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Near Miss of the Day 711: Amsterdam bus driver pulls in on cyclist

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

It’s often assumed that the levels of cycling in the Netherlands means that motorists are more likely than not to also ride bicycles, meaning that they take more care around bike riders – although as this video of a bus driver in the north of Amsterdam almost hitting a cyclist after pulling in too quickly during an overtaking manoeuvre shows, that isn’t necessarily the case.

The clip was sent in by road.cc reader Bernard – you may remember that we featured another of his videos back in December – who told us: “This morning I was on my commute to my work, just a few kilometres outside Amsterdam.  

“Just before the 30km (20mph) zone the bus driver decided to overtake me.

“While overtaking the driver kept barely 1 metre between the kerb and the bus and when starting to overtake the next cyclist, the tail just missed me by inches.

“One stop further I was able to stop the driver, who stated that he had given enough space, but started to whine that I was riding in the middle of the road.

“He saved 30 seconds by overtaking me, the discussion which followed took more than a minute,” Bernard 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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8 comments

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marmotte27 | 2 years ago
1 like

Where I live we get plenty of Dutch drivers on holidays during the summer. Lots of them do not know how to behave around cyclists on the roads, showing clearly that this has got nothing to do with behaviour and everything with infrastructure. In the Netherlands too, there are enough narrow roads that are shared, where you'll be passed, slowly certainly but very closely.

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Adam Sutton replied to marmotte27 | 2 years ago
0 likes

Back in 2000 I imported a car from the Netherlands. When I left for the port home the guy warned me that the Dutch tailgate. I dismissed it, but sure enough less than a mile later I had a car right on my bumper.

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IanMSpencer | 2 years ago
6 likes

My golden rule is that if a driver wants an argument, it should always taken them far longer than any time saved... and this should be pointed out to them copiously.

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RoubaixCube | 2 years ago
5 likes

He should have also forwarded the footage to the drivers employers

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Grahamd | 2 years ago
3 likes

Well done for raising directly with the driver. Would be good to know how continental bus companies and / or the police respond when provided with such videos.

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Hirsute | 2 years ago
2 likes

"but started to whine that I was riding in the middle of the road"

Driver needs a sight test.

What scope for complaints is there in NL ?

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joe9090 replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
0 likes

Not much. Remember the Amsterdam police from the Harry Enfield and chums show? More accurate than you might think. 

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joe9090 | 2 years ago
1 like

Bus drivers... you get bad ones everywhere. 

And in NL bus drivers are very often never cyclists themselves. 

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