Near Miss of the Day 726: Painted cycle lane does little to protect cyclist from impatient van driver

You have probably heard the 'paint isn't infrastructure' line before, it is often accompanied by a picture of a particularly sorry-looking cycle lane from somewhere around the UK...

The thought being that yes, that may technically be a cycle lane, with its painted white bicycle and dotted line. But what is actually protecting those using it from dangerous driving? After all, a painted line is not going to stop a collision.

Today's Near Miss of the Day submission highlights this issue, showing a van driver squeezing past a cyclist using one such painted lane.

road.cc reader Dave said this is "by no means the worst" driving he has been on the receiving end of. The worst is unfortunately ineligible for our Near Miss series as it was "when I was knocked off..."

"I live in Manchester, and, perhaps to your dismay, I don't even bother submitting these to Greater Manchester Police," he told us.

"They have failed me every time I've needed them, so I just don't bother. I simply run a dash cam for insurance purposes. I would however, like to have a little moan on the internet."

> Near Miss of the Day 725: ‘Boy racer’ squeezes between cyclist and overtaking driver

In more positive news, Dave tells us his new cargo bike is arriving this week, which, with 120kg of tools will be his new workman's van. "Wish me luck!"

If only today's Near Miss driver had a similar idea...

> 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