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news
NMotD motorcyclist.PNGNear Miss of the Day 37: Motorcyclist squeezes through gap that isn't there
Refreshingly, in this latest entry in out Near Miss of the Day feature, the motorist leaves the cyclist loads of room.
It's a shame, then, that a motorcyclist decides to use the gap created to simultaneously overtake the cyclist while undertaking the car.
Crazy moment idiot biker undertakes car overtaking cyclist from SWD Media on Vimeo.
Cyclist Duncan Milne, who filmed the incident at Bridge of Don near Aberdeen, said: “Whilst cycling home a car overtook me, they left plenty of room, but whilst doing so a motorbike decided to overtake me and undertake the car at same time.
“I think the biker was taking a big and unnecessary risk just for the sake of saving a few seconds, I dont know if the driver of the red car was even aware they were there.
“I saw the same biker the next day on my way home trying to force his way through a gap that wasn;t there.”
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.
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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23 comments
Many of you seem to be ignoring Duncan's statement "I saw the same biker the next day on my way home trying to force his way through a gap that wasn;t there."
Complete lack of video experts on here, assumptions and general crap.
There's nothing conclusive at all showing that the car pulled out from that side turning, but loads of you are swift to judge him as having done so. Do what? Ever consider that the car hung back to check first given that there's a bend in the road?
What the clip shows is a car giving a cyclist the correct space, and a motorcyclist being a twat by undertaking the car. Nowt else.
Without being able to see behind, I don't think you can go that conclusion and call it 100% certain, even if it's most likely. It's all conjecture.
Yes I can and no conjecture is required. Video clearly shows space given and a moron motorcyclist. Trying to make assumptions based on other non-evidence is pointless.
But that's what you're doing.
It really looks like car driver pulled out from the junction on the right...i mean the angle of the car as soon as it comes into view proves that was the likely case.
Another typical day in the life of a cyclist. This morning I had four attempts from motorists who were about to emerge from a sideroad on my right who I managed to stare down from primary position.
The motorist in the video should have waited until the cyclist was properly past the junction before pulling out, and then checked again. The motorist clearly didn't check again or they would have seen the motorbike coming. Perhaps the motorbike was going too fast and was coming around a corner, but I doubt that.
Which one? The one in the motorcar, or the one on the motorbike?
The bike coming or the bike overtaking? Sure <i>if</i> the motorcyclist was overtaking already overtaking, the car driver should have allowed them to complete their manoeuvre. However the fact that the motorcyclist is approaching at speed doesn't give them priority to overtake. Vehicles don't get priority just because they are faster moving.
It must have been obvious that the car driver was either going to overtake, or turn into the side road as the motorcyclist approached.
so close there to the door being shut on that idiot motorcyclist
car driver was pulling back over and you can see when he flinched when he caught sight of the motorbike...
Ususally they come out of nowhere, but here he goes into nowhere...
at least we now know that nowhere is in Scotland - perhaps even the whole of Scotland?
If you watch this very, very closely you can see the car start to straighten up as it comes into shot and is also accelerating. Im going to give the motorcyclist the benefit of the doubt here and assume he's taking avoiding action after the car pulled out if the junction without seeing him and as he's so far to the right doesn't have space to overtake on the right.
Looks to me as though the car driver would have been prevented from safely overtaking earlier due to the oncoming traffic, similarly the motorcylist would have been prevented from overtaking the car. The motorcyclist chose to overtake a vehicle that was clearly about to/in the process of overtaking. If he is avoiding anything, it is is own lack of anticipation and road sense.
Topbox twat. One of the lesser breeds of motorcyclist. Generally found on boring bikes such as old cb500s but will also have another bike for weekend that is also boring. Usually dresses in textile rather than leather and has the charisma of Nigel Mansell's voice.
Organ donor!
Had a motorcycle undertake me a couple of weeks ago. I was in primary position. Fun bit was how I was overtaking another cyclist in secondary at the time...
Why is everyone so desperate to blame the Car Driver here? Comment on what you see; not on what you are guessing at. I've had twat motorcylists undertake me in a car on 3 occasions; not often, but often enough to know there are bell ends riding motor bikes as well as driving cars; FFS!
I was blaming the motorcyclist.... my point was that it was good that the commenters above me were thinking about how the motorcyclist might have ended up in that situation other than just being a dangerous moron.
I take that view because I ride a motorcycle as much as I do a bicycle and collision avoidance from distracted, selfish, bullying cars & commercial vehicles are unfortunately part of the job, just as much as close passes are when we're on our pushbikes.
It does atually look like the car driver has probably pulled out of the junction in front of the biker and progressed along the opposite side of the road.
I'm glad that previous comments allow for the possibility the bike was evading the car. There's no way the motorcyclist shouldn't have been aware enough or skilled enough to see the car and bicycle and connect the hazards, though. Yuck.
Could be the car pulled out from the junction without looking, and bike had to go between the cyclist and the car. Look at the speed and road position of the car, think the bike was going too fast, and decided to go between them both, which was incredibly stupid. If the biker understook on purpose that was just as stupid.
I'd have only done that if it was only option instead of crashing into the car or another oncoming vehicle
More likely the car driver didn't know the motorbike was coming up and about to overtake and right hooked him so the m'bike rider had to abort his overtake and go under.
Of course the motorbike rider should have seen and anticipated that.
"A gap that isn't/wasn't there." Aren't we falling into the trap of the motorist that can't see all these cyclists who wear dark clothing. If the gap wasn't there, there would've been an accident.
Anyway, the important stuff, Bridge of DON.
There might have been accident, or the motorcyclist might have been might have had to wait, the article doesn't say which and the video doesn't show that day: