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news
Near Miss of the Day 789: Sensible discussion and apology follows learner close passing cyclist during driving lesson
Today's Near Miss of the Day is slightly unusual as the driver involved is a learner under instruction who close passes a cyclist riding in, what can be best described as, an utterly terrible 'murder strip' cycle lane.
Learning to drive is stressful, nervy and difficult, so it's only fair to show, as road.cc reader Martin did here, calmness and direct any issues to the instructor.
What followed was a well-made point about giving vulnerable road users 1.5m space (even if they're in a 'cycle lane'), an apology and a promise that the situation will be reviewed with the learner. Refreshingly undramatic...
"I don't think I was out of order to chase this driver down," Martin told us. "I wouldn't normally do this, but I figured a driving instructor was maybe less likely to turn violent.
"The cycle lane here is an absolute waste of paint and unless I ride over the drain gratings my bar end is over the line. Then there's the junction which requires attention and then thinking ahead to the mini roundabout where I normally turn right, so I was caught off-guard by the passing car and even more annoyed to see it was a driving school vehicle.
"I followed this up with an email as it was rather easy to track down the instructor and got a sort of acknowledgement and apology so I decided not to take it any further. Hopefully he will no longer advise his clients that the 1.5m Highway Code advice is optional in the event of an oncoming vehicle."
Martin followed up the incident with an email asking the instructor to ensure students keep a safe passing distance and received the following reply: "Thank you for this. I've taken it on board and reviewed the situation with my learner. All the best. Sorry about this!"
Anecdotally speaking, we can't recall having too many (if any) incidents of dangerous driving from learner drivers. Maybe we're just extremely fortunate, and maybe there aren't enough learner drivers on the road for us to notice, or maybe we've sympathetically erased them from memory... but what's your experience sharing the roads with driving instructors and students? Normally pretty cautious, thus often safe?
> 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
Dan is the road.cc news editor and has spent the past four years writing stories and features, as well as (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. Having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for the Non-League Paper, Dan joined road.cc in 2020. Come the weekend you'll find him labouring up a hill, probably with a mouth full of jelly babies, or making a bonk-induced trip to a south of England petrol station... in search of more jelly babies.
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51 comments
I'm currently walking up in Weardale and surrounds.
Today, on a very quiet country lane which was wide enough for two cars to pass easily, I did a bit of experimental holding my ground in the face of oncoming traffic. Out of the 7 or 8 cars, only 2 made any serious effort to leave a gap. The worst offenders were a Kia who looked baffled that I wasn't moving into the overgrown verge and although they slowed, seemed puzzled that I expected them to go around us. The BMW was second worst - they were forced to stop because of an oncoming car, but then really couldn't be bothered to turn the steering wheel to move away, leaving a couple of feet. The third irritant was the car faced with an oncoming bike who was baffled at the thought of waiting for the cyclist to pass so they could pull out - they seemed like they knew they should give the cyclist space but couldn't work out how to do that with a walker in the road.
Fortunately, it was only about 800 metres of test case. I really don't want to wear cameras as a pedestrian but I was tempted to start filming using my compact camera.
That doesn't sound plausible, is it possible you mistook an Audi for a Kia?
Same as my walking experiences. Too many drivers don't slow or give room.
I find that walking with a 4ft walking pole I get loads of room, particularly when I wave it a little.
Learner close passes ? A fringe benefit of having to ride on parts of a test route
It might not look the worst pass,certainly isn't I've had here, but for context my wheels are on the cycle lane line as I aim towards prime.
The car is actually cutting back across me sharply to avoid hitting a keep left bollard. They then spend the next 2mins of travel, stuck with me directly behind them because that's just how this section of road is.
So why would a driving instructor allow anyone under tuition to overtake through here unless they thought it acceptable too ? Its the same attitude as the instructor in that video and that I see from driving schools alot, theres little effort spent teaching learner drivers how to drive safely around cyclists.
Did you happen to notice if there was anyone in the passenger seat. The worst examples of driving I've seen involving driving school vehicle, often don't involve a learner driver.
Mind boggling. How thick do you have to be to think that a cycle lane suddenly removes the requirement of having to leave 1.5m between you and a bike. Why on earth would that requirement disappear when there is a line painted on the road?
That also wasn't an apology and I wouldn't be surprised if the instructor just grumbled and whinged to their pupil about cyclists when they drove off. He was just concerned about being an instructor and on camera doing something that might damage his business.
Perfect example of "I stayed in my lane and they're in their lane", isn't it?
Yep, this magic bit of paint that means drivers don't think, because it's not how drivers are taught
When did they start teaching "you should move to the other lane to overtake - so you're fine to overtake on the opposite side of a pedestrian refuge"? In the last couple of years that's becoming much more common.
Then you have instructors like AN who minimise thr risk this poses on certain junctions just to have a pop at CM.
Mark Hodson from West Midlands Police addressed the issue of painted cycle lanes in a very informative thread on Twitter the other day, well worth a read.
https://twitter.com/markandcharlie/status/1538920554874425345
I wonder what the government has done to disseminate information on what are admittedly more "wording changes" than "new law" / "new rules" to driving instructors (mostly "should" and "guidance" sadly)? Did they make as much effort as with the general driving population?
You mean passively aggressively drip-feeding information out to enable radio and TV presenters to grumble about it?
You read me right.
I can't help thinking that was a rather hollow apology from the instructor. However the really concerning part is that a driving instructor can be so misinformed to even begin to challenge the rider on whether or not they should've attempted the overtake. If you can't give 1.5m because of oncoming traffic, then you wait until it's safe. How can an instructor teach that to their students if they don't even grasp it themselves?!
I've seen some terrible cycle lanes (most of them), but that one is pretty special. Lucky if it's 70cm wide.
Meh. I've seen narrower...
The take home, for me, is that cycle lane infrastructure is so poor, in the UK, that you should not use them. In fact you're at grater risk of injury if you do. Don't take my word for it see, Adams, Thomas, and Rachel Aldred. 2020. “Cycling Injury Risk in London: Impacts of
Road Characteristics and Infrastructure.” Findings, December.
But which specifically only covers London, and I feel from my many observations of London traffic over the years, theres alot more going on than just painted cycle lanes = bad. And so its not then good enough data to extrapolate to all UK painted cycle lanes = bad.
Some are undoubtedly, the one in this video a perfect example of badness, but they arent ALL like that.
You are correct. Come up and cycle around Bradford and you'll soon see that the infrastructure in London is way better than where I live. So are the buses the trains etc, etc but not the country lanes, trees and wide open moorland.
Or the curd tart. Did you know that Bettys tearooms do mail order now? My wife bought me a box of curd tarts for our anniversary
(haven't had that particular food of the gods for nigh on thirty years: they don't sell it this far south).
Recommended - I've been a recipient of their goodness by post. Even when you're in the region it saves trying to elbow your way in. I'm partial to their fat
barascals.What happened to "do not stop or park on double yellow"?
Driving instructor is not fit to teach.
Just to play devil's advocate, he may have been concerned that his learner would get upset or flustered by a cyclist following and calling out and so told him/her to stop to make sure no incident occurred? His later excuses do indeed seem to indicate he at least needs to go back to instructor's school and brush up on his highway code, but there could be a valid excuse for stopping there.
I see exactly this not infrequently - instructors using the "picking up / dropping off" dodge to be sat on double yellows waiting between lessons. No, they're not "just picking up", they're parked waiting where it's most convenient. In one sense where they're doing it makes it inconsequential. It does demonstrate to their students that you can ignore some rules.
I believe that there are fairly stringent requirements to be a driving instructor? I suspect that "their mileage will vary". I had a very pedantic one - which probably helped me pass. Others may lean towards "teach how it is" rather than "teach the rules".
TBH I think it is important but under our system probably quickly becomes irrelevant. Because learning and passing a test happens once a lifetime for most. After that it's pretty much "do as everyone else does".
Actually to be fair, the rule isn't no stopping on DYL. That's drl. You're permitted to stop for (assisted) boarding / alighting on DYL as long as you take no longer than necessary to do so. So they're not breaking the letter of the rule there.
Exactly my point. Double yellows are another thing which doesn't really mean much. In practice we have another "rule" where (presumably) trying to lawyer common sense into it / establish limits has - imagine - made it pointless. Unless you are or travel equipped with a member of the police + council official.
Of course it was necessary and reasonable to stop for 10 minutes for "boarding" because the student wasn't there on time. Or the instructor was 10 minutes early.
Or they had time for a fag / sandwich before driving elsewhere. Also necessary because parking 30 yards in either direction where there are legal spaces just wouldn't work.Again - it's a "minor" issue because I'm happy to admit they weren't endangering anybody. And they weren't blocking anyone or impeding their progress. Which appears in practice to be the one thing everyone agrees is unacceptable (though where and when you can is quibbled).
But they're a driving instructor.
Case law (well, TPT so tribunal) backs up that waiting for a prearranged pickup is ok on DYL - which as you say, tends to make a mockery of the purpose of most DYL!
is that an adopted highway or private parking? On private land DYL have no stat meaning at all, just whatever stupid rules the PPC makes up to get as many tickets issued as possible...
Yes - good point. Given the age of the place and standard signage / markings I'm pretty sure this one is adopted. I've even seen a council parking warden round here (clearly this is a convenient spot for everyone to take a quick break).
Is there a way to tell apart from seeing "private road" signs - without doing some kind of property search?
As often it gets more complicated once you pay attention.
Again - I don't begrudge people (who're driving all day) a stop in a pretty innocuous place here. Well - Amazon ought to use the legit spaces and get their vans off the pavement. It was an illustration of a universal behaviour and that even driving instructors don't see this as a biggie.
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