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news
Near Miss of the Day 534: Motorist justifies bad driving by telling cyclist "You don't pay road tax"
A motorist excused her poor driving by telling a cyclist "You don't pay road tax" - even though no such thing exists, and if people on bikes were required to pay Vehicle Excise Duty, as it is correctly known, they would do so at the same rate as drivers of electric cars, ie zero.
The clip, filmed in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, was sent in by road.cc reader Lyndon, who said it happened on his commute home from work.
"The lady in the vehicle came up very, very close to me at a red light," Lyndon said. "Her reasoning became clear later when she explained since I don’t pay road tax, her behaviour is justifiable.
"I doubt the police would even send her a warning, even with video of her justifying her own bad driving."
A couple of days earlier, Lyndon had sent us a compilation of close passes, telling us: "I went out for a ride today for 3 hours, and the following clip shows what happened during that ride.
"It’s becoming clearer to me that a small minority of drivers actively attempt to pass as close as possible, or intentionally put cyclists into dangerous positions with their driving.
"I rarely react anymore, I don’t bother telling drivers to be more aware at traffic lights. Today I cycled alongside a man driving with his elbows while eating a Big Mac. I tapped my helmet to say 'what are you thinking' to which he accelerated and sped off.
"It’s a feeling of being numb, this is what’s not only acceptable, but normal. I’ve been hit twice by cars, and hospitalised once, with countless near misses.
"Is it a matter of time before i am seriously injured or worse, just so a driver can check their phone or get to the red light three seconds faster?"
"It’s utterly dumbfounding that during a national lockdown there is so much 'essential' bad driving," he added.
> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?
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.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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48 comments
"charged with Common Assault and Public Order offences and was sentenced to a Community Order, three months curfew at his home from 8am - 8pm, and ordered to pay £85 court fines."
Thanks, RH, but was the curfew 8pm-8am? I can see some logic in either!
I C&P'd that from the video, that's what it said, now one thinks about it the overnight curfew would be more common! Perhaps he was a night worker (might explain why he was such a ratty git!) and so that allowed him out for work but no socialising?
it feels more like we are targetted for close passes, or mgifs at the moment, if thats what you mean, almost like drivers are taking out their frustration about lockdown on things they perceive as having more freedom.
In before the misplaced pedantry about "It's not a tax, it's a license!"
I thought it was a Duty 🤔
It's spelled "licence" in UK English.
A change of strategy of your pedentary, hmmm...
Probably more a change of tactics, though
The phrase "You can't argue with an idiot" springs to mind.
They'll drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience?
Ha!! (above)
She has the idea that because she thinks cyclists don't pay road tax
she can endanger their lives?!
I would've done Police complaints about all of those drivers.
Here in NZ it's easy to do a complaint on the net but they only get a letter. At least it's something formal.
Formal complaint need a visit to the Police station etc.
Formal complaint need a visit to the Police station etc.
Lancashire Constabulary are ahead of you there! The police stations have mostly been closed down to reduce access by the public with their annoying complaints.
I've got a complaint in with Lancs plod at the moment, after being very nearly flattened by a maniac in an X5 last month. I'm waiting for the police to write to them to 'ask' them who was driving it at the time. I fully expect the driver will have a senior moment and forget, plod will then say case closed, no futher action, to the worst near miss I have had in almost 40 years of cycling. Once I get a result I'm hoping to post it on here.
Good work BP! That means 2 of us at least, harassing them. You will recall that I always say 'keep going', and I (as you may have seen elsewhere on here) am on and on and on at them about a gross red light offence that they decided to quietly bin back in July but have been claiming 'the neighbourhood policing team are aware and dealing' until last week when it changed to 'case closed, no action' and then refused to tell me who had made the decision. I will post somewhere when something happens.
Sadly i received a phone call today to tell me that after viewing the footage, PC thinks that I am in the wrong, not the X5 which passed me with no inches to spare. Apparently I am in the wrong and am fortunate that I am not being charged with driving without due care, on a bike. (Shakes head)
I truly give up.
A not uncommon dodge. Blackpool's comedy turn Sgt Lavin wrote the following to me, threatening to give me a good 'going over':
The second set of images regarding the White Fiat PJ64 VZS has once again completed the overtake safely although has come over to the opposite side of the carriageway more than the Honda. This does appear to be as a result of you coming over to the middle of the road more than would appear necessary.
I would like to draw your attention to the offence below which does carry a fine of up to Level 3 (£1,000):
Section 29 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 creates the offence of cycling on a road without due care and attention or reasonable consideration.
S. 29 If a person rides a cycle on a road without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road, he is guilty of an offence.
As I have mentioned previously in correspondence with you, The role of the police is to keep the public safe and investigate fairly and impartially any offences reported and as such I suspect that an offence has been committed by yourself but I would need to see the full footage to determine what offences have been committed by any parties.
You see, it was me who forced this fine upstanding driver to illegally cross the double white line in a dangerous position! I offered the footage again, as I had done previously. I never heard from him again. The LC complaints procedure concluded that he hadn't threatened to prosecute me! LC is indeed as bent as a nine bob note, but it's still worth aggravating them. Don't doubt yourself!
How are LC suggesting that the Fiat can make a safe pass on that road? If you're in the gutter then there isn't 1.5m to give you without crossing the lie!
"like trying to play chess with a pigeon — it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory"
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