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Near Miss of the Day 99: “You must have rode into me”

Our regular feature highlighting close passes caught on camera from around the country – today it’s Brighton

Today’s miss is so near that it should technically be ineligible for this feature. The driver passes the cyclist so closely that he actually clips him.  

The incident occurred on Brighton seafront last year.

“You must have rode into me,” says the motorist when Andy pulls alongside him a little further on.

He then questions Andy’s lack of rear view mirror, almost as if it’s a cyclist’s responsibility to evade large vehicles bearing down on them from behind.

“You people are so arrogant,” he adds. “You think the road is yours.”

Examples of psychological projection surely don’t come much clearer.

Andy said: “In the end I just cycled off – arguing with a driver in the road I doubt would've changed his mind.”

It’s nevertheless striking that after asking “how am I supposed to give you a metre and a half?” the driver almost immediately demonstrates that such a thing is entirely possible.

Andy added: “I sent [the video] to the police via Twitter but they never replied.”

Andy also provided us with Near Miss of the Day 43, in which a van driver almost hit him twice in the space of two minutes.

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 (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.

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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30 comments

Avatar
Kendalred | 6 years ago
0 likes

Given that Brighton is the only place with a Green Party MP, it might be worthwhile contacting Caroline Lucas if you're getting nowhere with local plod?

caroline.lucas.mp [at] parliament.uk

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iandusud | 6 years ago
1 like

The frustrating thing here is that the police weren't interested. If that's not a dangerous pass what is? The cyclist showed extreem restraint because it's not for him to impose punishment for a traffic law infringement, but then the police won't do anything about it. The only way twonks like that will ever get the message is if they are prossecuted. It's not a question of vindictiveness, it's a means of education. 

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bikeman01 | 6 years ago
3 likes

Remarkable restraint, not sure I'd be quite so restrained.

An example of why there needs to be periodic driving retesting, with much increased frequency for pensioners.

Think of the benefits:

1. Increased revenue for the govt.

2. Increased employment for driving examiners.

3. Get bad drivers off the roads.

 

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Stef Marazzi | 6 years ago
1 like

Fair play mate, dunno how you kept your cool.

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burtthebike | 6 years ago
1 like

http://rate-driver.co.uk/GV57UKL

Number 3 in the worst drivers ranking in February 2018.  Keep up the good work, and let's see if we can get it to No 1.

Just shared it on fb.

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Beecho | 6 years ago
2 likes

The in-laws live in Hove. We ride there from London a lot. Always via Devil’s Dyke and never Ditchling purely to avoid Brighton. Clueless coffin dodgers (and others) everywhere. Admittedly in Hove too, but all town riding avoidable is preferable.

For all its green credentials, Brighton’s not a city set up for riding on its roads.

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Zebulebu replied to Beecho | 6 years ago
1 like
Beecho wrote:

The in-laws live in Hove. We ride there from London a lot. Always via Devil’s Dyke and never Ditchling purely to avoid Brighton. Clueless coffin dodgers (and others) everywhere. Admittedly in Hove too, but all town riding avoidable is preferable.

For all its green credentials, Brighton’s not a city set up for riding on its roads.

DD is a better climb than Ditchling anyway. Especially if you turn right halfway up and do the brutal bit instead of the Saddlescombe climb straight on

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Municipal Waste | 6 years ago
3 likes

I've seen this tit driving recently and it's not just cyclists that they don't know how to deal with but pedestrians and junctions too.

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herrow | 6 years ago
6 likes

"How am I supposed to give you a meter and a half?" Er, move over to the other fucking lane?

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DoctorFish replied to herrow | 6 years ago
4 likes

herrow wrote:

"How am I supposed to give you a meter and a half?" Er, move over to the other fucking lane?

 

Indeed, there was a whole empty lane, right there next to him, empty.  Not that if it was full of cars that this is in any way excusable anyway, but it was there right next to him - empty.  Unbelievable.

 

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alansmurphy | 6 years ago
9 likes

Have you met Valbrona, he has both this site and the Daily Mail read to him...

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pedalpusher | 6 years ago
6 likes

The driver knew it was his fault. If there was the slightest chance of a cyclist having hit him, he'd have been out of the car checking it for scratches. And it really is a lovely car. How I wish I could afford a Nissan Qashqai so I didn't have to cycle to work.

Enviable skills shown in both bike handling and restraint!

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Leviathan replied to pedalpusher | 6 years ago
1 like

pedalpusher wrote:

The driver knew it was his fault. If there was the slightest chance of a cyclist having hit him, he'd have been out of the car checking it for scratches. And it really is a lovely car. How I wish I could afford a Nissan Qashqai so I didn't have to cycle to work.

Enviable skills shown in both bike handling and restraint!

The Nissan Cashcow? Mass market shite; a saloon dressed up as an SUV so the driver can feel 'safe' and 'modern'. I bet it has a long list of safety features.

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StraelGuy | 6 years ago
7 likes

If he thinks that's any kind of acceptable standard of driving he ought to consider handing in his license and using taxis in future. Ignorant old twat.

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Bikeylikey | 6 years ago
17 likes

Well handled, very composed. Hitting him would have done no-one any good.  Good comment 'I do own the road as much as you do'.  Exactly.

What really pisses me off is 'You people are so arrogant'. What people who happen to ride bikes? All of them? That idiotic perception is the result of thinking that if you're on a bike you are inferior to someone in a car and should act accordingly. If you just ride and act normally and claim your rights and your bit of the road you are therefore being 'arrogant'. You should be humble and give way and preferably disappear altogether. Who is i t being 'arrogant'?

What a twat. I hope he reads all these comments and goes apoplectic. Or, preferably, sees what an idiot he is.

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brooksby replied to Bikeylikey | 6 years ago
2 likes

bikeylikey wrote:

Well handled, very composed. Hitting him would have done no-one any good.  Good comment 'I do own the road as much as you do'.  Exactly.

What really pisses me off is 'You people are so arrogant'. What people who happen to ride bikes? All of them? That idiotic perception is the result of thinking that if you're on a bike you are inferior to someone in a car and should act accordingly. If you just ride and act normally and claim your rights and your bit of the road you are therefore being 'arrogant'. You should be humble and give way and preferably disappear altogether. Who is i t being 'arrogant'?

What a twat. I hope he reads all these comments and goes apoplectic. Or, preferably, sees what an idiot he is.

I don't imagine he'd ever read road.cc, any more than I imagine the average road.cc commenter would go over and read the DM...

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Paul_C replied to brooksby | 6 years ago
2 likes

brooksby wrote:

I don't imagine he'd ever read road.cc, any more than I imagine the average road.cc commenter would go over and read the DM...

 

I read the DM, but purely to keep abreast of whatever populist propaganda they're peddling and to counter it in the comment sections

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ConcordeCX | 6 years ago
1 like

I was nearly hit twice in Brighton last weekend, each time someone pulling out from a parking spot at speed and obviously without checking behind. Must be the sea air.

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wycombewheeler replied to ConcordeCX | 6 years ago
1 like

ConcordeCX wrote:

I was nearly hit twice in Brighton last weekend, each time someone pulling out from a parking spot at speed and obviously without checking behind. Must be the sea air.

I had a taxi start to pull out of a parking spot in front of me (he was facing the wrong way and wanted to get to the other side of the road), then stop when he saw me, clearly should have loked before starting not as starting, no gap top pass him on the left as his arse was still next to the kerb, so I go round on the right (as he is still parked) and he beeps me. I though yes I did see you, cockwomble, thats why I went round you  and didn't ride into you.

 

Irony was if he had commited to pulling out he would comfortably have got to the other side of the road with no issue to me, if only he had loked before starting he would have seen that. 

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brooksby | 6 years ago
11 likes

So if that bloke had run into a pedestrian would he also have blamed them for walking into the side of his car or something?  To approach someone from behind, hit them, and then make out that it is somehow *their* fault seems laughable.

And yet he probably thinks that he’s a safe driver, a good, upstanding, right thinking, DM reading member of society... Pillock.

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alansmurphy | 6 years ago
4 likes

I'd have adjusted my position slightly, a d-lock meeting a wing mirror often changes opinions...

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Metaphor | 6 years ago
7 likes

I am very confused by how many such drivers claim cyclists go around 'with a smug look on their face'. I find it hard at 20mph to pay any attention to the face of someone on the other side of the road to me, let alone at 30mph.

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racyrich | 6 years ago
5 likes

Incredible restraint. I'd have hit him.

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don simon fbpe | 6 years ago
2 likes

Wanker!

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Hirsute | 6 years ago
1 like

Disappointed that 'road tax' was not mentioned

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DaveE128 | 6 years ago
5 likes

should report to www.operationcrackdown.org if it is still quite recent.

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Russell Orgazoid | 6 years ago
16 likes

Arrogant? What irony.

Daft old twat couldn't wait to pass safely but wanted to chat about it for far longer parked in a junction. Cockmuncher.

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Paul_C replied to Russell Orgazoid | 6 years ago
13 likes

Plasterer's Radio wrote:

Arrogant? What irony.

Daft old twat couldn't wait to pass safely but wanted to chat about it for far longer parked in a junction. Cockmuncher.

 

the instant he came out with 'you people are so arrogant' I simply knew he is a Daily Mail reader...

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burtthebike | 6 years ago
11 likes

But I'm sure, from all the fb and twitter comments, that it really is the cyclists who are arrogant.

Seriously, the attitude of the driver, while not universal, is far too prevalent.  The idea that they own the road and that they don't have to consider anyone else or drive safely around them is embedded in quite a few people.  Andy was right not to waste his breath arguing, somebody that opinionated isn't going to listen to reason.

Rather surprised that the police did nothing, so did Andy try following it up?

Never mind, I'm sure the driver's friends will make his errors clear to him http://rate-driver.co.uk/GV57UKL

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srchar | 6 years ago
9 likes

Well handled. No point wasting your time on an argument with someone like that, however civil it may be.

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