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news
Motorist reverses into cyclist on bike lane (The Travelling Dr Neal)“Arrogant” driver who reversed into cyclist on protected bike lane, before accusing him of trying to “break” his car, offered educational course
A motorist who reversed into a cyclist while sitting in a protected cycle lane, before accusing the startled cyclist of attempting to damage his car, was forced to complete a driver education course as punishment for the dangerous manoeuvre, prompting the rider to argue that “they got off lightly”.
The bizarre incident, captured by the cyclist and uploaded to their ‘The Travelling Dr Neal’ YouTube channel, took place in January on Lancaster Road in Leicester, as the rider approached a stationary car parked on a bike lane protected by plastic bollards.
However, just as the cyclist stopped behind the vehicle, its driver began to reverse into his path, appearing to hit his bike’s front wheel before coming to a halt, prompting the rider to slap the rear of the car while exclaiming: “Woah, woah, Jesus!”
After the cyclist mounted the kerb, the motorist then rolled down his window and asked, “Are you trying to break my car?”
“Are you trying to reverse into a cyclist? You’re in the cycle lane, mate. You’ve got mirrors,” the baffled cyclist responded, to which the driver replied: “I know I’m in the cycle lane, but don’t try to damage my car. Be careful.”
After the motorist carried on reversing in the cycle lane before driving off, the clearly shaken cyclist told a passer-by, who stopped to ask if he was “alright”, before referring to the driver as an “idiot”, that “I thought he’d seen me, so I just stopped behind him. But then he started to reverse into me.”
“Thank you to the nice woman who stopped to check I was OK,” the cyclist added as part of a caption at the end of the clip.
“It’s a shame I can’t say the same about the arrogant, condescending driver who reversed into me then had the gall to accuse me of trying to damage his car. Oh, the hypocrisy!”
> Jeremy Vine's lucky escape as bike run over by reversing driver who turned onto cycle lane
According to the cyclist, the motorist was offered a driver education course by Leicestershire Police as an alternative to prosecution, which they have since attended and completed.
“I think they got off lightly, and I’m not even sure which rule of the Highway Code applies here,” the cyclist said.
“I have a feeling that the educational course will have little effect in this case. I hope I am wrong.”
The baffling incident in Leicester bears a striking resemblance to a close call experienced by cycling broadcaster Jeremy Vine in London in September, which saw the BBC and Channel 5 presenter left desperately banging on the back of a van as its driver reversed over his bike after mistakenly turning onto a segregated cycle lane.
Describing the driver’s actions – which prompted other motorists to blare their horns in a bid to make him stop – as “unbelievable”, Vine shared the footage with his 788,000 followers on Twitter, captioning the post: “This morning. About an hour ago. Illegal right turn, then watch. Unbelievable.”
And earlier this month, as part of our Near Miss of the Day series, we featured a clip of a clearly confused driver who somehow made their way onto a busy part of Leeds city centre reserved for cyclists and pedestrians, causing a crowd to quickly scarper, before turning onto and driving down the adjacent bike lane, where they narrowly avoided colliding with at least two surprised cyclists.
“I’ve no idea how it came to be on the square in the first place,” the cyclist who captured the footage told road.cc. “There is no road passing through the square at all and no obvious place for a car to enter without going straight over the raised kerb or entering via the cycle path.
“Until last year there was a road here connecting Boar Lane to Wellington Street, so perhaps this driver was very faithfully following an out of date sat-nav!”
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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46 comments
People seem to automatically defend a drivist over a cyclist. I had a car drive at me in my lane and expected me to get out of their way. I just stopped and asked them to reverse. It got a bit tense, apparently they didn't see me, on a straight but of road that is narrow particularly with cars parked on one side. The drivist flapped their arms, a women in a house, possibly the partner, screamed and flapped their arms. Another drivist pulling our of a junction behind rolled down their window and hurled abuse at me. A dog walker decided to stop and shout too.
Utter ridiculous. It was obvious that I was being obstructed but apparently I was in the wrong.
Motornormativity is absolute.
Or any non-drivist. A few years back, I was walking and crossing a side road not far from home. The road has particularly wide corners, especially in the direction that was ahead of me, giving excellent sight lines for anyone turning right onto it. After looking left and right, I began to cross. A driver came from the main road (ahead and to the right of me), and continued straight at me. I narrowly avoided being hit. The driver and his wife (I assume) told me I shouldn't have been in the road! When I told them I had priority as they were turning onto a road I was on - and had already started to cross anyway - they told me that was nonsense. A dog walker who had witnessed it came to their defence, as did a couple more pedestrians who most certainly *hadn't* seen the event! All of them said the car had "right of way" (using the wrong term) and that I was in the wrong. I'd lay odds on every one of them being motons.
Absolutely pathetic attitude to take.
Educational course? LMAO!!! That driver needed a 785-pound sterling fine and paid directly to the rider, maybe that fine would have gotten him to think a bit more.
Is 785 a special number where you live?
Really he should have been fined 800.05 gbp
The headlights on that car are are very heavily oxidised. I've seen cars with less severe degredation fail their MOT. Not even an advisory for it on this one, although it does have other advisories on it's latest test.
The driver was of course, right, and the entitled arrogant cyclist intent on damaging the car was wrong. Why on Earth does the cyclist think that they have the right to ride in the driver's clearly marked lane?
I'm not sure that "arrogant" is the right word for this bloke. "Entitled", maybe, or "ignorant"
He seems to be just typical of a certain mindset - "I can't park on the road cos it's double yellows and I might block traffic so I'll just park here on the cycle lane, it's not like anyone uses it…"
He still parked on double yellows and with double dashes !
Ah, but he was in the cycle lane so it doesn't count!
Deliberately hit someone who is standing still with your car: Attempted murder
Accidentally hit someone who is standing still with your car: Not fit to drive, license revoked until you can prove you are safe to drive.
Take your pick. There is no way someone who drives into a person who is standing still should be on the road, whether they are banned from society or just banned from driving should be the only question.
According to some moron on twitter the cyclist was in the blind spot, despite the car being in the centre of the camera.
"Whenever you reverse, things come from behind you Tyrone."
It was at a funny angle
Well that's rubbish because we can clearly see his wing mirror. And mirrors work both ways.
Just that the driver didn't look before reversing.
Can we really see his WING mirror?
Beetlejuice!
Not according to Judge Martin Nolan in Ireland. Tis but a momentary lapse of concentration and could happen to any of us. An actual judge said this at a cas where a French tourist was run over and killed by a drug dealer.
Another example of an unduly lenient result.
And if the driver thinks that a slap from a human hand will cause any damage to it's car then it paid way too much for it.
Ah but it wasn't a human, was it? It was - dum dum duuuum! - "a cyclist".
I can't help feeling that the good Forces like the Met and others would have prosecuted that.
Slam dunk.
But would they have prosecuted the cyclist or the motorist?
whilst I understand the reversing was a (careless, lazy, entitled, not intended) accident and the "are you trying to break my car" instead of an apology is a classic defensive overreaction, this drivers casual acceptance of "yeah I know I am in the cycle lane" is probably the bigger worry as he doesn't seem to think he has done anything wrong in the first place and will no doubt continue to do this and similar in the future
DGAF about parking regs.
Certainly DGAF about cycle lanes (bikes are for kids or juvenile dealers, innit?)
Don't touch my motor or else.
This chap is just towards the tip of a very large iceberg.
I'd be more concerned that he starts maneovring his car while totally not looking where it is going for a good few seconds.
Useless - or mean?
Perhaps they're deliberately ignoring any parking and "where you can drive" restrictions (rather common) but also incompetent at operating their vehicle? OTOH perhaps the incompetence is a cover for evil intent? It could be "both" of course!
Certainly the courts seem disposed to assume "mistake" / "poor ability" rather than "malevolence" in motoring cases. On the balance of probabilities that's probably sound...
Fairly sure reversing into someone deliberately (as it seems) is assault. Fortunately getting reversed into on the highway is rare. Been reminded that Ashley Neal still thinks JV was in the wrong for riding behind the van that reversed into him (Captain Hindsight). He also libels JV claiming he creates incidents for content (missing the irony that he created content to say this). One day he will libel the wrong person.
But of course he epitomises the statement "there's no mistake a driver can make where a cyclist is not at fault"
The Prius has a reversing camera so the cyclist was clearly visible before making his move on the cyclist
Non-cyclists like to respond to this stuff with "it doesn't matter who's right when you're dead" and "you can never be too careful."
But the thing is motorists are always coming with new things to be careful of.
What they really mean when they say this is "stop cycling on the road and let me drive like a dick without consequences please"
He's lucky the cyclist didn't chuck the bike through his back window.
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