Near Miss of the Day 811: Van driver pushes cyclist against kerb

YFZ 6552, NI style plate, DVLA lookup returns 2015 white Ford. 

Agreed that there are some atrociously designed vans. What is interesting is the interaction with the overtaking car (which arguably failed the "do not overtake at or approaching a junction" rule). The path of the car should have alerted the van driver

The other oddity is the line out of the corner - it seems odd to me that the driver took it so square, which makes me wonder if it was deliberate - how dare a cyclist delay a motorist wishing to join the road?

If the driver cannot see that it is safe to pull out, he should not be pulling out.  Full stop.

There are number of cars and vans on the road that have very large pillars for structural reasons. If the pillar hides an object, then the driver does not know they haven't seen something. That being said, a driver needs to actively work around the obstruction. In my Vito, a month after I had it, I joined a roundabout in front of a Merc E class I didn't see due to the pillar. Didn't have an accident fortunately, but it taught me just how badly obscured my vision was and I learned to move around in the cab to change position to see. I think many drivers are oblivious to the problem, in part because many people don't take driving seriously, it is not a skill to them, it's just an annoyance in between A and B.

In this case, I think there is a line of sight, but whether the driver looked properly is another matter. The brain is a con merchant and the driver may believe he has looked but his brain has not necessarily observed the cyclist due to how vision is processed.

For various reasons, my wife had to borrow a newer style Fiat Punto from her mother, some years ago.  She drove it once and then refused to drive it again - she said that the pillars were so thick, the back windows so narrow, and the angle of the bonnet meant you couldn't actually see the front of the car.  She said she thought it was a bl00dy death trap.

I rented a classic Porsche 911 some years back and I was amazed at how good the all round visibility was. Of course, being a late 70s model it had narrow roof pillars. The sloping front and back also helped forward and back visibility.

I bet you could see every leaf in the hedge clearly.

I wonder if something like a LightInSight Fresnel lens installed sideways next on to the A pillar would help? I have one at the top of the windshield of my MINI, so that I can see the traffic lights if I'm waiting at the front of the queue with the hood up, without having to lean forward over the steering wheel.

https://lightinsight.com/how-it-works/

Unfortunately if twitter is any guide the PSNI are worse than Lancs rozzers for prosecuting crimes against cyclists. 

IanMSpencer wrote:

When I had a similar incident, the driver's response was "Didn't you see me pulling out?" (the obvious thinking being that a sensible cyclist should give way to cars pulling out of turnings).

My personal favourite was a driver in Highgate who drove straight over a stop line and out in front of me from the left as I came down the hill, I just managed to crush the brakes, put the bike into a sideways drift and ended up parallel with his door. Upon my politely enquiring if he actually thought that was a safe manoeuvre he replied, "You didn't hit me did you, so obviously I gave you enough time to brake."

I've had "Look where you are going" in tha past.

IanMSpencer wrote:

When I had a similar incident, the driver's response was "Didn't you see me pulling out?" (the obvious thinking being that a sensible cyclist should give way to cars pulling out of turnings).

Wasn't there a survey recently, which showed that some drivers think that they have priority over cyclists under all circumstances?

I don't know about an actual survey, but you only have to look at twitter or read the comments on local rag websites to see that many drivers have no clue about who does (or indeed doesn't) have priority.

I think most of us, each time we go out on the roads, does a survey that confirms that a substantial minority of drivers believe that.

IanMSpencer wrote:

When I had a similar incident, the driver's response was "Didn't you see me pulling out?" (the obvious thinking being that a sensible cyclist should give way to cars pulling out of turnings).

A mate of mine is recovering in hospital having been close passed and forced onto gravel riding to watch the CG cycling in Warwick. He lost control had went headfirst into a bridge wall. I understand he is recovering well. You don't need to hit people to inflict injury with a close pass which is why the police need to step up their game on close passes.

Thats awful Ian, I(we) also experienced a road rage incident the morning of the CG cycling (although I think the fella might not have bargained on being confronted and very quickly realised he didn't have the brass neck he thought he had outside of his steel box), it seems the closed roads of Warwick may have brought some unreasonable anger out in some people. The 'nextdoor' website, has, for the past couple of weeks been both hilarious and quite saddening to read. And I do get it, not everyone will enjoy the road race, some people will have legitimate issues forced upon them by the closed roads, there was an incident of a old woman who fell over who didn't get any help for an hour becuase it was more difficult for someone to reach her. But it's all amplified on social media, one persons legitimate complaint becomes many peoples excuse to let out their frustration.