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news
Near Miss of the Day 876Near Miss of the Day 876: Oncoming driver tells cyclist to “get off the f***ing road”, as rider blasts police inaction
While this latest instalment in our Near Miss of the Day series is far from the most dramatic incident we’ve had submitted to us over the years, the clip – thanks in so small part to the vitriol aimed in the cyclist’s direction by a motorist clearly unhappy at being forced to give way to someone on a bike – nonetheless highlights the often depressing reality of cycling on British roads.
Meanwhile, the cyclist’s experience of dealing with local police forces (spoiler – it’s not great) also emphasises the need for greater resources and will to tackle dangerous and careless driving around cyclists.
The incident, which took place on St Paul’s Hill in Winchester, Hampshire on Thursday evening, saw road.cc reader Nick approach a bin lorry as he made his way up the slope. After slowing to give way to a number of motorists, Nick eventually makes his way between the bin lorry and the row of parked cars on the other side of the road, just as another oncoming driver approaches.
Evidently irked by the need to brake to avoid hitting a person riding a bike, the driver leans out of his car window as Nick passes, telling the cyclist in no uncertain terms to “get off the f***ing road” – an unprompted diatribe that prompts the clearly startled rider to respond: “You’re on camera!”
Nick, who described the encounter as “typical for many cyclists”, has reported the incident to Hampshire Constabulary, through the force’s Hants SNAP reporting portal.
However, he told road.cc that, based on his previous experience of reporting incidents to Hampshire Constabulary, the chances of a follow up are “approaching zero” – despite the county frequently featuring high in the list of UK areas when it comes to the number of road incidents involving cyclists (in 2019, for example, ten percent of the country’s cycling incidents occurred in Hampshire).
“In all the years of close passes, I’ve never had one follow up, and I’ve had several incidents on this stretch of road,” Nick says.
“I cycle into town – around 10 mins – in Winchester to shop or go to the sports centre, several times each week, and I reckon I have an average of one close pass-type incident every 10 minutes, so two a journey.
“Rural roads are dangerous too, and there’s been lots of horrendous footage I’ve submitted, but never acted upon. I cycled daily in London for my commute for about 25 years, before all the bike lanes, but as per many friends, I feel Winchester is far more dangerous.”
> Hampshire Police stop 20 drivers and 185 cyclists during close pass operation
He continued: “We have an under-funded local group of cops, who obviously don’t have the resources to deal with this, unless it results in injury of fatality. of which there have been some recently.
“I’ve previously requested close pass data from Hants Road Police, who refused this – under a Freedom of Information request – on the basis of time, cost, and resources. I suspect very little action is taken.
“Do British police forces consider cyclists as legitimate road kill?”
> 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 Twitter or 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.
Latest Comments
- Rendel Harris 1 sec ago
I'm sorry sir, you've got a Campagnolo head and we're only carrying Shimano helmets…
- brooksby 30 min 21 sec ago
And that's the thing. It's the motorists who are creating the danger, and yet they think it is everybody else's problem to solve.
- brooksby 34 min 6 sec ago
There is a tale told in my family, passed down to the younger generations:...
- cyclisto 36 min 7 sec ago
Absolutely no brand snobber here, and if wasn't in love with my current old heavy bike, I would definitely like to have a Ti bike, so I have...
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Just not here. It's the wrong location, local people are against it and we have to listen to them....
- mark1a 11 hours 39 min ago
Well... as it happens, I have the Bosch EasyPump. I bought it a year ago with some Christmas gift money. Its main use is on my van which doesn't...
- Simon E 14 hours 40 min ago
I do too. It's a 'real world' read fill of people doing real world riding instead of a glossy lightweight brochure for spenders and dreamers....
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Exactly. I won't lie, I did quite enjoy pointing out that the reason olive oil had got so much more expensive was because of the droughts in the...
- chrisonabike 18 hours 53 min ago
What about all the computer misuse? Stop with the downloading already!
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75 comments
Institutionally anti-cyclist
We've seen cyclists have their reports ignored because they shout nasty things like "You're on camera!", "Look out!" or "Please no, I have family!" but I've never heard of a report being ignored because the cyclist spat at them.
Food for thought.
Spitting might not get the result you would hope for.
The person doing the spitting is likely to end up with an assault charge, which will probably trump any potential charge against the driver.
Q145 ... https://www.askthe.police.uk/view-category/?id=e9fb8a15-6ad2-eb11-bacb-0....
The driver is clearly entitled and unpleasant, but I'm not sure that he committed a road traffic offence.
Agreed - best to just laugh at poor little saps like this and carry on
I've seen something about the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, which prohibits aggression at the wheel. Swearing at another road user is clearly not considerate driving and if you were to do that in a driving test, would it be an instant fail?
Where in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 is that? Happy to be corrected, but I can't see it anywhere.
You can fail your driving test for all manner of things that aren't road traffic offences.
And if you can honestly say that you've never sworn at another road user I'll buy you a beer.
I had a quick look and couldn't find it in the Act, though I only looked very briefly as they're not very thrilling.
I got that nugget from various articles:
https://www.allcarleasing.co.uk/blog/road-rage/
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/uk-news/driving-law-fine-points-license-24765345
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/19270139.drivers-uk-face-1-000-fine-swearing-road/
Driving in a manner that is below the minimum standard of passing a driving test, should be acted on, even if it's not a specific traffic offence. e.g. if a driver was to fire a shotgun whilst driving, then I'd consider that to be something that the police should action even though it's not a traffic offence - arguably it's inconsiderate to other road users.
I've most definitely sworn at other road users, though in my defence it's been mainly an autonomous reaction to having my life endangered and a sudden rush of adrenaline. I consider it vastly different for an armoured road user to create a situation and then abuse a vulnerable road user for no discernable reason other than being a self-entitled bully.
The swearing-whilst-driving thing seems to be disorderly conduct, which applies to anyone in a public place and is not specific to driving or roads. The CPS give an example of "Persistently shouting abuse or obscenities at passers-by."
Discharging a shotgun is, I imagine, an offense in itself and so I'm not sure it's the best example. I failed my first driving test for rolling slightly too far forwards when waiting for a break in order to turn right into a side road, resulting in me having to stop and reverse a little before carrying on. Poor driving certainly, but I wouldn't expect to be prosecuted for it.
The point here is that, yes, the driver in question was undoubtedly unpleasant but I don't think that he actually committed an offence (unless he was persistently shouting obscenities).
Well, I wouldn't want a driver to face prosecution for rolling slightly too far forwards, but shouting obscenities is clearly inconsiderate driving. There's also the argument that if it causes the recipient to feel afraid for their safety (which is entirely reasonable when you have an unhinged individual in control of at least a tonne of metal), then it counts as an assault.
I would expect police to treat it seriously and turn up at the driver's house to give them a warning that it's unacceptable behaviour.
Mercedes driver, along with BMW and Audi drivers, what more do you expect? They own the road and everyone else is road lice.
I drive a BMW.... my sixth one.... my previous car was a Merc and I would just like to say I resemble that remark!
I'm not at all clear whether this was an autocorrect from "I resent that remark" or not.
Nope.
Its a joke which worked very well over on the Guardian website.
And yes, I do like to recycle stuff.
Well, at least it has a valid MoT. Driver should be taken off the road and re-educated about other peoples' rights to use the road. Prime gammon if ever I saw it.
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