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Near Miss of the Day 802: The most pointless overtake ever?

MUST. GET. IN FRONT...

Must get in front (or MGIF to those in the know) denotes a driver who just has to get in front of a cyclist (or any other road user, for that matter), often at truly pointless or unsafe moments, such as today's Near Miss of the Day...

Dan from Stoke-on-Trent is today's submitter, and was cycling home at the start of June when this motorist decided it was worth racing in front to make sure they could turn left and not wait behind him any longer.

The saving? "Literally one second," Dan told us.

> Near Miss of the Day 801: Van driver almost collides with cyclist... but police ignore footage, rider says

"I was cycling home from work in the Tustall area of the city when the driver of the white Mercedes decided to overtake me and then immediately turn left in front of me to save literally one second, narrowly inches from clipping my front wheel."

> 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

Dan joined road.cc in 2020, and spent most of his first year (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. At the start of 2022 he took on the role of news editor. Before joining road.cc, Dan wrote about various sports, including football and boxing for the Daily Express, and covered the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Part of the generation inspired by the 2012 Olympics, Dan has been 'enjoying' life on two wheels ever since and spends his weekends making bonk-induced trips to the petrol stations of the south of England.

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23 comments

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joe9090 | 1 year ago
1 like

Did they even bother indicating?

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mdavidford | 1 year ago
4 likes

I wish people wouldn't abuse the word 'literally' like that.

It clearly saved them less than a second.

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Philh68 | 1 year ago
8 likes

It's not saving a few seconds, it's stealing them from someone else. Any cyclist knows that the time the driver saved themselves is several seconds less than they took from you by forcing evasive action, incurring a loss of momentum and most likely having you caught in the wrong gear.

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IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
5 likes

I note that the reason it was a near miss was that the cyclist braked to avoid a collision - you can hear the timing of it on the soundtrack.. That was far worse than it looked.

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brooksby replied to IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
4 likes

Exactly, like when someone pulls out on you at a junction or on a mini roundabout: if you have to brake to avoid a collision then they did not have room to safely carry out their maneouvre.

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quiff | 1 year ago
1 like

Awful. And to compound it, did you spot the MGIF driver in the dark car overtaking the MGIF white car?! 

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Sriracha replied to quiff | 1 year ago
2 likes

What, the other Merc driver, who overtook despite the big centre-line keep left arrow? They were shifting!

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EK Spinner replied to quiff | 1 year ago
0 likes

well spotted, that was awful driving, I wonder if the lefthooker had started indicating left before (nearly) pulling out for the overtake, and the driver of the dark car (as so many do) took this as a carte blanche to save a millisecond by overtaking at a junction whn they clearly could see everything.

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Owd Big 'Ead | 1 year ago
1 like

Atrocious driving.
I'd have ridden straight into the back of them, completed a dramatic fall off the bike and sued them for every penny I could.
It's the only way these fools will learn.

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eburtthebike | 1 year ago
2 likes

The registration is clear, so was it reported to the police?

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Alessandro | 1 year ago
6 likes

That's not a case of MGIF; that's a case of DGAF (don't give a f**k). 

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AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
1 like

Normal left hook really. I had similar here on Sunday when the driver came from behind and decided to closepass / bear left when I was going "straight" on. Camera had already ran out of battery unfortunately. 

Actually feeds in to the signalling left comments from the other thread. I ALWAYS carry on straight along the main carriageway, however drivers behind and ones already at the junction seems to believe the lack of signal means I must be turning off so pull out or overtake. What is not showing on the streetview is the cars normally parked on the bend which means taking primary leads me into conflict with oncoming cars as well. 

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brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

Had the driver of the Mercedes even noticed that Dan was there?

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Sriracha replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
7 likes

That's a damn good question! I think there are some drivers who basically fail to register cyclists as road users. They see them, but that's it, and they see them as static objects. A bit like they see a litter bin on the pavement - it's there, but not really relevant to their driving decisions, and having seen it once there is no need to look again.

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Flintshire Boy replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
0 likes

.

Well put.

.

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IanMSpencer replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

I'm sure if you asked them about the incident, their perception would be that they'd left plenty of space.

I see quite a few passes where oncoming cars have had to brake or swerve, even stop, and I suspect that the driver still files it as "well judged" in their memory banks.

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eburtthebike replied to IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
2 likes

IanMSpencer wrote:

I'm sure if you asked them about the incident, their perception would be that they'd left plenty of space.

Yes, I've lost count of the number of times when I've shouted out in shock and surprise at a close pass, only for the driver to stop and tell me that they gave me plenty of room.  If they have such poor spatial awareness, should they be allowed to drive?

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stonojnr replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
2 likes

Had a driver yesterday attempt to pass on a narrow road, as i turned to shout "No!", saw the front bumper was no more than 2 inches from my leg, had they carried on with that pass, theyd have hit me. I can't begin to imagine how poor their spacial awareness was to drive like that, but I suspect drug driving had to be a major factor.

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Owd Big 'Ead replied to stonojnr | 1 year ago
2 likes

I watched a young man walk out of a pub last night, get into his car and light up a fat joint before driving away.
It was so blatant that it had to be habitual, an action carried out subconsciously.
No one else seemed to give a shit, but I reported it ASAP.

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IanMSpencer replied to Owd Big 'Ead | 1 year ago
2 likes

When my daughter was on patrol in Sheffield, it was quite regular for her to issue fixed penalty notices for smoking pot in cars. As the police had no budget for drug testing kits, they only had one alcohol breath test kit for all the patrol cars at the time, she could not stop them from driving.

I'm sure many cyclists using back lanes and quiet corners come across wide-eyed pot smokers who are going to drive once they've toked up. Either end of the pedestrian bridge by J5 of the M42 is a popular spot for example, and we quite often will comment on the reek of wacky backy when cars pass us.

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hawkinspeter replied to IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
0 likes

IanMSpencer wrote:

When my daughter was on patrol in Sheffield, it was quite regular for her to issue fixed penalty notices for smoking pot in cars. As the police had no budget for drug testing kits, they only had one alcohol breath test kit for all the patrol cars at the time, she could not stop them from driving. I'm sure many cyclists using back lanes and quiet corners come across wide-eyed pot smokers who are going to drive once they've toked up. Either end of the pedestrian bridge by J5 of the M42 is a popular spot for example, and we quite often will comment on the reek of wacky backy when cars pass us.

Could she not have hauled them back to the police station for a blood test when she could smell alcohol on their breath?

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brooksby replied to IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
0 likes

Cycling into work, every morning I can smell weed wafting out of at least one car with it's windows open.  But then that's Bristol...

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Secret_squirrel | 1 year ago
3 likes

He deserved a slap on the bodywork for that one.

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