Near Miss of the Day 97: White van man hovers alongside cyclists on busy narrow road

Today’s near miss sees a white van driver endangering not just one, but two cyclists. As the driver moves to overtake, he instead drives alongside them on a narrow road, occasionally veering towards them to avoid oncoming traffic.

The footage was shot by Ed on Swanwick Lane near Southampton on the 5^th of this month at around 8.40am.

In a van that nearly fills the lane, the driver makes several attempts to pass, but for the most part succeeds only in positioning himself either between the cyclists or alongside one or the other of them.

At one point the following cyclist, shot from Ed’s rear view camera, is unable pedal as he is so close to the kerb.

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.