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news
Near Miss of the Day 478: Cheddar Gorge punishment pass
A decent overtake followed by a punishment pass features in today's video in our Near Miss of the Day series, filmed by road.cc reader Matt in August as he rode up Cheddar Gorge in Somerset.
“There were a couple of cyclists ahead of me (including one wearing a road.cc top!). Obviously, progress up the Gorge can be slow, but the car behind me was courteous and patient, whereas the car behind him was not.
(Being based in Somerset ourselves, we asked around the office – well, the virtual office these days – but haven’t been able to work out whether it was indeed a member of the road.cc team in that jersey, with one saying, “That road attracts the whole range of idiot driver.”)
“Another cyclist overtook the queue of cars, which obviously enraged the second car driver. The first driver gave a nice overtake (thank you, whoever you are!) but the second swerved towards me as he was overtaking. What's not shown is that he did the same thing to the cyclists ahead of me.”
“It was a scary experience at the time,” he added. “I submitted the footage to Avon and Somerset Police and got the standard response.”
> 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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35 comments
I wasn't expressing a view on who used their horn - I was just replying to your point that the overtaking cyclist didn't know if drivers in front of him were going to overtake, by pointing out that it is the driver's responsibility to check they are not themselves being overtaken before they pull out.
Nice that the first motorist was so considerate but he/she had plenty of time to overtake and didn't. Their dithering frustrated the following motorist who Instead of venting on them vented on the cyclist. Happens frequently.
Not sure if you are having ago at the original driver there but as we can't see what was ahead of him it is a bit disinegnous. We know there is at least one bend that he wouldn't have known what was coming down, and the OP did mention there were several bikes ahead so without knowing how they were spaced. Should the driver have forced themselves into non potentially non existent gaps?
Maybe you're right, maybe not. It's more of a general comment on the effect of dithering motorists that hang behind cyclists for ages refusing to pass and the repercussions for the cyclist.
In this clip, I see mainly a straight road, with little on coming traffic and a motorist who themseves was even overtaken by a fellow cyclist. I think we can assume that there was a gap ahead because he did eventually pass.
One (bike) man's dither is another's patient wait for a safe opportunity. I've driven and motorcycled that road in the distant past and it's not at all easy - narrow, short sight-lines, lots of natural beauty to look at, corners for nutcase drivers, etc.
On the orange-clad cyclist... My crystal ball doesn't predict a long and peaceful life. If that had been a motorcyclist I think most of us would thought they were a total idiot.
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