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Near Miss of the Day 799: “I really got a fright,” says cyclist after very close pass

Our regular series featuring close passes from around the country - today it's Glasgow...

A road.cc reader who was on the receiving end of a very close pass in Glasgow says he “really got a fright” as a result of the incident.

Scott was riding along Cambuslang Road in the south east of Scotland’s largest city when the driver of a BMW shot past, “inches from hitting me.”

It’s worth bearing in mind that he had his camera positioned on the left hand side of his handlebars, so the distance the driver left is far closer than it may appear from the video.

“I think the BMW driver was racing the white Land Rover Discovery,” Scott added.

> 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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13 comments

Avatar
Gilly99 | 1 year ago
0 likes

Why is the OP riding in the gutter? The driver is an idiot, but this looks like a self-inflicted near miss to me.

Avatar
TheBillder replied to Gilly99 | 1 year ago
0 likes
Gilly99 wrote:

Why is the OP riding in the gutter? The driver is an idiot, but this looks like a self-inflicted near miss to me.

Nice debut. But must improve.

Avatar
alansmurphy | 1 year ago
1 like

Looks like a successful move by the motorist to nearly kill a pesky cyclist before jumping the red light...

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AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
2 likes

798 for the second NMotD in a row?

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joe9090 replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
0 likes

pedant much?

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Flintshire Boy replied to joe9090 | 1 year ago
1 like

.

Says the pedant, pedantically!

.

Pot, meet kettle.

.

LOL!!

.

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Jenova20 replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
1 like

AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

798 for the second NMotD in a row?

Seems to have been misnamed. I also spotted that.

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giff77 | 1 year ago
9 likes

Scott. If you're reading. You really do need to be on the outside of the murder strip. Especially if you are heading for Glasgow Road. Alternatively use the pavement and if the polis give you jip then you tell them Cambuslang Rd is a bugger and you aren't being a tool on the pavement. 
 

There's absolutely no reason why the beemer couldn't have scrubbed their speed and dropped for literally 2 maybe 3 seconds. 

Avatar
Owd Big 'Ead | 1 year ago
10 likes

Needs to be riding out of the murder strip. Would put the onus on the driver to give the cyclist more room, while offering more room to the left when bell-end motorists stray too close.

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nosferatu1001 replied to Owd Big 'Ead | 1 year ago
6 likes

Yeah, that strip is unacceptably narrow

More dangerous than having no paint at all.  Hate em

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OnYerBike replied to nosferatu1001 | 1 year ago
8 likes

It is a masterclass in terrible cycling infrastucture - it's pretty much a full house of what not to do. It's not very clear from OP's video, but I had a look on Street View:

Prior to the start of OP's video, the pavement is "shared use" but tells cyclists to "rejoin carriageway" (apparently through some convoluted manoeuvre of pulling onto the side road before turning on to the main road). Here.

There is then a very brief section of murder strip narrow, advisory cycle lane past the bus stop. The paint has all but been worn away by years of vehicles driving on the lines (clearly effective then) but it's more obvious from the slightly earlier Street View footage from the westbound carriageway. Here

The cycle lane shortly thereafter appears to just end. At first I thought maybe the paint had just worn away to the point I was missing it, but on closer inspection it does appear to just end. The "shared use" pavement appears to resume. But with no dropped kerb I imagine a cyclist is expected to simply bunnyhop back onto it. Here.

And if you do somehow manage to get back on the "shared use" path of course you then have to play dodge the sign post.

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IanMSpencer replied to OnYerBike | 1 year ago
1 like

It's also entirely unclear how you are meant to exit the shared use path to join the central cycle path for straight on traffic.

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OnYerBike replied to IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
0 likes

I did spot that too - I think (and this makes the wild assumption that there was any kind of logical thought process) you are not meant to exit the shared use path. Users of the shared use path can remain on the shared use path and cross at the lights. The in-carriageway cycle provision is then for cyclists who chose not to use the shared use path at all.

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