Near Miss of the Day 540: “You were too far out in the road”

Today’s near miss sees an already close motorist steer towards a cyclist while passing him. In the ensuing argument, the driver claims he was “fully aware” of the cyclist before accusing him of “nearly causing an accident”. The driver, it seems, felt the rider was “too far out in the road”.

Lyndon writes: “This gentleman felt that my being in primary position warranted his dangerous actions. I've learned a phrase before, ‘you can't be reasonable with unreasonable people’ – words to live by if you ride a bike.”

Lyndon pointed out that the footage may seem familiar to some, as he sent a clip from the exact same set of traffic lights just one week ago.

“My riding friends joke that I'm a magnet for bad drivers, or that they see my cameras and want to be famous on YouTube,” he said.

“I rode just under 20,000km last year, most of it outside, so it appears it’s the law of averages that sees me entangled with bad drivers more often than my friends.

“What I have learned is that these incidents are examples of drivers knowingly and willingly putting a cyclist in a compromising position. It’s just not possible to get that close to knocking a cyclist down or running them off the road without making a conscious effort.”

The incident, which took place in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, has been reported to police.

“I called to report it for two reasons,” explained Lyndon. “The first being the unnecessary and close pass which forced me off the road, and the second being the gentleman shouting in my face despite Covid advice to keep two metres apart. I did ask him to step away, to no avail.

“It's just another day being targeted by an angry driver who simply cannot, or will not, understand that a cyclist does have some rights on the road. I really, truly hope the police can take action and help him to understand this, and perhaps avoid a serious incident in the future.”

> 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