Near Miss of the Day 628: Motorist drives straight across cyclist at roundabout

Didn't have my camera on me but a few days ago was cycling through a traffic calming measure and was my right of way, positioned clearly in the middle of the lane on the approach and a driver coming the other way (should have stopped) sped up and drove right at me with 2 fingers up. They don't care and know the police won't do anything beyond maybe sending a letter...

Got twatted off on the very same roundabout back in 2001 having approached the roundabout from the Broomhill direction, so carrying plenty of speed due to one of the many hills in Sheffield working in my favour.
Unfortunately, the design of almost all the roundabouts in Sheffield seem to be about maintaining a higher speed for motorists, rather than giving everyone an opportunity to get where they want to be safely.
The motorist accelerated into me from the right, just clipping my back wheel, sending me sprawling in a heap on the road where a second motorist very kindly drove over my bike, but luckily avoided hitting me.
Neither vehicle stopped. Even with all the comprehensive CCTV in the area, neither motorist was found let alone charged.
Can't say I'm a fan of the place.

I think sometimes some drivers view cyclists as probably moving a little slower than the average snail. We are seen as some way off and therefore not in the mix. This is odd because in towns and on smaller roundabouts we can easily be travelling at 20mph or more and be not that much slower than the motorised traffic in those situations.  I find it happens with people turning right onto the main road out of junctions and I am suddenly riding alongside them or just in front because they simply think I will not have got to them by the time they pull out. 

You just need to watch any dash cam videos on Youtube to find that a staggering number of motorists don't have any clue as to how to drive at a roundabout.  Admittedly a bigger portion of those videos tend to be motorists who approach a roundabout at speed and rage because someone beeps their horn at them even though they were on the roundabout first.

I have a bit of speculation as to this incident.... looks like the driver of the golf wasn't paying attention when the car in front moved off, and decide to follow without looking properly.  They never even reacted when the Simon shouted at them.... which makes me think there was an element of a MGIF involved as drivers who do that try to pretend you are not there.

I'd just assumed that was something they taught in driving lessons nowadays.  None of that "give way to traffic on your right" malarky - just a simple "if you get there first, it's your right of way".

Roundabouts in Sheffield always seem a bit wild IME, even in a car.

The only mitigation I might give the driver there is alot of street furniture clutter to be staring through to see a cyclist already on the roundabout there and with the converging angle, it feels more like a driver expects only to see 4 wheeled shaped objects,none visible in field of vision,so just carries on going, kind of move, not a beat the cyclist move because they probably arent even aware you were there.

Absolutely doesnt mean the driver wasnt to blame though, they should have stopped and looked properly.

On the plus side it appears they want to Dutchify that roundabout so cyclists would be much safer, even if their route becomes longer to get around, which might suggest it's identified as a bit of a problem roundabout to begin with.

Had a very similar incident myself yesterday, though in my case the driver did stop only to then give me some abuse, screaming/swearing at me and giving me a middle finger salute! 

Was this reported?

I think most of us have experienced something similar.

Anticipate. Direct eye contact to make sure driver aware. Driver jabs accelerator.

It's not just the wannabe-men-in-an-overgrown-rollerskate, or even smidsy. I genuinely think there's some weird reflex going on, a kneejerk version of MGIF.