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news
Near Miss of the Day 824: Driver exiting golf club cuts up cyclist
The cliché ‘cycling is the new golf’ has been around for more than a decade now – but clearly the driver of this car in Altrincham, Greater Manchester didn’t get the memo as he exited a golf club forcing a cyclist to stop to avoid being hit.
Rule 170 of the Highway Code gives drivers a clear instruction to “Take extra care at junctions,” and that they “should watch out for cyclists,” among other classes of vulnerable road users – something that is also reinforced under Rule H2, introduced in January this year, which establishes a Hierarchy of Road Users that makes those using the road in larger, more powerful modes of transport responsible for ensuring the safety of the more vulnerable.
The incident was filmed by road.cc reader Bob, who told us: “The longer version of the video was submitted to the police, as per Greater Manchester Police policy they will not tell you the outcome.
“So, I tried a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, which they promptly ignored, a reminder of the FOI request was then ignored, but finally I got an answer, they have the information but will not release it!
“So, someone tries to run you off the road, you submit evidence but cannot find out if the police took any action. How do we know if there is any point submitting videos to GM Police?”
Bob continued: “The video was taken on Oldfield Lane in Altrincham, there is access to the Golf Club and a couple of houses, but after then aa planter makes this a traffic free route down to Dunham Massey.
“On that day this car just came out of the golf club without any care for me on the through road. If I had not stopped I would have been run down,” Bob added.
> 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
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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32 comments
It would be quite a simple one for me... Stop earlier, in the middle of the lane and when they pull out stay exactly where I am. Having to reverse back into the junction usually gives them time to think...
Ive ridden down that road numerous times and had the same thing happen to me, dont think it counts as a near miss, more down to a bad junction, the road off to the right is closed to traffic and the cylcist would have been able to see the car leaving the golf club well in advance, more of an inconvenience than a near miss
This is much ado about nothing...
Driver exits golf club cautiously. Jeeesus, is it no news day? Nothing to see here.
I average about 3 nearer misses per day and my commute is 7 minutes each way.
Lol, that's one where I would have faked not seeing the car until the very last second... depending on how bitter I was feeling, I may have even pulled some last minute hero stop that led me to gently brush their front wing.
Clumsy, entitled driving... not worth reporting, but certainly an opportunity for some passive aggressive fun.
I think I might need help...
To report or not report?
Just a couple of headlines down in Road CC we read about the sad and needless death of Jim Tassell, killed by a driver who couldn't read a number plate more than three meters in front of his eyes, yet drove unchallenged for who knows how long.
Perhaps if the killer driver had been reported previously for incidents like this one ( I can't believe they haven't happened) then he might have had his licence removed long ago.
I can quite understand why the Police don't want to tell you the outcome of the matter.... wouldn't want to upset the friend of the Chief Constable would they...
Coming out of a golf club? Probably spent too much time at the 19th hole.
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Wow! Clutching at straws with this one, guys.
.
Did you bother to read any replies?
Funny how the echo chamber came up with distinct and diverse views.
The more he posts, the more I'm convinced he's a bot (with a string concatenation bug/dangling newline, which would explain why all of his posts look like an old telegram).
Ironic that straws are far more substantial than your pathetic excuses for an argument.
I'd have made sure he knew that he was an absolute wanker and then just got on with my day.
I'm reminded of a speech from the head of Sixth Form a few (many) years ago. It was a little address to us hormonal little idiots about responsibility I think. But the one thing that stuck in my memory was about us learning to drive. He told us to assume every other driver (didn't think about anyone else then) didn't know what they were doing and not to assume they'd follow the HWC. Defensive driving I guess. But for me, the same goes more so on the bike. We're just bags of meat on the road with zero protection (helmets). There's F all we can do about close passing from behind, but something right in front of us we should be able to risk assess. Looking at the video a couple of times, I think an experienced rider would expect the driver to keep rolling forward and keep left to swoop in behind the car. I can't say what a novice rider might do.
Their window was open and I'd have been sharing plenty of strong opinions on their driving for them to hear, that's for sure. Whether it's worthy of reporting to the police I think is only down to the rider in that kind of situation.
Whilst this incident may not have felt particularly life-threatening to the cyclist, it gives an indication that the driver isn't competent to drive - potentially owing to poor eyesight or dementia. If they carry on driving this carelessly, it may be a matter of time before they cause a more serious incident. For that reason alone, it is worth reporting.
Poor eyesight, dementia...or just one pint too heavy after a visit to the clubhouse.
I would put in appeal to the ICO on that one - I can't see grounds for refusal. I saw today that Norfolk and Suffolk police have released their outcomes for April, May and June here www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/operation_snap_outcomes_april_ma#incoming...
It has time, date, location, offence and outcome along with some notes.
Oh, and here is April 21 - March 22 for anyone particularly interested in Norfolk and Suffolk Operation Snap
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/operation_snap_5#incoming-2051430
My initial reaction was why FOI that ? bar the fubar on naming the last quarter, Norfolk/Suffolk have been sharing their Op Snap stats on their website for the last year, but the data theyve released there is far more comprehensive than just stats of outcomes, it's got location data & some extra info on results, so its very interesting even from just a brief glance. Now I'm intrigued what the FOI requestor intends doing with it all ?
Sometimes I think FOIs serve a purpose in themselves. It makes the authority think a bit more carefully about whether they are doing things for the right reason and how their decisions look to the public.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant as they say.
Yes I guess so and notice the Norfolk site stats havent been updated for a while,oddly the Suffolk stats always included Norfolks so the data was kind of always there but not in the right place or this detailed.
Sadly (well for me) the April 21-March 22 is only Norfolk data,albeit with an occasional mistake where Suffolk has somehow crept in to it...which is troubling as this is meant to be recorded crime data.
And then Apr-Jun 22 is both counties, but I wasnt submitting anything then after I got fed up with the process, but its interesting to me at least the locations where close passes are reported,so I'm assuming all cyclists reporting those, are all places where I'd expect close passes to be an issue.
Close passes seem to happen everywhere I ride. A149/A1151 are particularly bad though and riding through Wroxham isn't much fun either.
Driving seems to have gotten worse though - 2019, 10000 miles cycled, 73 Op snap reports. 2022, 3500 miles cycled, 63 Op snap reports.
I know I ended up on the a149 near Potter Heigham once on a ride, and do not have fond memories of it.
I suppose in their head they have cleared the road hump, so they are now part of the road and not the club, so they carry on.
All a bit low speed to expect much from the police. Although I guess it depends on your force.
I think I would have grumbled about this, but I wouldn't have bothered reporting it to the police. YMMV.
I agree. More of an out of breath "w4nker" moment than a reportable.
You wouldn't have reported a clear offence, endangering another road user? How do you expect them to improve if no-one points out their mistakes?
Not this one, burt, no.
The cyclist wasn't travelling at speed, could clearly see what the motorist was going to do. In his position, I would have eased off or braked a bit more to put some more clear air between me and the car, but nobody got particularly close to each other and IMO this isn't a near miss as such. I totally get that others might read the situation differently.
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