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Near Miss of the Day 68: Beeping motorist close passes on the inside
Today’s near miss brings a new dimension to close passes. A motorist clips a cyclist’s elbow with the car’s wing mirror while passing him on the inside.
The incident occurred last year on the A1206 heading towards Westferry Circus. Mark said the driver behind beeped and then passed him so closely on his left that it actually made contact.
The road ahead splits, which is presumably why the driver felt they would pass in this manner, but as can be seen in the footage, the manoeuvre briefly leaves Mark riding in a narrowing gap between cars. This is despite there being a whole lane clear to the motorist's left.
Mark also points out that the car is speeding in a 20mph zone.
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.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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29 comments
Two things...
1. Cycling isn't dangerous. Tiny kids can do it perfectly safely with minimal tuition. What makes cycling potentially dangerous is the competence and attitudes of a minority of road users.
2. The actions of the cyclists are totally irrelevant to the actions of the driver here. The driver is trained and has passed a test that demonstrates their competence to act in a certain way to different driving conditions. None of the training the driver had encouraged / justified the driver in indulging vigilante justice whenever someone does something they don't like / doesn't work to the drivers favour.
My point is that the cyclist could have been pulling a wheelie, taking selfies, it does not matter. Nothing the cyclist does justifies the actions of the car driver.
It merely provides a stimulus that reveals a serious inability in the driver to remain rational in perfectly reasonable conditions. These incidents need to be taken more seriously by those that can take action.
Extraordinary driving, aggression of the worst kind.
1. The bike is doing the speed limit, so there was no need to overtake. For me, in an urban area with filter lanes and junctions etc the usual rules of keeping in the inside lane unless overtaking do not apply.
2. There was plenty of space to pass safely on the inside.
3. The fact the driver deliberately sounded the horn and clipped the cyclist makes this dangerous driving and should be pursued and prosecuted as such, except that presumably the camera does not give a clear enough view of the driver to secure a conviction. Until cnuts like this are made to realise that this sort of driving is unacceptable it will continue.
I am not going to condone a close pass but why would you ride in the outside lane for so long? It's bound to get other's backs up.
But by merely mentioning it, you are giving a strong impression of making excuses for it and/or condoning it a very dangerous and completely unnecessary intimidation by the driver. As others have said, it looks quite deliberate to me.
To answer your question, the cyclist was clearly in the correct lane for the turning he was going to take.
Assuming the speed info on the video is correct, the cyclist was going at if not exceeding the 20mph limit. The moped in front is not exactly zooming off into the distance and the speed figures look roughly right to me. So there is no question of the cyclist "holding up" anyone else.
And even if he had been going at 10mph, that is still no justification for putting someone else's life in danger.
I'm guessing the cyclist knew which lane he needed to be in and ensured he moved into that lane in plenty of time, much like any competent road user would have done.
I find it can be difficult to move over or change lanes the longer I leave it because even after indicating, motorists often won't give me any space, presumably because they don't want to get 'stuck' behind me. This means I am forced to slow in order to complete the manoeuvre in time which can be more dangerous in a live lane of traffic. It is ofter safer to take the opportunity early if and when a suitable gap presents itself.
If being 'stuck' behind a legitimate road user gets a motorists back up to the extent they perform a punishment pass or other dangerous manoeuvre then they need to lose their licence.
Both cyclists were in the right hand lane for what appears to be a good 3/4 mile and traffic was light so there were plently of later opportunity to get in the RH lane. I think if I am honest as a motorist also I might have been a bit annoyed as well, though I wouldn't have close passed. The world is full of ar53holes and they seem to be able to abuse cyclists without repercussion. I agree with what you say but if you want to stay alive on a bike it is best not to invite trouble.
On a separate note I see that the road was marked as 20mph. It is actually unlawful for a road to be 20mph where is not self enforcing and I didn't see any humps, tight turns etc but I digress...
The cyclist topped out at 41kph which equates to 11.4m/s. The video is 42s long. That means that even if the cyclist were travelling at that speed constantly the whole time, they would have only covered ~480m or 0.3miles. However, the cyclist starts out at about 15kph, stays around 20kph for the first 10s, and takes a further 15s to gradually accelerate up to 41kph, meaning the actual distance covered is much less than 480m. In fact, Google Maps would suggest he covered closer to 280m or just under 0.18miles.
Also, we don't know what the traffic was like behind the cyclist to know whether there would likely have been a suitable opportunity to change lanes later on. We do know from the video that there was at least one driver behind the cyclist who doesn't seem too concerned with the legitimacy or safety of a vulnerable road user.
Not that it would matter on either of these points, it's just interesting you felt the need to grossly exaggerate the distance and make assumptions on traffic levels in order to support your point, which seems to be that the cyclist was asking for it.
I'm reasonably frightened that they actually let you out in a car, when your perception of space and time are akin to that of a regular Cake user. I've measured it for you in Google maps - 0.1 miles - and I'm sure that's rounded up to the nearest tenth of a mile.
Screen Shot 2017-12-04 at 20.45.11.png
There's actually a more accurate way of measuring in Google Maps, at least on the desktop. First right click on a point and select 'Measure distance' from the context menu. Then left click the point you want to measure to. Further left clicks add more points which allow you to measure around corners. Doing this for what is shown in this video gives a distance travelled of ~280m or just over 0.17 miles. I suspect Google Maps rounds down for the purposes of estimated distances and travel times.
Other than that, I think we're largely in agreement about bikeman01's decision to vastly overstate the distance travelled in order to suggest the cyclist was asking for it.
Road CC.png
Thanks for that mate.
We do agree on one thing - that to estimate the distance in the video is difficult - ranging from my over estimation, down to your very low 0.1 mile to an apparently more accurate 282 meters.
Let's be clear though that I didn't intend to imply 'that he was asking for it', I just realise that cycling is dangerous and some drivers irrationally respond to being held up. As such I feel that 282 meters of fitering wasn't something I would have required. I wouldn't find it much comfort to be in the right from a hospital bed.
Be careful out there..
But he was not being held up as the cyclist was going at the speed limit or higher for most of the time.
Worse than your original post.
The rider was in the correct and safest position for them to be in especially at the speed they were going. Are you suggesting they should have been over to the left thus needing to signal and cross lanes of traffic - judging by the driver behaviour speeding traffic at that.
"I wouldn't find it much comfort to be in the right from a hospital bed".
I've suggested this before in terms of filtering between vehicles or down the left of traffic, things that are correct in the highway code but potentially a little dangerous to oneself. To suggest that this is a case like that is frankly ridiculous - anyone crashing into a rider in this video should be up for abh, negligence, manslaughter etc.
3/4 of a mile, ROFL!
Because that's the most sensible thing to do on this section of road if you know you are going to take the middle lane at the junction.
That's irrespective of the fact that anyone using the left and middle lanes on that road is heading for several sets of traffic lights or a security checkpoint, either of which will delay them far more than waiting behind a cyclist for a few seconds will.
Garmin virb software probably. Strangely you can import most video files but need the data from a Garmin...
Victim didn't seem to wobble at all when the car clipped the elbow, and no muffled volley of blue language or "ouch!" type noises - that is a strong, silent cyclist!
Also, probably daft question, but that crystal clear footage with the speedo info: what gadget is used to produce that?
Many times, I've thought some footage with speed data on it would have been interesting / useful in a near miss situation(if it were not for my swift cat-like reflexes and sharp brakes
)
It's funny how often these incidents seem to involve drivers driving premium German cars such as BMW's, Mercedes and Audi's.
I've always wondered, is it only idiots that drive these brands or do these brands of cars turn normal people into idiots?
Since moving from Hyundai to Audi I've run over 6 people and a dog so it's definitely the car.
It's OK, they were probably poor.
It's always Priuses that catch my attention for being the worst-driven things on the road, followed closely by those small Nissan soft roader things and any new small Mercedes painted white.
I've made the point on this forum before, but the sort of petrolhead who buys a genuinely fast BMW (as opposed to a diesel with a bodykit and 20" rims) wouldn't dream of driving in the way that the mongs who star in these close pass clips do.
Yes, Toyota Prius drivers do seem to have poor standards. But I disagree with the claim that drivers of performance BMWs are any better than those in the lesser models. I've had a few close calls with drivers in newish M3s and M5s when I've been cycling or on my motorbike.
More likely the guy on the nice road bike heading up the ramp to Canary Wharf worked in a bank, rather than the guy in a low-end BMW who's so pissed off with his lot that he takes it out on a cyclist who delayed him by half a second.
specific cars for specific group of people. clearly the motherfucker did this on purpose, he, or her had room on the left lane, but nooooo. look at the video again, I strongly believe he or she did this to make the cyclist crash on the trafic light.
Probably a banker. They like to cut corners. Very rarely experience repercussions for their actions.
Quite a cheap car for a banker! Probably more likely to be an estate agent!
I figured that for a typo, but "B" and "W" are not very near each other on a keyboard . . .
Wow, what a prick
No need to be so polite
Fair enough next time I won't filter it down and I'll use the language I would have used if it were me on the bike.
There's nothing interesting or measured about what the footage shows. It's just a driver being a complete arsehole. So you're not going to find particularly creative or interesting comments underneath. Only justifiably disappointed and angry reactions.