. Emerging advice is a 1.5m gap. The driver did neither. Could you even fit a car in the gap between the door mirrors of the parked car and the mini, let alone pass one?
If being on the other side of the road doesn't leave that space, then there isn't room to pass safely.
The lack of space is neatly demonstrated further up, when the oncoming driver waited for the mini driver (and the cyclist, as far as I can tell), and the mini driver had to slow and manoeuvre in and out to negotiate the (stationary) oncoming car and the parked car on the left.
A totally unnecessary pass, as demonstrated by the fact that the cyclist caught up with the mini moments later. A nuisance factor, but still points to a lack of critical thinking from a MGIF driver.
I think you'll find they are wing mirrors!
Look like door mirrors to me. Wing mirrors are pretty rare these days.