Near Miss of the Day 692: Lorry driver pushes in front at roundabout — police take no action...but advise cyclist on Highway Code

I suspect doing anything against the lorry would be difficult given the road markings are poor (so is a relatively easy mistake) even if they should have been checking (and remembered that they just passed a cyclist who is probably somewhere in a blind spot...)

However I would argue that:

1. The police should be forwarding it to the HW agency (Inconsistent markings = hazard, with clear evidence)

2. The response refers to several parts of the HW code that are totally irrelevant to the issue at hand. So all they do is make it appear as victim blaming.

3. It is far too common in my opinion to try and squeeze an extra lane in to avoid blocking up junctions, only to create safety issues because it is difficult to know which lane you should be in. I suspect fixing the junction in this incident to make it clear would require removing lanes that create confusion/conflict. (I live south of Heathrow; Occasionally visit Uxbridge; Coming back there are several (4 iirc) junctions in a row where I haven't managed to follow my intended route once (even satnav doesn't appear to know which lanes should be used) (n.b. fortunately for me going 'wrong' makes little/no difference to actual travel time/distance to go around heathrow, but regularly see vehicles struggling to try and move to correct lane in short sections between junctions (despite having followed previous signage)

Rule 167

DO NOT overtake where you might come into conflict with other road users. For example..........

stay behind if you are following a cyclist approaching a roundabout or junction, and you intend to turn left

On the other hand, there were quite  lot of fairly considerate passes from car and van drivers there.

I'd be inclined to complain about the police response, but I don't think the lorry incident was particularly bad (not great though).

I wouldn't fancy that commute, is there really no alternative quieter and safer route? Lorry was in the wrong but I expect you'd get a lot of these wrongs on this bit of road. People heading or getting off a motorway will be driving angry. Good luck to you.

I'm not sure the lorry driver did anything particularly badly, in so far that they completed the pass on the cyclist before he begins to move across.  Whether or not that was due to the poor road markings with the lane the lorry was in which initially said straight on and right changed further down the road to being a right arrow coupled with potential unfamiliarity with the road.

There may have been an element of carelessness by the lorry given the multiple roundabout layout and not knowing that the were going to be able to pass the cyclist fully between the two roundabouts..... but they could have thought that the lane they were in was going to continue beyond the 2nd roundabout given the road markings.

And at the point the lorry starts to move across, if I was in the same position as the cyclist, I would already have been braking as my view of the roundabout was restricted and also would have been wary that the lorry may take a wider line even if they were going round the roundabout.

All in all I think that the police were correct in not taking further action against the driver, however, the reply to the cyclist was not helpful in the situation.

You submitted the video to the wrong people - it should have gone to Highways England or the local council, depending on which one is supposed to maintain the road surface.

I believe whilst the truck driver was an asshat for cutting up the cyclist, I am also not convinced he endangered the cyclist, so perhaps TVP were correct.

The road layout does not help, I can't help but think the contractors screwed up as you can see from the google street view approaching the second roundabout where there are two lanes, the left lane indicates straight on and left arrows whilst the right lane indicates it is for straight on and right. Shortly after this lane one splits and indicates straight on for both and the right hand lane changes to being right only. 

So exiting the previous roundabout you might believe you are in the correct lane for going straight on as indicated by the arrows on the road and then find at the last moment you are now in a right only lane.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.7399659,-1.0957967,3a,75y,259.91h,72.65t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sna7QQiLFI4VKWe6NhZNj2Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en

The road surface was so bad I assume they've subcontracted maintenance to Solihull Council, it has their level of expertise.

Aside from a number of close passes, I was less than impressed by the overtakes at a junction with a vehicle waiting to emerge. They often fixate on the bike and pull out not accounting for overtaking traffic.

To be honest, sticking in a bit of victim blaming if you like, knowing that section of road as an M40 user, it is not a place I would choose to cycle... not that there is an obvious alternative, but a road which is a motorway feeder seems to inspire even more impatience than normal.

I had to give up watching half way through, due to motion sickness.
Why mount a camera at 45 degrees (and on a jelly)?
I hope this isn't a new trend. People shooting video in portrait orientation is bad enough.

I fully understand why no further action was deemed necessary here. As already touched on, the infrastructure arguably let the lorry driver down, and at no point was the cyclist excessively squeezed or placed in any real danger. 

To me, this looks like a case where the cyclist was inconvenienced by the actions of the lorry driver, nothing more. 

Why did the cyclist need to change lane at that point? At no point does their right hand leave the brake lever, so no indication was made signalling an intention to turn right, and the left lane was signed for straight on. Therefore unless the intention was to turn right, the cyclist's lane change was unnecessary, and if it was necessary to turn right, that intention was never indicated to the lorry driver by the cyclist.

Really bad advice from the police here.  Rule 77 applies *IF* a cyclist or horse rider decides to stay in the left lane as allowed under Rule 187 - which puts responsibility on other road users to watch out for riders doing just that.

And that's before we consider that this was not even on the roundabout, but a change of lane (without indication or ensuring the target lane is clear) prior to it. I can only imagine the driver thought you'd be moving to the other lane, but that does not absolve them of responsibility - especially in an HGV.

If I thought you'd get anywhere with TVP, I'd suggest putting a complaint in. At the least, I'd ask exactly what advice they are attempting to give you and how it relates to this situation.

Standard inaction that we've come to expect from the Police unfortunately, though, I thought the Blue Tesla was a worse close pass (although probably less frightening compared to a HGV).