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news
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
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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35 comments
I'd suggest that the rider does not submit this video to the police.
What it shows is a cyclist willfully using the pavement at speed (maintains gap with car it was arguably trying to re-overtake by using the pavement), when there are pedestrians on that path.
Now everyone knows here that this was actually a bit of smart thinking to save an accident, however in the eyes of the law, only one person has categorically broken the law.
If I was a police person, stressed by mountains of paperwork and unrealistic work loads I'd be seeing this as an easy situation to kill off... just attack the person making the complaint.
Its a sad world we live in.
Maybe I'd edit the footage to just show the number plate of the Range Rover as thats clearly illegal, and submit that.
Is it "wilful" if the rider was forced on to the pavement by the car?
It's just standard driver behavious I'm sorry to say. Sat in the little world made safe by billions of pounds of research, safety measures and electronics, it's just way too easy to forget about other road users. I'm a driver and see it all the time, close passes on horses, pedestrians and cyclists, ususally to just save a few seconds on a journey.
More worrying are drivers that do not realise they have done anything wrong. Today I was passed 18 inches from my elbow by a merc travelling at about 60. Ten minutes later I saw the car in town and had a few words with the driver who said she hadn't noticed me. Then, as if it's an excuse, told me her baby was crying so how could she be expected to see a bike. I'm usually pretty polite but I think she might have learnt a few new words this morning.
At the beginning of the video, when the cyclist pulls up to the traffic lights and crosses the ASL into the cyclist reservoir, there is already a car stopped in the reservoir. At the same time, the car in the right lane crosses the ASL into the reservoir on a red light. That car then cuts across the left lane, and turns left.
No ASL there, just a standard pedestrian crossing. The car on the right does cut left eventually, onto the same road as the cyclist, but in the big scheme of things, that's nothing.
I did notice on Google Streetview (sad I know) that just prior to the close pass, a blue rectangular sign clearly stating 'End of Cycle Lane' (the pavement on the nearside is shared use), so the driver should have been extra alert for cyclists to the nearside, instead of cars to the offside.
or.............I did notice on Google Streetview that just prior to the close pass, a blue rectangular sign clearly stating 'End of Cycle Lane' (the pavement on the nearside is shared use), so the driver if they noticed read that as a cyclists give way sign ?
would love some decent research into how drivers actually interpret signs and road markings
What happened to the other near miss of the day 161?
https://road.cc/content/news/244897-near-miss-day-161-close-pass-country-lane
Basically a pinch point scenario, especially with the cars parked up on the left ahead. I have a similar road constricting to single lane near here, and I have started indicating and taking the lane, full on primary. Just fed up with buses etc squeezing passed with minimal room.
What is it with 4x4s/SUVs and vanity number plates?!? (I'm guessing the driver of the Range Rover is called Stacey?)
'Look at me.' Nothing else.
Trust me, I normally ride further out. The problem is, riding in the centre of the lane on that road, people still squeeze past you where the road is wider (before you reach the parked cars). I've even had people undertake me there.
WHat you can't see in the video is me looking over my shoulder and getting ready to move over more to the right. However, since that part of the road is at the top of a hill, the cars approaching from behind are going much faster and it's hard to get enough of a gap to safely move over.
What you CAN see if you look carefully is that I've already moved over to my right , not quite to the centre of the lane but about 1/3 of the way across, just before she overtook. She still overtakes, and cuts across to her left, literally pushing me across to my left.
Shocker.
If the police decide not to persue the careless driving, perhaps they'll cite them for the illegal numberplate at least.
Equally, if you don’t block, you might get driven into the back of a parked car.
In towns and cities, in fact pretty much everywhere, get further out into the road. 1.5 metres from the kerb, be a rolling block.
I agree to an extent. It's hard to judge, though, isn't it?
We all want to get around safely and calmly. There may be situations where it is quite reasonable to block, but you also know that you're likely to provoke an angry or dangerous reaction. You might end up in an argument, when all you really wanted to do is get where you're going stress-free.
In towns and cities, in fact pretty much everywhere, get further out into the road. 1.5 metres from the kerb, be a rolling block.
The Range rover driver was trying to nip up the inside of another vehicle. If he had taken a central position, that option wouldnt of been available
Half the battle is not getting into it in the first place. He could have been further out once he saw the parked car up ahead, or before if he could anticipate it if he’s there regularly and it’s often parked up like that.
I’ll probably get slated for victim blaming, but hey, I’ve got myself into this sort of mess myself by riding in the gutter before now.
Every day is a winner isn't it, just this afternoon coming back from fixing a friends brakes an impatient twat barely misses my back wheel as I'm coming around a roundabout as they simply ignore the give way line, through up an arm in annoyance then I get a facefull of chemicals from their windscreen washer after they overtake.
Unluckily for them I saw where they were going, found them in the car park at the shops and confronted them. Reported to police as an assault.
That last sentence is ambiguous, you might like to clarify it.
Hellishly expensive to get dents out of one of those things. Just saying...
Was about to post something very similar. You would have thought she would have been more careful, knocking a cyclist would have left a nasty dent or scratch.
Maybe that is why she tried to drive him into someone elses parked car instead?
Kudos to the rider, I'm not sure I would have got myself out of that situation.
Multi tool gouge right down the side of that fecker....
Appalling.
Wow, that was appalling driving and a great save by the rider, thank you for sharing. I bet the adrenaline was flowing when you rejoined the road.
My interpretation is that it wasn't a calculated manoeuvre by the driver, but a combination of not looking/seeing/caring plus focussing on merging with traffic from the right. I'd say anyone riding there should be taking primary position to ensure they're seen and taken into account.
I'd disagree - looked to me they slowed deliberately.
Sadly it's usual Range Rover driving. Hopefully results in a charge, preferably a law or road design change, but I won't be holding my breath.
What is it with some people who drive Range Rovers with personalised number plates?
I know the road. The 'cycle infrastructure' is criminally bad - just a bit of paint when there's space, and stop when it gets difficult. The 'cycle lane' is even more useless when there's a car parked in it.
Very similar thing happened to me when I was 16 and plod then pulled me up for cycling on the pavement. Said I wasn't too old to be taken home I the van I should have accepted his offer of a lift as a way of keeping safe from dangerous drivers.
To me that looked like a deliberate attempt by the Land Rover to force the cyclist into the parked car. The driver even appears to slow down slightly to ensure there will be no escape route on the cyclist's right.
Quick thinking and good skills by the cyclist in avoiding a collision. I hope the driver is prosecuted and convicted.
no the driver is focussing on the cars merging into the lane they wanted to then be in from the roundabout exit on their right, which is effectively behind them over their right shoulder as theres nothing ahead of them before the pinch point with the parked car,and then when the cyclist gets back on the road,there are two extra cars (a black and blue one)in the lane the Land Rover actually ends up in, so they would been totally focussing on that and had to slow else theyd have driven into the side of them, which I suspect happens alot on that road junction. I doubt they were even aware they were putting the cyclist in real danger there.
its classic rubbish road design really designed only with cars in mind, the exit from the roundabout looks very fast, so anyone in that avoiding the roundabout lane,no doubt put in to ease car congestion queuing onto the roundabout, is forced to "merge" at the same speed, which when for a cyclist using the road, the cars are always going to focus on the metal objects that might hit them, and not you.
+1 nice summary
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