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news
Near Miss of the Day 766: “I’m glad I was going slowly” – Driver pulls out right in front of cyclist
There can be no excuses for the driver featured in today’s Near Miss, who looked directly at the approaching cyclist for several seconds before pulling out right in front of them at the last possible moment.
The road.cc reader who sent in the video was 70 miles into a century ride through Cornwall and had experienced a number of close passes on the same road, which forced them to ride close to the footpath.
> Near Miss of the Day 765: Driver almost causes collision overtaking cyclist on blind bend
“I’d pulled in to the gutter to let the traffic behind me pass, because they were squeezing through anyway. In hindsight I should have just taken the primary position,” the cyclist told us.
“I couldn't believe he looked me in the eye for ages and then pulled out. I'm glad I was going slowly!”
Unfortunately, the cyclist couldn’t see the motorist’s number plate so was unable to report the incident to the police.
> 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
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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4 comments
I did an urban 25 miler the other weekend when taking clothes in to put in my work locker. Obviously my bright yellow gloves and helmet, flashing lights and red bike still made me invisible as 4 seperate times, drivers pulled out in front of me from side roads. I suspect some of it is "bike=slow" without stopping to judge speed. In a couple of cases I was doing 20+ and not once under 14mph. Others are "Bike = Can stop faster / go around me."
I think in this case the driver had initially over estimated the cyclists speed as they were seemingly waiting. However on realising that he had judged it wrong, and there had been sufficient time to pull out, he then pulls out. Alas the window of opportunity was gone... bad driver.
That said, even if reported to the police I doubt any action would have been taken. The cyclists only made a tiny line deviation to mitigate the vehicles presense and was travelling so slowly no real risk was present.
Had the same thing at a junction a few years ago when a coach driver decided that there was a gap in the motorised traffic, and cyclists just didn't count as traffic so he didn't have to give way. I hope the passengers reported him for having to listen to my rant, shouted as loudly as I could.
That seems to have been the same assumption here; because there was a gap in motor vehicles and the driver couldn't be bothered to wait for a bicycle, it was ok to pull out in front of them.
In Bodmin, Cornwall's 'cycling town'...