Near Miss of the Day 161: Cyclist forced onto pavement by passing motorist

Today’s near miss sees a Birmingham cyclist forced off the road when a Land Rover driver sees fit to overtake where there is a parked car.

The incident occurred on Thursday at about 6.15pm on Harborne Lane (A4040) between Selly Oak and Harborne, near to the roundabout by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Leigh says he is “absolutely livid” about what happened.

“Forced off the road by this careless woman who just couldn't be patient for five seconds and wait until it was safe to overtake me.

“Had I not reacted instinctively, bunnyhopping up the kerb and onto the – thankfully empty – pavement, I could have crashed hard into the back of the parked car, or hit the kerb and gone flying over the handlebars head first into the ground.”

Leigh added that he had pulled up next to the motorist at the next set of lights, “and she wouldn't even look at me.”

The incident has been reported to police via Nextbase.

> 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