Jeremy Vine narrowly avoids being hit by driver as MPs call for cycle lane to be scrapped; Close pass on children riding to school; Tao hints at Giro defence in 2021; Cloud 9 Cycles launch £10,000 diversity scholarship + more on the live blog

Complain to your local Police Crime Commissioner.

Very amusing! The Lancashire PCC has a staff who know very little about policing, simply sit around writing Policing Care Plans and always defer to the police over operational matters. There simply is no second tier complaints system at Lancashire Constabulary, and the first tier (where some policeman shamelessly takes several months to agree with whatever the first policeman said) is as bent as you would expect. However, when I collect enough cases of refusal to prosecute red light crashing drivers, I will follow it through to the end, as well as writing to Ben Wallace, MP. You must have cast iron evidence, but the police now have the pretend prosecution dodge where they claim to be prosecuting, take statements etc., but know that they can delay the case for at least 2 years by blaming the courts. Offending drivers know this, so they just don't respond to NIPs.

"Not invented here" is the problem you're up against - somehow, you've got to get the other guy to recognise and take ownership of the problem for himself.

Your driver hasn't in their eyes done anything to cause wider/moral offence - unless he was a cyclist, of course, then we'd never hear the end of it. 

Grannies and eggs here but my guess is that this is seen as a trivial, victimless, technical breach. My little bit of experience of enforcement is very clear that you identify and stay out of grudge matches and away from (what you perceive as) fanatics and zealots. 

In describing all the above, don't get me wrong I'm not for one moment endorsing it, just the reality of it.  Under this paradigm, you won't get them to take action - the shutters are up.  A moment might arise where you can tear them down and shame them into action - very nice, but where does that leave you in the longer term? 

Get back to your objective and think about your approach how to achieve it  - my suggestion is that you don't batter the other guy, rather you seek to include him, get him on board.  

Good luck!

Don't worry, Road.cc have got you covered.  

I was trying to catch "will you profit from Brexit?", which has a picture of Nigel Farage (as opposed to fake Nigel). Whose picture should there instead? 

I don't really understand how Jeremy Vine gets involved in so many near misses. I guess if you spend more time on the road you are more likely to encounter dangerous driving but I've commuted by bike for years must be quite lucky to have experienced an only a small number of incidents of bad driving in that time.

Do you aslo live in London in a high density area?

I find myself on the end of plenty of close passes although left hooks and junctions inceidents are fewer.

cyclefaster wrote:

I don't really understand how Jeremy Vine gets involved in so many near misses. I guess if you spend more time on the road you are more likely to encounter dangerous driving but I've commuted by bike for years must be quite lucky to have experienced an only a small number of incidents of bad driving in that time.

I know what you are saying but in London especially, it's very dependant on which part you are in and on what roads. The west end especially is a crap hole for idiot driving especially, and presumably that's where a lot of his near misses come from

I find if I'm on my slow singlespeed I get many more close passes than on my road bike. I put it down to a lack of patience 

cyclefaster wrote:

I don't really understand how Jeremy Vine gets involved in so many near misses. I guess if you spend more time on the road you are more likely to encounter dangerous driving but I've commuted by bike for years must be quite lucky to have experienced an only a small number of incidents of bad driving in that time.

I'm making police reports for close passes and related incidents weekly. Some of you must have great segregated cycling infrastructure...

You have been very lucky or you don't think giving less than1.2m is a close pass. I've just got back from a trip into Cheltenham. I reckon about 5 close passes on the fast road into town and one left hook in the middle of town. Not unusual in recent weeks.

I am wondering whether it has anything to do with having my camera mounted on the front of the bike. When I cycle with the camera mounted on top of my helmet I seem to get less. May be it's subjective. Any one else with similar experience?

ive got two drift ghost x's on my helmet, one on the right hand side pointing back at traffic, one on my left looking ahead. So even on a 60 mph road, nobody got close to me, every single driver waited for a moment then moved out into the other lane. Either i got lucky, or the camera is visible enough to act as a deterent.

Perhaps it is a case of getting used to it. I do cycle in a built up area but over time my commute has changed to my preferred route rather than the most direct. I prefer moving traffic to slowing and speeding up at lights and junctions as thats where I see the close passes.

I've been knocked off the once and surprisingly i was ok about it. We are all human and make mistakes. I could tolerate it being a careless driver drifting out from a junction without looking properly rather than a deliberate choice to make a dangerous and reckless move than puts people at risk if that makes sense.

It does make sense and I agree. When I first commuted I started cyling in on a main road into Cheltenham. I had a racing bike and could go quite fast but I got annoyed at drivers overtaking at 60 mph within a foot of me. I just thought it was something I had to put up with. I had a break from cycling for a number of years and when I started up again I took the same route. The close passes became more common and eventually I found a route through the local racecourse and then onto a cycle path along a disused railway line. Little bits of relatively quiet roads in between made quieter by the time I used to travel, arriving at work around 8:15. It was slower but much more enjoyable with less pollution in my lungs. I cycled evry day for 2 years till I retired.

I carried on cycling for getting around after I retired and learned to accept that motorists didn't like the fact that I would keep catching them up and overtaking them. I could choose what time I cycled most of the time so I chose the quiter times. Eventually I decided that I had as much right as motorists to use the roads and found this site. It lead me to getting a camera which I tried out a few times and then lost interest. Then came lockdown and I realised how enjoyable cycling could be. I also realised that many people would be put off cycling when lockdown ended and felt that we had a duty to try and restore a bit of order to our roads in order to get people on their bikes. I got a camera and I am just starting to submit footage. It's not easy with Gloucestershire but they now have a site that allows footage to be uploaded that I am trying to work out how to use. There is never any shortage of footage.

I just wish that the police would give you feedback and that careless drivers could be given advice but aggressive drivers could be given something more serious.

cyclefaster wrote:

I don't really understand how Jeremy Vine gets involved in so many near misses. I guess if you spend more time on the road you are more likely to encounter dangerous driving but I've commuted by bike for years must be quite lucky to have experienced an only a small number of incidents of bad driving in that time.

I commute Peckham-Chelsea-Peckham three or four times a week and it's a very rare ride that I'm not at least one of badly close passed, left hooked, nearly hit by red-light-running drivers (and cyclists, I regret to say) and/or sworn at and physically threatened. It's bad and it's been getting worse in recent months, I'm sure as a result of the Daily Mail and others campaigning against cyclists. I quite enjoy it, in a perverse sort of way, a bit like running with the bulls at Pamplona, but I can see why less experienced or robust riders (I'm a 14 stone and 6 foot ex-rugby player who's been riding in London nearly forty years) would be badly put off.

It's not just my imagination, by the way, police are currently prosecuting four drivers on the basis on videos I've sent them since the beginning of October, and I only send them the very worst could-have-been-fatal incidents.

cyclefaster wrote:

I don't really understand how Jeremy Vine gets involved in so many near misses. I guess if you spend more time on the road you are more likely to encounter dangerous driving but I've commuted by bike for years must be quite lucky to have experienced an only a small number of incidents of bad driving in that time.

I think it depends on the time of day and particular roads.

When I was commuting, I was submitting a close pass maybe one or two times a month on average. Now that I've been cycling different roads and at different times, I haven't had a close pass for months which is great. (Hope I haven't just cursed myself)

certainly the roads I would normally be commuting on are an absolute magnet for them, but since the first lockdown ended the roads everywhere, even the ones in the middle of nowhere, have just felt alot more hostile for cycling on lately,  Id say Im having to review approx 5 incidents per ride at the moment for submission to the police, and their response at the moment is just to send the letter due to Covid, so it feels like whats the point anyway.

But then they are dealing with things like they had a speed check in a village I often cycle through, they caught a bus,with passengers, being driven at 44mph in a 30mph limit, and that wasnt even the fastest speed they recorded. Or another road I cycle on alot, a lorry driver drove into a cyclist at a roundabout, the cyclist then had to be airlifted to Addenbrookes in a critical condition.

I've commuted into Central London by bike for around 20 years. I became oblivious to all but the most egregious close classes or dangerous driving.

This year, for obvious reasons, I've been working from home and using my evening commute times to do a training loop or laps of Richmond Park.

I noticed that I quite quickly became more aware of the number of close passes I received on a daily basis.

0-0 wrote:

Breaking News: Cycle lane asks for Tory MPs to be scrapped. 😉

Jetmans Dad wrote:

Perhaps it is a peculiarly British disease. 

It's not. I'm in the U.S., and it's much the same here.

Whilst I'd certainly advocate & support riding in the middle of the lane on roads like that,from bitter experience I can assure you it doesnt completely stop those types of shenanigans.ive had more than a few face offs with drivers who will not yield to cyclists in those positions.

I never imagined you as a built like a brick shit house.