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Near Miss of the Day 196: Driver makes close pass on cyclist then tells him: "You're going to come a cropper"

Our regular feature highlighting close passes caught on camera from around the country – today it’s London

Today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series shows a driver who made a close pass on a cyclist on London’s Chelsea Embankment, then told him during an angry exchange, “Sort yourself out because you’re gonna come a cropper.”

It was filmed last Wednesday morning by road.cc reader Ryan, who said in his commentary to the video: “There’s no cycle lane on this road. Cyclists share the road with the cars.”

Travelling at around 25 miles an hour, he said: “I check that it’s clear behind and move out to pass a cyclist.

“I’m catching the cyclist ahead, I hold my central road position.

“I check back and look at the driver behind. My road position shows I’m overtaking.

“The driver beeps and passes very close, at a far greater speed.

“This forces me to brake and move left, to avoid a potential collision.

“I decide to catch the driver and ask why he did not give me more room.”

Ryan caught up with the motorist further along the road and asked him, “You could see I was overtaking, why didn’t you just wait a second?”

Waving his finger, the driver said: “You should have ****ing stayed behind that bike.”

“I was alongside it,” replied Ryan.

“Lay off the 30 miles an hour and sort yourself out because you’re going to come a cropper,” the driver said.

“You lay off the 30 miles an hour then, speed limit is the same for both of us, we’re both allowed in the road,” was Ryan’s response.

The driver replied: “Yeah but don’t come into the err, you come in traffic’s path, what you … “

At that point, Ryan rode off, saying in his commentary on the video, “I’d had enough of this guy. Plus, we were holding up the traffic.

“If I was cycling at 30mph (his words),” he added, “What was his speed when he passed? This is a 30mph road … “

> 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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20 comments

Avatar
Tony | 5 years ago
3 likes

Quote:

Waving his finger, the driver said: “You should have ****ing stayed behind that bike.”

I would have been tempted to reply “You too mate” 

Avatar
ChrisB200SX | 5 years ago
1 like

I drive that stretch about an hour later each day. It's fast for bikes and there is probably no point overtaking cyclists at all, there are loads of them and they just pass you in the queue at the lights or get to Vauxhall Bridge long before you anyway. I try to get into a position so the cyclists are in a group ahead of me, sometimes I overtake so as not to be alongside a long chain as it gets thinner. I've seen some really dangerous driving around cyclists there, especially the bit at the end where the works are. Saw a cyclist being attended to by an ambulance there Friday before last I think.

Avatar
vonhelmet | 5 years ago
5 likes

I do about 3k a year and I don’t drive like a penis...

Avatar
muhasib | 5 years ago
1 like

BP51TYA which has mileage of 50001 in 17 years, no wonder their driving is so poor as they hardly do any time on the road.

Avatar
don simon fbpe replied to muhasib | 5 years ago
2 likes

muhasib wrote:

BP51TYA which has mileage of 50001 in 17 years, no wonder their driving is so poor as they hardly do any time on the road.

My 15 year old car has 65k on the clock, yet I seem to manage to drive about 500 miles per week (And have done over the last few years). Your assumption might be mis-placed

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
2 likes

_

Avatar
brooksby replied to hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
3 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

_

I'm guessing you couldn't find any pictures of Chaos Squirrels, then? (or, as I like to call them, "squirrels") 

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to brooksby | 5 years ago
2 likes

brooksby wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

_

I'm guessing you couldn't find any pictures of Chaos Squirrels, then? (or, as I like to call them, "squirrels") 

Squirrels are very under-represented in the WH40K universe. I'm guessing that the God-Emperor of Mankind had them exterminated.

Avatar
fixit | 5 years ago
2 likes

why even bother havin a conversation with an ork?? there is no future anyway, 

Avatar
brooksby replied to fixit | 5 years ago
2 likes

tsarouxaz wrote:

why even bother havin a conversation with an ork?? there is no future anyway, 

"Ork"? What is this: Warhammer 40K??  I think its spelled "orc". 

(I think he's more likely some kind of urban troll, anyway...).

Avatar
Jetmans Dad replied to brooksby | 5 years ago
0 likes

brooksby wrote:

"Ork"? What is this: ...

Details here ...

 

Avatar
brooksby replied to Jetmans Dad | 5 years ago
0 likes

Jetmans Dad wrote:

brooksby wrote:

"Ork"? What is this: ...

Details ...

 

Nanu-nanu!  I presume *that* Ork is a world somewhere near the planet Melmac?

Avatar
LastBoyScout | 5 years ago
6 likes

Had 2 muppets on the way home last week.

1st was sat on my wheel for a while and then, just as I started to indicate and then move across to turn right at the next roundabout, the fool saw fit to overtake me in order to then cut me up to turn left at the roundabout. Special mention for the policeman in his car at the roundabout that completely ignored my waving at him and the car and just drove off.

Bit further on and I got close-passed by another driver who seemed happier to buzz me and risk a head-on with a car waiting to turn right than to wait a few seconds - the other car even flashed him! Caught the elderly driver up at the next set of lights and got a mouthful from his wife that it was my fault for not being on the cycle path. Indeed - the pitch black that's shared with runners and pedestrians with no lights!

Both these will be going to the local police when I get the footage off the camera.

Avatar
ConcordeCX replied to LastBoyScout | 5 years ago
5 likes

LastBoyScout wrote:

Had 2 muppets on the way home last week.

[...]

you should change your name to Miss Piggy.

 

Avatar
ConcordeCX | 5 years ago
11 likes

No point in arguing with these people, or trying to teach them the HW code; it's not a reasoned discussion. Either ignore them, or tell them to fuck off.

 

 

Avatar
vonhelmet | 5 years ago
7 likes

Schroedinger’s cyclist - he’s going so fast you’ve no choice but to overtake him.

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rkemb | 5 years ago
13 likes

"speed limit is the same for both of us"

Not actually true. In general on UK roads, under the Road Traffic Act, the speed limit only applies to motorised vehicles, so there is not a speed limit for cyclists.

Avatar
Spangly Shiny replied to rkemb | 5 years ago
1 like

rkemb wrote:

"speed limit is the same for both of us"

Not actually true. In general on UK roads, under the Road Traffic Act, the speed limit only applies to motorised vehicles, so there is not a speed limit for cyclists.

Ah but then you get into the realms of 'furious riding.'

Avatar
iandusud | 5 years ago
12 likes

The thing that get to me about these sort of drivers is that they're not getting anywhere any quicker. I've cycled and driven a lot in London and on the whole most drivers have figured it out that there's no point in being in a hurry because all that happens is that you get to the next queue just that bit sooner and your frustration levels rise. 

This should be reported to the police.

Avatar
burtthebike | 5 years ago
23 likes

Just your normal, everyday, entitled mouth-breather in car who thinks the road is for his exclusive use and that speed limits are for other people.  I wonder if Sir Chris could have a word with him about sharing the road?

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