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news
Near Miss of the Day 864: Bus driver squeezes cyclist towards kerb at stop
Another Near Miss of the Day submission from London, this time as a bus driver pulled into a stop, squeezing a cyclist on their inside towards the kerb and to a standstill.
The incident happened last Thursday as road.cc reader Adrian passed through Stockwell across a "bad layout" that "feeds a cycle lane from one of the busiest cycle junctions in London into a bus lane, shortly before a bus stop".
"I know it well and so if there are any buses I watch their indicators very carefully," he told us. "This driver elected to use them as a statement of fact rather than intent, long after my options had gone. I've not reported it to the police, but I'll send it to TfL. The driver just blanked me – no recognition of me or the incident at all."
road.cc contacted TfL and were told they will be "supporting" the route's operator Arriva as they investigate the incident.
"We expect the highest standards from bus drivers and will not tolerate any driving that endangers cyclists or pedestrians. We are supporting Arriva, who operate this route on our behalf, into their investigation into this incident," TfL's head of bus operations Rosie Trew said.
The footage is strikingly similar to that of NMotD 851 which prompted TfL to launch an investigation after an "unacceptable" close passing bus driver pulled a similar manoeuvre to the one seen here.
The rider described the driving as "bullyish", meaning "you have no option but to brake or you're going to get hit by a bus".
> Cyclist speaks out about "bullyish" bus driving that prompted Transport for London investigation
At the time, Trew, told road.cc that the government body and RATP, who operate the route on TfL's behalf, are currently investigating the incident.
"Driving that endangers cyclists or pedestrians is unacceptable and far from the required standard of our bus drivers," Trew told us almost exactly three months ago today. "We are working with RATP… to investigate this incident and ensure it doesn't happen again."
> 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
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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32 comments
Far too much victim-blaming on this thread.
No one was forcing the bus driver to steer towards the cyclist.
Final comments from me - and the last NMOTD you'll get from me - quite frankly, it's not worth the grief, which is a shame considering this is a cycling website.
So - despite me be fully aware of the potential risk, and depsite taking great care - exactly what i was worried about happened. Not every bus going up Clapham Road stops there, and this one, because the driver didn't indicate her intentions, looked to be going straight on, not changing lanes. Indicating after you've started a manoeuvre isn't indicating....
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Stick with it, nniff. Don't let the Bike Fascists on this site get to you!
.
So people are being bike fascists for saying that...umm...the cyclist was at fault? I don't think you've quite thought that one through.
Are you going to explain this term? You used it before but no reply as to what you actually meant.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.
So, apparently road.cc has become a right-wing, nationalist website now.
yes, but what does the lad actually mean ? Does he even have the correct term ?
No, he doesn't. I'd guess it's a similar complaint to when some posters have complained about group-think without understanding that there's a difference between that and a consensus of opinion. But it doesn't seem to make any sense in the context that he's used it.
I doubt you even know what a bike is, never mind a fascist.
Don't let the idiots get you down - the bus driver was clearly in the wrong.
Hey. C'mon. It was a race with a bus. I've been there myself. Many of us have.
Glad you're OK. ✋️👍
One of my favourite quotes, from Nelson Mandela. "I never lose. I either win or I learn".
Or Captain Mal Reynolds, talking about Brexit (IIRC): "May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."
my view was, and its not a criticism of you at all,so please dont take it that way, its totally rubbish infra and absolutely the bus driver didnt have to do what they did to you and move over like that, so it wasnt your fault at all that the close pass happened, do not take that away as anyones criticism from this.
There were multiple factors that were all abit rubbish and you ended up with the "bad" end of the stick as they say.
But as a cyclist, theres a point where you cant rely on infra, or drivers to behave or indicate properly to save you, you have to take control of your own safety, and almost treat every potenial encounter with a whats the worst thats going to happen here, and cycle to that before it happens.
the way Id have ridden that situation, as soon as I see the bus is there far enough ahead and regardless of what it does next, Im riding to blend in behind it, because I dont ever want to be left on the inside of it, with no way out.
Time for me to chip in here - because it's my footage.
The infrastructure is awful - no getting away from that - it's set up to create conflict. So, I was watching the bus' indicators like a hawk; if they had come on earlier (as an 'indication' of the manoeuvre) I would have done what I have done dozens of times before, which is to slow early and pass behind the bus. However, they were not on and so I had concluded that she was going straight on. Once they came on, I realised I had a problem - there were two options available to the driver - one, she could have slowed and let me through, and then pulled over - or she could have done what she did, and shut the door on me.
Frankly, I think she just went for it because of the swarm of cyclists behind me - better to **** one cyclist off, than have to wait for the rest. Shame she didn't give earlier warning with those indicators she had, beacuse then I'd have done the job of holding all the cyclists up for her. So much for the hierarchy of road users.
I assume there was a giant roadsweeper behind which prevented you from just slowing down a bit and letting the bus get ahead of you?
Which part of "watching the bus' indicators like a hawk; if they had come on earlier (as an 'indication' of the manoeuvre) I would have done what I have done dozens of times before, which is to slow early and pass behind the bus," did you not understand?
When both parties brake, the net relative effect is not a lot - which is why "just slowing down a bit and letting the bus get ahead of you" ends up with me stationary.
So it takes you 12 seconds to see the indicator and slow down to a stop? Better practice your braking skills in that case.
You did everything right. The bus driver did the very thing they are not supposed to, I think they saw you but just didn't give a f*ck.
I really don't know what to say about the lunatics that are trying to somehow blame you for the bus driver's dangerous driving.
I agree. The vulnerable road user gets a bum deal. Every day. So. With that in mind. Take care not to take too much of a risk.
For me it is more of an infrastructure issue, if there are so many cyclists as these ones on the video, it is not wise, trying to fit them on a narrow bike lane that dissapears suddenly.
Instead of arguing with bus drivers, that may even do better job than cycling in keeping people away from their cars, we should demand for better infrastructure.
Bus stopped at bus stop. Cyclist surprised by this unusual behaviour.
It's a horrible compromise bit of infrastructure that is on my regular commute. The bus driver should have been more aware and looked out for cyclists; but equally I hold back there if I start behind the bus (I have had buses come past me there and then pull in, in which case the blame is much clearer!)
Not a great deal to get worked up about here IMO. Both parties could have done a bit better but there wasn't any significant danger. The road layout doesn't help by sending a stream of cyclists up the inside of buses that need to pull in. A floating stop might have helped.
Re: "The driver just blanked me" - I've seen that enought times to suspect it's what they're told to do. Getting involved in an argument isn't sensible.
They did an excellent job of sticking in their blindspot. It's a good thing they pulled over so slowly.
thank goodness buses and lorries aren't any longer, otherwise that blindspot would be worse...
Longer lorries on the roads
You have the bus merging into the bus lane, one of you has to ease off a bit, and as the bus is in front and faster probably should be the bike, then the bus stops, annoying but thats what buses do.
What I love to see in these London cycling clips is the sheer number of cyclists.
me too!
The Plain roundabout
This roundabout amazes me:
I'm going to be the drivist apologist today (sorry!). Is it possible he was in the blind spot all the way?
And what do you call wing mirrors on a bus?
Guillotines.
I just look at the video and wonder what was the cyclist expecting to happen there ?
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