Near Miss of the Day 790 updated: Cyclist gets ANOTHER close pass from same taxi the day after punishment pass

A road.cc reader on the receiving end of a suspected punishment pass from a taxi driver that we featured in our Near Miss of the Day series last week got in touch to tell us that the very next day he got another close pass from the very same vehicle.

Tom, the road.cc reader who sent in both clips – the later of the two appears above, with the incident happening at around 2 minutes 15 seconds into the video – told us that he reported the first one to the taxi firm concerned, who told him: 

Thank you all noted this has been forwarded to driver and our transport manager. Our fleet is allowed to use bus lanes appreciate safe distance should be kept by all road users and this will be addressed by us.

It looks as though that message to their drivers on safe passing distance needs to be further reinforced.

Tom also reported the original footage to Thames Valley Police, but another road.cc reader emailed us with a suggestion of another course of action that would be open to him – namely to to “report it to the council taxi licencing officer – they have the power to revoke his taxi or private hire licence.”

Here's our original article, published on Friday.

We’re heading into Oxford along the A40 for today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day feature in which the cyclist strongly suspects he was on the receiving end of a ‘punishment pass’ from a taxi driver who made a very close overtake on him as he was riding in the bus lane.

Tom, the road.cc reader who sent us the clip – the close pass itself is at around 55 seconds into the video – told us: “The following pass happened on 20th June, cycling into Oxford/Headington along the A40.

“There's a shared path to the left away from the road but at this time in the morning it's families walking to school, as I'm going along at around 20/22mph I prefer to continue along the roadway.

“In this instance I'm in the bus lane which is also for bicycle and taxi use. Here you can see a very close pass from a taxi driver who also blares their horn as they go.

“This makes me think it's a punishment pass, why I'm unsure. I assume it's because they think I shouldn't be in the bus lane, which is odd as there's a repeating blue sign for the bus lane with a picture of a bus, bicycle, and taxi in it.

“I've reported to the police already and raised a complaint with the taxi company (clearly visible on the side of the vehicle) and had the following response:

Thank you all noted this has been forwarded to driver and our transport manager. Our fleet is allowed to use bus lanes appreciate safe distance should be kept by all road users and this will be addressed by us.

“Maddening,” said Tom, who added: “I reported this to the police as soon as I got back on the 20th.”

> 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