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news
Near Miss of the Day 316: Parliament Square driver tells cyclist he should have "used the f*cking bike lane"
Our Monday Moaning piece last week entitled ‘Why don’t cyclists us cycle lanes’ prompted one road.cc reader to send in a video for our Near Miss of the Day feature which shows a driver telling him that he should have “used the f*cking bike lane” in London’s Parliament Square.
With the introduction of Cycle Superhighway 3 in 2016, there are protected cycle lanes and early start traffic lights at several of the entrances to the square, but it can often be quicker and easier to take the main carriageway when the lights there are green.
Chris, who shot the footage, which shows him approaching the square from the Millbank direction with the Palace of Westminster to his right, told us: “There is the option to use the bike line, but as the light was red, I chose to use the main traffic lane. The driver then close passed me.
”When I stopped to challenge her, her response was that I should have ‘used the f*cking bike lane’.
“Later she asks: ‘Why do you think we build them?’ And she suggests I am going to get killed cycling in the manner I do.
”People driving cars often use what they perceive to be indiscretions on the road as a justification for road violence.
”My point would be that even if I was obliged to use the bike lane – which I wasn’t – it is no excuse for such behaviour.
“The police issued a notice of intended prosecution but later had to withdraw it because of an "administration error.”
He added: “I think it’s a pretty good layout – I generally feel safe using it.
“The big bike box on the junction to the square is very good.
“I only started commuting that way recently, so I don’t know how it was before.”
> 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.
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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67 comments
Cyclist seems like a self entitled twonk... Car driver seems like a self entitled twonk... Good luck to you both I say... If it all ends in tears maybe it'll take that before you learn to adapt your riding and driving to a busy urban environment... And use the cycle lane, or slow down and cross behind the car, oh no wait, that'll cost you 3 seconds. Zzzzz.
That is a very simplistic and disingenuous view. The cyclist correctly believed he was entitled to use the road perfectly legally without being endangered. The driver believed she was perfectly entitled to endanger a vulnerable road user for using the road in a perfectly legal manner which irritated her. Can you see the subtle distinction between the legal behaviour and the criminal behaviour?
I can't help noticing that the trolls have infested the road.cc comments section.
Seems to me that, in these comments sections, anyone who doesn't subscribe to the cyclists right/car drivers wrong in every situation is, by default, labelled as a troll - as I was last week.
Not a huge amount different to the motor vehicle lobby who blame cyclists for everything and conveniently forget all the driving offences they commit and people they kill.
Incidentally, in the space of a 1/2 mile walk this evening I had 3 people on bikes ride about 6" away from me - I was on the footpath. During that walk I had no problems with car drivers. Awkward.
Seems to me you constantly engage in straw-man arguments and see only what you want to see.
What's so 'awkward' about your anecdote? It's irrelevant nonsense. I get passed by annoying pavement-racers occasionally. It doesn't bother me nearly as much as all those thousand of cars constantly threatening my safety and getting in my way even as a pedestrian. If you are claiming the two are equivalent problems you are delusional.
Whats irrelevant about it? You've just proved my argument. Because it doesn't bother you then it shouldn't bother me? And literally "thousands" of cars "constantly" "threaten" you. Really? Thousands of them and constantly? There's your straw man then. Thanks for calling me delusional by the way - not sure why your making this personal....
No cars parked on the footway or too close to junctions or crossings, then?
Sorry to disappoint. Nope. Nothing whatsoever. It was just the 3 people on bikes who pissed me off. As I said - awkward....
Not disappointed: pleased, that there are still some places like that
Couldn't agree more.. I'm not trolling and I understand the reality of the cyclists and drivers situation - I've cycled in central London for about 15 years... The reality, unfortunate or not, is that I think its best to adopt a simplistic view on the road...its a squeezed urban environment, you have to yield sometimes even when you don't want to or shouldn't have to... Some people in life are twonks and unfortunately they won't change... So do us all a favour, stay safe and chill out on the bike.. It's worked for me
That potty mouthed old hag is someone's mother/grandmother. I bet she makes them proud.
Not knowing the road layout, does the cycle lane light on the left change before the main road traffic (like some bus filter lanes) allowing cyclists to move from the left to the cycle lane on the right? Or is it just for cyclists going left?
Regardless of this. If the driver wasn't by the side of the cyclist in the single carriage way then he could have moved safetly to the right before the lights (as it seems the two cyclists behind him did).
No mitigating factor, but I'd like to think I wouldn't stop in the middle of the road to have an argument. As someone mentioned, you have a camera, send the video to the police and hope that they don't have an "administrative error". Shes not going to have an epithany in that situation.
I'm hoping on my commute home tonight that all cars queing at the roundabout pull onto the grass verge so I can go thru because I'm quicker, then all cars on the roundabout give way, if there's a headwind I'd love a transit to sit at 18mph so I can tuck in behind.
Gracious innit!
Some crazies on here trying to blame the cyclist for doing nothing wrong...
What I saw was a dangerous driver attempting a nearly-overtake on a cyclist that wanted to move out so they could get in the right-hand lane, then for good measure they tried to force the cyclist into the cycle lane (on the left!). Instead of owning up to their dangerous driving they then decide they should verbally abuse a vulnerable road user that they just willfully endangered. Mind-boggling failure of cognitive ability and yet they are driving a killing mahcine with apparent impunity.
Good to see the under-resourced police were all out in force doing nothing other than making the roads
safermore dangerous for cyclists. Fairy bored of seeing 50 yawning police officers on Vauxhall bridge while people are getting killed just a couple of miles awayAlso, my starting point in such things is that it's quite likely that the motorist didn't need to be using a car there at all. They created all the problems by choosing to drive in central London, and there's a high probability it wasn't essential for them to do so.
From watching the clip, the driver had a very bad attitude towards cyclists in general.
Trying to squeeze out the cyclist with the camera when he never used the bike lane was bad enough, but when she was stopped at the traffic lights, there was a full empty lane between the cyclist and the lane she was in, yet coming round the corner, she cut into the lane next to the cyclist (right beside another cyclist) before moving back to the original lane she was in.
Unortunately it is back to the whole thing of entitlement that some drivers believe they have the right to bully other people off the road.
And the thing that really pisses me off is the fact that after all of her dangerous driving she got to the same position that she would have gotten to had she stayed behind the cyclist and driven in a safe manner.
I see the same kind of attitude frequently during my commute at one particular pinch point, where I regularly get cars making close passes on a 200m stretch of road, all so that they can get to the the back of a queue of traffic. And I then cycle down the bus/cycle lane and pass the cars that passed me dangerously a few seconds before.
Ok
IMO I would use the cycle lane and wait for the light there because doing what you did is a red rag to a bull. Then if I decided not to use the cycle lane (I do that sometimes) I wouldn't come over all pompous when someone got a bit close. Police parked in the cycle lane . I'm guessing the large number are due to a demo and thats what its like cycling in a city. They are doing something expedient. Exactly the same as Mr Pompous choosing not use the cycle lane.
Maybe it'd be safer if we didn't allow the "bulls" to drive if they can't control themselves in a civilised fashion.
You're pissing in the wind expecting others to have no human failings. The car waited to overtake at a safe place. The cyclist stymied their opportunity, and all just to get through a light on amber instead of red. Yes, the driver should then have had further reserves of patience, and it's not right to end up endangering a vulnerable road user - even if they showed you no consideration. Maybe if cyclists always met the high standard you expect of others there would be less conflict. It's a shared road space, and it does not hurt to share, especially when there is extra provision made for cylists to help with the sharing.
Human failings are to be expected, but there's no need or benefit in having an aggressive attitude whilst driving or operating heavy machinery. Personally, I try to not be aggressive whilst cycling, but I find it difficult when close-passed or otherwise endangered - the fight-or-flight instinct tends to kick in (c.f. Alan 1 - 0 Wind Mirror) but I just don't see how motorists are subject to the same fear of collisions.
Were you watching a different video to the rest of us?
I don't see much evidence of sharing by the driver of the car. There was intimidation from the start of the video, as already stated. She would have found considerably more patience if it had been a police motorbike or another car in front, especially if it was a Merc with blacked out windows and some big fellas with tattoos inside.
No, she was bullying the cyclist and became abuse because he stayed in the lane instead of moving left as she wanted him to get out of her way.
I am aware that in these discussion some people can too readily jump to the cyclist's defence but many of your posts appear to show a driver-centric view of behaviour on the road with too little thought about what it may be like for someone on a bicycle. The vast majority of us drive a car too so are not merely 'cyclists' and all of us are pedestrians. This video is typical of the shockingly entitled attitude exhibited by a significant number of people when they're in a vehicle.
As it happens, I was watching the same video. It's the construction put on the same observations that differs.
I observered that the driver held back from overtaking the cyclist from nearly the start of the video until the lights. Others characterise this as "aggression" by the driver. But the same video.
I observed that the cyclist had a choice, use the cycle lane and inconvenience himself due to the red light, or expect the driver to be gracious about having to continue patiently behind the cyclist. It was a simple choice, inconvenience himself, or inconvenience the motorist. He chose the latter, and such was his disinclination to stop at lights that he continued through the light that had been at amber already a while.
I have never defended or justified the motorist for ultimately endangering the cyclist.
Do you mean expect the driver to follow the rules of the road? Gracious doesn't come into it.
Nope, his choice was to ride his bike according to the highway code, the motorist was more inconvenienced by the cars at the following red light. Did she attack or endanger them?
The driver was almost alongside when the clip started.
As has been pointed out multiple times, the cyclist was intending to move out to the OUTSIDE LANE. He appears to be using the correct lane for his intended manoeuvre.
Why should he move in the opposite direction, into the narrow cycle path for traffic that is mainly for traffic turning left at the next lights? He would then have to immediately leave that lane and cross 2 more lanes while pulling away from the lights. I am at a loss to imagine what kind of idiot thinks that is a good idea.
Your use of the term "gracious" indicates your bias. The driver did not want to remain behind the cyclist full stop, even though she gained absolutely no advantage by squeezing past. Cyclists shouldn't have to rely on graciousness or preferential/deferential treatment from other road users when maintaining or changing lanes; they deserve respect as fellow road users. The driver simply failed to demonstrate respect for another road user.
As for the amber light, perhaps if I was being bullied by a driver I might inadvertently do that. I can't say for sure and would prefer not to find out.
The cyclist does not say that. He says, “There is the option to use the bike line, but as the light was red, I chose to use the main traffic lane."
I read that as "It didn't make my journey easier or safer since the light was red, so I chose to use the main traffic lane". Which the HC said you could do, last time I checked.
Does a tractor have to expect the drivers behind them to be gracious? Or a horse-ist?
I thought that if a road user is in front of you, then they're in front of you. End of.
So in all your driving and cycling you are a tolerant individual never finding anything annoying and never reacting in any manner. I find that unbelievable TBH.
I've never got around to learning to drive, so I haven't had to test my tolerance whilst stuck in traffic jams, luckily.
I do make an effort to not react as I used to get a bit shouty with motorists cutting me up/close-passing/overtaking then blocking my path etc. Getting older helps a bit, but I found having a camera to be a major asset in not feeling the need to retaliate. If someone acts like an ass, then I can sit back a bit and think to myself "got you on camera - that's going to the police". A lot of the time, reviewing the footage reveals the incident to be less serious than it felt at the time, so I can just shrug and feel glad that I didn't react.
Your response makes no sense to me. Do you justify stabbings or just someone waving a knife at someone in the same way? "Hey, we've all reacted to things, what's the problem with the zombie-knife wielder?"
Ludicrous exaggeration. Do you think that someone driving quite close (but slowly) is the same thing as a knife weilding zombie ?
I recommend a long period of getting out more.
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