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news
Driving instructor blasts close pass from motorist (credit - Moose Driving, Facebook)Alliance of British Drivers says there can be “extenuating circumstances” for close passes after driving instructor blasts “poor mistake” by motorist
The Alliance of British Drivers has argued that there can be “extenuating circumstances” for some close passes, after a driving instructor posted a video on social media of a motorist dangerously overtaking a cyclist towards an oncoming vehicle.
The clip, which shows a truck driver narrowly squeezing past a cyclist on Rugby Road, West Bridgford, while forcing an oncoming motorist to stop, was shared last week by Nottingham-based driving instructor Chris Allsopp.
“This van chose to pass the cyclists with minimum clearance, and encroached on our side of the road forcing us to move left and stop to avoid a collision,” Allsopp wrote on his Moose Driving Facebook page.
“If they planned ahead, slowing on approach to the cyclist, they could have timed their pass much more safely. Hopefully the cyclist wasn’t too shaken after this nasty incident today.”
Speaking to Nottinghamshire Live, the driving instructor said he felt compelled to share the incident to raise awareness of the “poor” decisions made by some drivers when passing cyclists.
“I happened to be driving when I saw that. I am a driving instructor and I could see this developing from down the road,” he said.
“I knew I had to take action. I drive about eight hours a day, and I see many drivers in traffic. Even very good drivers can make poor mistakes. And this was a poor mistake.
“[The overtake] appeared to be less than the recommended 1.5m clearance. I always tell my students to always leave as much space as they would want if they were on a bike.”
Responding to the clip, Neil Greig, director of policy and research at the road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, said the dangerous overtake serves as a reminder to motorists to adhere to the Highway Code, which “makes it clear that all drivers and riders travelling at speeds of up to 30mph should leave at least 1.5m, or 5ft, when passing cyclists – and they should leave more space at higher speeds”.
Greig added: “It’s important to give cyclists the room, and time, to pass them safely. If it’s not safe, then don’t overtake. All road users must share the road safely, and be mindful of those more vulnerable to injury, such as cyclists.
“Those driving larger vehicles, and employers using commercial vehicles, need to be even more aware of their responsibility to share the road safely. It’s important to take the time to learn the rules and not take decisions on the road that could cause an accident – ignorance of code and the law is no defence.”
However, the video was met with a somewhat different response from Ian Taylor, the director of the pro-motoring pressure group the Alliance of British Drivers, who argued that “extenuating circumstances” can lead to motorists giving cyclists insufficient space on the road.
“Just because we are pro-drivers, that does not make us anti-cyclists. We are all on the road together,” Taylor said.
“He [the driving instructor] is right to remind drivers of the recommendation [to leave 1.5m space when overtaking] because sometimes the cycling fraternity can get too picky about this too.
“However, in general, I can say that there can be extenuating circumstances if something had suddenly appeared in the way that the driver needs to make more room for it.
“Not allowing the full width may have been the only way out from an even worse situation. I want to say that we are not different tribes – drivers and cyclists.”
That particular statement is certainly not atypical of the Alliance of British Drivers’ approach to close passes involving people on bikes.
Last April, the group described a court’s decision to convict a motorist for careless driving as “idiotic” and “pathetic sucking up the cycling lobby”.
The ABD – which aims to promote “the interests and concerns of Britain’s drivers” – responded to footage of a close pass posted on Twitter by the Sheffield North West Neighbourhood Policing Team, which resulted in the driver receiving a £417 fine and their licence endorsed with five penalty points.
The clip showed the moment the approaching driver passed a group of oncoming cyclists too closely, at what the officers described as “excessive speed”. The police also added that “if anyone thinks this is an acceptable manner of driving, let this be your warning”.
COURT RESULT: CARELESS DRIVING. The driver of this vehicle decided to pass a group of cyclists at excessive speed and far too closely. Fined £417 in total, licence endorsed with 5 points. If anyone thinks this is an acceptable manner of driving, let this be your warning. pic.twitter.com/zInKYa84cc
— Sheffield North West NPT (@SheffNW_NPT) April 21, 2022
The ABD then launched a prolonged online attack on the court’s decision, retweeting the footage with the caption “If your [sic] weren’t already convinced that the police are out to get you…”
The alliance described the fine and penalty points issued to the driver as an “idiotic decision that undermines the credibility of the courts and the police”.
The group’s account added: “We all know there are fanatics who want drivers to stop and bow down before every cyclist. If the police foolishly choose to side with them it will damage the relationship with the public.”
The alliance then claimed that the prosecution was evidence of “pathetic sucking up to the cycling lobby”, and described the police’s publicising of the incident as “vile threats” which “make it abundantly clear whose side you are on”.
“This is not policing, this is intimidation,” the account wrote. The group also criticised the use of the term “victims” to describe those on the receiving end of close passes, labelling it a “joke”.
The Sheffield North West officers, on the other hand, were keen to dismiss what they described as anti-cycling “whataboutery”, pointing out that if the offending motorist “had simply driven to the conditions at a less dangerous speed and stayed on his own side of the road he wouldn’t have been prosecuted”.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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Don't open at Edinburgh Fringe with that one.
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65 comments
What else would you expect from the Alliance of Bad Drivers?
There are situations where I don't mind being passed at a distance that is too close legally. A difficult road to pass on for long stretches, and a car that is accelerating from my speed and thus passing at a small speed difference, for instance. If the driver is reasonably certain that they may pass without having to hit me even if traffic appears from the other direction, and they keep 0.5m instead of 1m of distance - I'm not mad. It's not ok, but the driver is obviously mindful of my safety, so I'm not angry about it. Also, if the lane is almost, but not quite, wide enough to pass at 1.5m, and the driver has slowed down reasonably, I forgive it.
What I do very much mind is blasting past me with 100km/h, likely more, barely not hitting me with the mirror while gambling that they will make it past me before the traffic coming the other way is there. When you see cars coming the other way doing evasive manouevres, you have every reason to be concerned about your safety. Worse than that is only this kind of close pass when there is no traffic whatsoever, purely to scare and "punish" me for being on the road. This gives you no warning and the shock and the rush of adrenaline is something else. These kinds of maneouvres have genuinely made me want to sit at the side of the road and cry.
There is close passing and there is close passing - not that I'm condoning or approving of it, but you can close pass without risking life and limb of those you pass, and if you show appropriate respect for my safety without adhering to the law to the letter, I'll look the other way and bear you no hard feelings.
how is a driver mindful of your safety by leaving you only about a foot and a half ? theyre still prioritising themselves above you by not waiting for a safer space to overtake, the average road bike handle bar width is about 40-42cms, so theyre giving you handlebars and a tiny bit extra as space, thats not enough room unless theyre stationary.
I get that over the years as a rider you get de-sensitized to being passed closely, and that many of the passes we experience technically break the 1.5m, and remember at 100kph it should be more than that, but feel "normalised" in the context of you are used to it, you can cope with it, and there arent enough hours in the day to report every single pass like that.
but I think theyre still wrong and we shouldnt allow them to be acceptable, as I think the consequence of allowing them is alot of drivers then adopt a, well as long as we dont hit you I can pass you attitude that results in the 0.5metre and less passes. Theyve probably never sat on a bike and been passed by a vehicle that closely or understand the draft their vehicle is creating in those situations
I got passed yesterday by an SUV, probably 3-4feet away,so a technical violation but probably wouldnt have triggered me normally, though they had a whole lane free they could have used so not sure why they chose what they did. But with the strength of the wind I was riding into and the size/speed of the vehicle there was a huge aero wash off it as they passed that felt like I got kicked 6 inches sideways, probably less in reality but when the draft hits you like that it feels quite a big push and quite horrible, and could have meant I then hit something on the road my original line had been avoiding or even lost control completely and ended up in a ditch, or worse down on the road so the next vehicle behind can drive over me.
none of which would have been potential outcomes had the driver given me the space, that they had and could have given, but chose not to because they didnt hit me right, and it wasnt that close, but they clearly werent aware in their sealed box the effect the wind can have and what effects their vehicle has in the wind.
'The driver of this vehicle decided to pass a group of cyclists at excessive speed and far too closely.'
That oncoming vehicle was driven at the cyclists, given the driver had the whole lane to stay in but chose not to; I would put that action in the same category as a deliberate 'punishment' close pass, not the usual impatient close pass overtake.
no problem
close pass me on my bike and the footage goes to the police, I'm up to 100 video submisdions so far this year to police, the drivists have to start thinking is it worth getting somewhere 5 seconds quicker or a fine or earning letter
ZERO TOLERANCE FROM ME
I'm up to 100 video submisdions so far this year to police, the drivists have to start thinking is it worth getting somewhere 5 seconds quicker or a fine or warning letter
This is a sad delusion: none of them are getting fines or points, some of them may be getting warning letters, which are worthless because if the driver does it again, they just get either nothing or another warnng letter next time.
“Not allowing the full width may have been the only way out from an even worse situation. I want to say that we are not different tribes – drivers and cyclists".
2 pieces of metal hitting each other versus turning your lump of metal into a human being... We are different tribes!
I think this could be reduced to "Association of Bad Drivers" want the right to drive badly and are angry about laws that prohibit gambling with other people's lives.
They haven't been able to provide a single example of a situation where a close pass would be safer than hanging back and waiting ...because there isn't one.
The ABD is basically just a Facebook group for the homicidally incompetent.
I feel the need to spread The Association of Bad Drivers far and wide.
I will attempt to use it wherever possible in place of its handy acronym which might confuse a reader with it being a meritorious organisation worthy of being listened to.
Perhaps if the driver sees someone on the right-hand side of the road about to throw a brick at a cyclist ahead of their vehicle, but it's quite a narrow road and the driver intervenes to prevent the brick from hitting the cyclist, taking a dent to the side of their vehicle in order to save the cyclist from serious injury, but close-passing them (at low speed, of course) in doing so...?
I get the same feeling reading that as I do when I hear somebody explain that GPS speed limiters would be a bad thing as they couldn't accelerate out of trouble. If you're driving well there are very few (if any) situations where easing off or braking isn't the best option.
Nonsense. We all know that for the sudden appearance of
cyclists in front of youtidal waves, landslips, falling chimneys, terrorist (or other) attack the only thing to do is put pedal to metal...You forgot the many many times when you're on tower bridge and they start to raise it so you have to accelerate to jump the gap, maybe we could automatically disable the gps limiter for that 100 yard stretch of road?
Oh yes, good point that could happen to anyone. And there are more widespread used for this safety feature. Suppose you've started driving over a level crossing after the lights were flashing (who can see them when it's sunny?) and sirens sounding (can't hear those inside!). Possibly having carefully driven around a half-barrier to avoid being hit by it. What can you do to avoid the train except accelerate!
And if you find you've gone past a red light which hadn't become established...
Actually, it's a wonder they fit cars with a brake, the number of times the accelerator can get you out of trouble!
GPS limiter? Imagine how boring the Dukes of Hazzard wuld have been...
Neil Greig is the person who excused IAM publications publishing anti-cycling rants from its members (the one I originally complained about contained the suggestion that it was "the lycra brigade's" fault if they were injured for not using a cycling facility if there was one).
Given they've just published another fact-free anti-cycling missive, I'm not so sure that IAM walk the walk.
extenuating circumstances could be something which are likely to be distracting the drivers mental state, In which case they really shouldnt be behind the wheel in the first place.
How it can ever be an excuse to endanger another road user is deplorable. How about "Sorry I mounted the pavement and mowed down 3 children on the way to school, there were extenuating circumstances that led me to make a poorly judged decision, your honour"
"Extenuating Circumstances" - of course there can be, but you'd better be prepared to argue them in court. In my experience the main extenuating circumstance seems to be "My lord I was totally incapable of lifting my foot off the accelerator - and as for putting my foot on the brake, well ...? Oh come on, be reasonable!"
Of course, if the driver was concentrating so hard on the cyclists, there is the well known effect of steering in the direction you're looking.
From the article :
“However, in general, I can say that there can be extenuating circumstances if something had suddenly appeared in the way that the driver needs to make more room for it."
It would appear that at one time Gloucestershire Constabulary agreed with this statement.
https://road.cc/content/news/nmotd-674-driver-inconveniences-cyclist-288521
However they seem to have changed their minds in this almost identical example.
https://road.cc/content/news/near-miss-day-848-299017
May be the Alliance of British Drivers aren't aware of this apparent change in the enforcement of poor driving around cyclists and need to be educated.
Does one have to be British to be in the Alliance of British Drivers? Is this for gammons only?
For full membership you must have the following:
A twitter account, a subscription to the MailOnline, Drive a German branded estate car and (optional) be a tory donor
And less than a plurality of brain cells.
Tories don't ride bikes?
Bunch of motorists claim that motorists are not to blame for poor quality of their motoring.
Association of Bad Drivers tries to excuse bad driving in shock announcement. Need I say more?
I miss Martin.
(With apologies to rich_cb) Not interested in maps?
🤣
It's possible the ABD might be able to supply you with contact details.
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