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Near Miss of the Day 603: Cyclist squeezed between overtaking driver and parked cars

Our regular series featuring close passes from around the country - today it's Gloucestershire...

Take a residential road that has cars parked on one side, add a cyclist and an impatient driver in a 4x4 and you have a recipe for one of the more common types of close pass - and that's what we're serving up today in our Near Miss of the Day feature.

 It was filmed using a handlebar mounted Apeman A66 by road.cc reader Richard – user name bungle 52 – who said: “As you can see I was forced into a very narrow gap and if the car door had been opened or I'd had a slight wobble it would have been very painful for me, not for the driver though, in their protective shell.”

He sent the clip, together with one of a separate incident, to Gloucestershire Constabulary, and told us he was “very grateful” to receive feedback from them, since “I know some forces don't give any.

Police told him: “The vehicle is quite close to you and he should have waited but this isn’t egregious enough for us to prosecute.”

Referring to both videos, they added: “In both cases the drivers should have been more considerate of you and your friend.
“But neither of these instances would reach the level where we would prosecute the driver.”

Richard said: “I thought I had a chance with this one but, again, I didn't have to brake or swerve and I suspect this may have been a factor. It was also slow. Interesting interpretation of ‘quite close’, I thought.”

> 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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35 comments

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griggers | 3 years ago
2 likes

It's very hard to advise but I would recommend a shoulder check and then move right out to avoid the parked cars' door width which would force following traffic to stay behind you. 
not riding protectively invites inconsiderate actions. 

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Chris Hayes replied to griggers | 3 years ago
1 like

It's amazing how few riders use the 'shoulder check', as you call it.  A former motorcyclist, I learned it as 'the lifesaver' and I wouldn't move my position on the road without performing one. 

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Mungecrundle replied to griggers | 3 years ago
1 like

Agreed. As a motorcyclist it was pretty much beaten into me by my Star Rider instructor. I even use it in the car coming off roundabouts and before changing lane. 

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Awavey replied to Mungecrundle | 3 years ago
1 like

But that's a thing of awareness where traffic is around you, its totally something worth having in your toolbox to use so to speak, but it wont stop traffic passing you like that as a cyclist.

The passes by both of those cars in the video clearly didnt take account of the obstacles ahead of them further than immediately beyond their front bumper and the cyclist probably didnt even factor to their thinking, they were focused purely on just driving through that as fast as they could, and a shoulder check by a cyclist just wouldnt stop that.

It becomes a sticking plaster,for others failures to plan ahead properly.

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brooksby replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
0 likes

Awavey wrote:

The passes by both of those cars in the video clearly didnt take account of the obstacles ahead of them further than immediately beyond their front bumper

And that right there is the problem.

Motorists (and some cyclists and horsists, I'm sure) only ever seem to deal with one 'problem' at a time: pass the cyclist in front of you but don't look ahead to see the traffic queue ahead of them (so overtake and then almost immediately hit the brakes while the cyclist filters past, for example...).

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to brooksby | 3 years ago
1 like

Constant examples of that abound on my commutes. Normally hits the Must Stay In Lane  crowds as well so even though they could move into the next lane to pass safely, they don't and then have to pull to a stop.

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wtjs | 3 years ago
2 likes

But neither of these instances would reach the level where we would prosecute the driver

It's pretty hard to work out what the police are up to, what dodges they are deploying. This typical BMW offender recently pleaded Not Guilty to the charge of "Motor vehicle fail to comply with solid white line road markings on 29th February 2020". No mention of close passing, or speeding although he's doing at least 45 in a 30 limit-  I was doing 20. He had also committed the same offence in the same place 2 days earlier. Since he's obviously guilty of all 3 offences, this Not Guilty looks like an offender dodge- maybe a delaying tactic to let previous points expire?

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Bungle_52 replied to wtjs | 3 years ago
3 likes

The irony here is that if you had cycled closer to the kerb and the BMW had passed you very closely without crossing the solid white line the police wouldn't have been able to prosecute, at least that's what I got told.

Good luck, I hope the prosecuton is successful and thanks for all the good work you are doing.

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wtjs replied to Bungle_52 | 3 years ago
1 like

The irony here is that if you had cycled closer to the kerb and the BMW had passed you very closely without crossing the solid white line the police wouldn't have been able to prosecute, at least that's what I got told.

The police will always claim that, which is equivalent to saying there is no such thing as a prosecution for a non-contact close pass. This would render all this fuss on here about NMOTD completely useless, which is arguable. It is indeed true that several, if not most, police forces in England are operating a Cyclist Blood on the Road or Nothing! policy. That is what we are fighting against- Police with Total Empathy Failure and Proud of It.

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iandusud | 3 years ago
1 like

I think that response from the police is just laziness with a bit of Police Speak thrown in to make them sound like they know what they're talking about. It was clearly driving without due care and attention at merits at least a warning. 

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Bungle_52 replied to iandusud | 3 years ago
2 likes

In my opinion this is not a lazy PC. They have taken the time to give me feedback (which most forces don't) when they are very busy and are just following their training. May be the training needs to be changed, may be the law needs to be changed, may be there are more chiefs than indians in the police force like there are in more and more professions nowadays. None of these is this PC's fault.

I am sure there are PCs who could work harder and I don't always get feedback for my submissions but this instance is not one of them. I think we are fortunate to have this feedback as it helps to explain the lack of action in some of the NMOTDs we have seen in the past. I hope it will help to inform Cycling UK's attempts to get things changed. Here are a couple of links if you would like to do something constructive to help. Read the first and act on the second.

https://www.cyclinguk.org/sites/default/files/document/2021/06/2106_cycl...

https://action.cyclinguk.org/page/85451/action/1?ea.tracking.id=DE

 

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iandusud replied to Bungle_52 | 3 years ago
0 likes

Hi Bungle_52 I take your point and as CUK member have received the links you kindly sent, which I hope other readers will respond to. The point I was trying to make is that the driving demonstrated was either deliberate, in which case it needs to be stopped before someone is seriously injured, or it was poor observation, in which case the driver needs to be educated, which is where a warning would be helpful. If the police consider that the driving wasn't bad enough to merit prosecution surely it would be worth the effort to talk to the driver to educate them. Crime prevention is surely an important role of policing.

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Bungle_52 replied to iandusud | 3 years ago
0 likes

I would have thought a warning letter would be appropriate but was told it would take too much time to track down who was driving. I imagine this could be quite difficult if there are multiple drivers and they don't cooperate which I suspect may have happened to this PC in the past.

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Captain Badger | 3 years ago
0 likes

Well that was facking deliberate - see the slow down and pull in to the left for a little cut up?

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TriTaxMan | 3 years ago
2 likes

Its a pretty shocking bit of driving but I'm pretty sure it is complete carelessness from the driver who started the overtake, then the blue car in front braked and pulled in to the gap when they saw an oncoming car and the Landrover driver just followed suit by completely failing to realise that they were not fully past the cyclist.

They pass the cyclist fully on the opposite side of the road, draw level then slow down and move back and try and squeeze the cyclist before accelerating and moving fully onto the other side of the road again. 

When I first watched it I thought it might be a deliberate maneuver but rewatching it I think it is careless by the driver.

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alansmurphy replied to TriTaxMan | 3 years ago
9 likes

So:

 

Shouldn't have been passing a cyclist at the same time as a parked car. 

Shouldn't have been passing so close to the cyclist.

Should be looking at the opposite carriageway for approaching vehicles.

Should be looking at 'own' carriageway for the actions of the car in front.

Should not be drifting towards the cyclist.

 

Not deliberate in terms of maliciousness but shouldn't be on the road!

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TriTaxMan replied to alansmurphy | 3 years ago
3 likes

Don't get me wrong my point was not to absolve the driver of any responsibility.  It was a crappy piece of driving and the person should be reported to the police and prosecuted for it.

I was merely saying that my first instinct was that it was a deliberately aggressive move by the driver

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HoarseMann | 3 years ago
6 likes

Fairly common occurrence unfortunately, at least it was low speed. You would think they might be bothered enough to send out a warning letter.

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open_roads | 3 years ago
8 likes

That pass falls clearly into the category of overtaking a cyclist / vehicle that is already moving out to pass another vehicle. It's also clearly less than 1.5m passing room and the motorist can reasonably have been expected to wait until it was safe to pass.

The blue uniformed work-dodgers at Glos Constabulary can clearly see this is an offence and should be dealing with it as such - not referring to legalease in order to avoid taking any action.

 

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alexls replied to open_roads | 3 years ago
2 likes

He's not even passing the car with 1.5m gap, let alone the cyclist in between!

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Hirsute | 3 years ago
5 likes

Is 'egregious' the word of the month?

I would have shoulder checked and either taken the lane or waited for the behemoth to go by.

Another force where you have to be injured before they do anything. "Sorry Mrs Bungle that your husband is dead, but we will be doing something this time as it is now egregious."

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Awavey replied to Hirsute | 3 years ago
0 likes

According to my dictionary egregious means outstandingly bad or shocking.

Why does it have to be either of those things before Gloucestershire constabulary consider prosecuting ?

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alansmurphy replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
6 likes

The fact that such incidents fall under 'commonplace' rather than 'shocking' is a huge part of the problem.

 

It's erm... Shocking

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HoarseMann replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
2 likes

Awavey wrote:

According to my dictionary egregious means outstandingly bad or shocking. Why does it have to be either of those things before Gloucestershire constabulary consider prosecuting ?

This pretty much sums it up:

https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q967.htm

If close passes were dealt with via a Fixed Penalty Notice, like speeding etc., then it would be much easier for the police to act.

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Dave Dave replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
1 like

"Why does it have to be either of those things before Gloucestershire constabulary consider prosecuting ?"

Because that's what the law says. Change the law.

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Awavey replied to Dave Dave | 3 years ago
4 likes

The law says no such thing about requiring it to be a shocking, outstandingly bad or even egregious as an example.

Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 says a if a person drives a vehicle in a public place without due care & attention or reasonable consideration for other persons using the road, they are guilty of an offence that is prosecutable.

due care & attention is then defined as being if the manner of driving falls below what would be expected of a competent & careful driver.

driving too close to another vehicle is considered an absolutely valid & prosecutable example of careless driving.

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HarrogateSpa replied to Dave Dave | 3 years ago
4 likes

"Because that's what the law says."

No it doesn't.

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ride2smile | 3 years ago
8 likes

Very poor driving. Cyclist could improve road position to reduce the risk from poor driving by moving out earlier (if possible) and block the lane by being wider of the parked vehcile. The cyclist's position does not excuse the poor driving.

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alansmurphy replied to ride2smile | 3 years ago
4 likes

I agree, on the whole I would be much wider. However, you're sometimes literally stuck between a rock and a hard place as taking the lane in itself feels dangerous depending on the approach of said arsehole!

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Secret_squirrel replied to ride2smile | 3 years ago
0 likes

I would view that as the cyclist being considerate to the blue car and then being that being completely taken advantage of by the second car.  If they had been more courteous the pass wouldnt have happened.

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