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news
The best excuse for a close pass everVideo: Driver gives best excuse ever for close pass
Everyone's had a driver pass a bit too close and perhaps taken the chance to remonstrate with them at the next lights. YouTube helmet cammer matthew6476 asked a driver for a bit more room next time and got the best response ever from an apologetic but understandably preoccupied driver.
Matthew's made the video private because, he says, he "cant be doing with the hassle from morons" on YouTube attacking him for posting videos. We've left it here in case he reconsiders.
Meantime, here's how it goes. The driver passes him without leaving much room. Matthew catches him at the next lights and taps on his window.
The driver rolls it down and Matthew asks: "Can you just give us a bit more room next time please?"
The driver opens the top of his coat to reveal a brightly-coloured bird as you can see in this still.
"I'm sorry," the driver replies, "but I've got a parrot dying on me."
Monty Python would be proud.
We hope the parrot pulled through.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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25 comments
I bet this is *exactly* what Tim Berners-Lee had in mind when he devised the world wide web 25 years ago...
The parrot could be unwell because he usually goes by Nissan but he was pining for the Fords...I'll get my coat
Fuck that, i'll upload it.
I saw the video before it became private. The passing distance was around 2 feet (it's easy to work out, just look at the bicycle's line and the car's tyres).
Far too close. All the guy is doing is asking people to be more considerate. If some people here think that that's "not doing us any favours" then perhaps THEY'RE the ones who shouldn't be out cycling.
Got to agree with Beefy, if the cyclist thinks it a close pass, it's a close pass.
Fair enough, the driver apologises but he could still be more considerate.
Also, what's the driver doing at the lights when he's caught up with?
Twatting around with his mobile.
Computer controlled cars cannot arrive too quickly for me. With humans behind the wheel it's a lottery; so far I've been lucky.
The video doesn't play, says it's private. Is it just me?
Not just you; same for me
Some of the trolling and threats were pretty serious, as he was posting under his real name rather than anonymously I guess he had enough.
The irony is that after the recent twitter court cases there's probably a greater chance of someone receiving a prison sentence for threatening to run a cyclist over (via social media), than if they actually did it.
Just reviewed a few of this guys uploads and he isn't doing cyclists any favours
Obvious troll is obvious.
Obvious troll is obvious.
Is the parrot okay, is what I want to know
Scouser or not that sounded an awful lot like "sorry". Never heard that from a driver before
Close ??? I'm from Merseyside and I'd say that was about average , if I remonstrated with every driver that passed me like that I would get my face caved in daily. Sometimes the head cam can make the wearer feel invincible and that's dangerous
Welcome to Scouse world. Standard response to any slight is death threats. Anyone slightly dissenting from that judgement is instantly a paedo (misspelt obviously).
What a sill thing to say (spelt correctly)
All southerners are orange
All cyclists run red lights
All scouters, are thugs,
Yorkshire police don't lie
Wake up my friend people are people good and bad all over the world in all walks of life. Nice people horrid people even silly people who think stereo types are real.
Except the stereotype for Audi drivers. That one is mostly true.
What an idiot, spelt correctly
Ah of course, because the footage is in liverpool, all the respondents onyoutube have to from liverpool - I get how this internet thing works now
Youtube parasites like the ones spoken of are known for being complete and utter scum, unfortunately it's what goes with the territory and being a helmet-cammer thats going to happen, right or wrong.
Personally I didn't think that was a close pass, not close enough to remonstrate with a driver at least, I am passed like that all the flippin' time. If the cyclist thinks that was a close pass to cause concern enough for him to catch the driver up and object like that he should perhaps consider leaving the bike at home.
Its a wide angle lens. If it had touched his bars it still would have looked far away. The point is - if a cyclist feels the need to ask a driver like that then it WAS a close pass.
Your own desensitisation of close passes could actually be putting you at risk if you're overconfident that they will hold their line or that you wont encounter diesel or a pothole.
Not so worried about his parrot that he left his mobile phone alone.
I just made the mistake of reading the comments on youtube.
Even by the standards of that site, they're pretty repulsive. It's just a string of yobs threatening to punch him in the face, run him over and wishing his family had cancer.
It seems they're Radio 1 listeners, which featured it earlier. Nice.
I'd have been tempted to say that I don't care if it's a fecking Norwegian Blue I could have been an 'ex-person' !