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Video: Mercedes driver tells cycle-commuting broadcaster Jeremy Vine "f*ck your mum"

Incident caught on film happened on London's Kensington High Street...

Crimewatch presenter and BBC Radio 2 DJ Jeremy Vine has posted footage to Twitter showing a driver who had just turned across his path as he rode his bike to “f*ck his mum.”

Vine often tweets incidents filmed on his commute, with a driver jailed earlier this month after his video evidence helped secure her conviction, triggering an existing suspended sentence.

> Jeremy Vine road rage driver jailed after losing appeal

The latest incident happened on Kensington High Street, with the driver of a Mercedes turning right into side street when Vine had right of way, causing the 51-year-old, who had just been waved through by a motorist in a parked Range Rover, to hit his brakes before carrying on round the front of the vehicle after it stopped.

When Vine remonstrated with the motorist, the driver shouted at him, “F*ck your mum.”

The broadcaster observed in his tweet: “You meet a better class of person in Kensington.”

Some commenters to the post on Twitter suggested the motorist had done nothing wrong in executing the right turn, given that Vine had been filtering up the inside of a bus which had stopped to let the Mercedes turn right, though others pointed out that the cyclist had every right to carry straight on.

One cyclist familiar with the road said that they would have exercised more caution, but also criticised the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea for its parking policies.

Another reply said both parties were equally to blame.

Finally, one Twitter user pondered what may have been behind the motorist’s specific choice of words.

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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41 comments

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bendertherobot | 6 years ago
1 like

Nuance seems to be a quality that's missed, for sure. 

 

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dougie_c | 6 years ago
1 like

Cyclists need to be very wary overtaking on the left of any large vehicle, whatever lines may have been painted on the road to encourage them to do it.

It's much better to overtake on the right: the driver in front can see you more easily in their mirrors, and the cyclist can see what's happening in the lanes of oncoming traffic—like a driver waiting to turn right into a side road among the oncoming traffic. This anticipation of all players' likely actions at a distance enables a smooth riding style where momentarily easing off the pedals allows everyone to have a better day. M. Vine may have been within his rights to insist on his priority, but he could have avoided this confrontation with better road positioning that enabled better anticipation. 

Also, given the bad situation he'd got himself into, he'd have been better to jink to his right, behind the path of the turning car, rather than left, directly into its path. A collision with the side of a car, which dissipates only the cyclist's energy, would seem to me better than risking receiving the forward energy of the car.

Or he could just set off a bit earlier and chill. Especially on a route that includes Kensington High Street, where there are so many fascinating shoppers to marvel at.

 

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spen | 6 years ago
5 likes

No one seems to have mentioned that the driver, don't blame the car, entered the side road on the wrong side, something that far too many driver seem to think is acceptable nowadays

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mattsccm | 6 years ago
2 likes

The bus driver was also a contributing factor. He should not have given his right of way over the Merc. You should never do it. This is why. I refuse to move in the Mercs situation. Its the same when you are let out at the base of a T junction because a car coming from the left wants to cut the corner so flashes you out. Apart from the incorrect use of the flash you must never give away your right of way. That's why they are carved in stone. 2 cretins there.

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Darkhairedlord | 6 years ago
1 like

Both to blame.

Merc driver went across unable to see down the side of the bus.

JV went down the side of the bus unable to see if it was clear or not.

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Pinchastinkerov | 6 years ago
1 like

Cyclists can give way to other vehicles and pedestrians you know Jeremy, stopping is just another chance to show off your calves, I suppose if you don't have any then it isn't though and excercise must be a form of punishment but I feel sorry for the sheep in metal boxes and often let them pootle ahead as I know I'm gonna catch them at the next lights etc. Courtesy is a two way street.

Legally the driver should've waited but hey ho better judged by 12 than carried by 6 eh Mr Kyle? 

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to Pinchastinkerov | 6 years ago
3 likes
Pinchastinkerov wrote:

Cyclists can give way to other vehicles and pedestrians you know Jeremy, stopping is just another chance to show off your calves, I suppose if you don't have any then it isn't though and excercise must be a form of punishment but I feel sorry for the sheep in metal boxes and often let them pootle ahead as I know I'm gonna catch them at the next lights etc. Courtesy is a two way street.

Legally the driver should've waited but hey ho better judged by 12 than carried by 6 eh Mr Kyle? 

Jeremy Kyle? Wrong Jeremy (I wonder what Clarkson or Corbyn would have done?)

Besides, I don't your point is relevant, given that both participants were actually going slowly and cautiously so noone was in danger of death. Vine could have stopped, he just chose not to - same with the driver.

It was more like a ritualised fight between male animal rivals for a mate like you get on nature documentaries - where it's all carefully controlled so neither risks real injury.

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wycombewheeler replied to FluffyKittenofTindalos | 6 years ago
1 like
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:
Pinchastinkerov wrote:

Cyclists can give way to other vehicles and pedestrians you know Jeremy, stopping is just another chance to show off your calves, I suppose if you don't have any then it isn't though and excercise must be a form of punishment but I feel sorry for the sheep in metal boxes and often let them pootle ahead as I know I'm gonna catch them at the next lights etc. Courtesy is a two way street.

Legally the driver should've waited but hey ho better judged by 12 than carried by 6 eh Mr Kyle? 

Jeremy Kyle? Wrong Jeremy (I wonder what Clarkson or Corbyn would have done?)

Besides, I don't your point is relevant, given that both participants were actually going slowly and cautiously so noone was in danger of death. Vine could have stopped, he just chose not to - same with the driver.

It was more like a ritualised fight between male animal rivals for a mate like you get on nature documentaries - where it's all carefully controlled so neither risks real injury.

one with birds puffing up their plumage not the potentially dangerous ones with tusks or antlers.

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Cupov | 6 years ago
0 likes

Traffic droid alert!

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Grumpy17 | 6 years ago
4 likes

Last year I went over the bonnet of a taxi doing the same thing as this driver. His insurance paid me out.No quibbles.Fault all his.

 He f*cked his own (pre)M(i)UM

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ClubSmed | 6 years ago
5 likes

I had a similar issue when a van overtook me as it could go slightly faster than me and it is motorised so it had to.
It did not manage to overtake me by it's full length before it noticed the queue at the traffic lights 200 yards ahead so decided to signal for the BMW wanting to turn right to do so. Needless to say the BMW turned right and as the Van had slowed it's attempted overtaking I emerged and missed the bonnet of the BMW by a couple of centimetres only by my quick reactions. The BMW appologised but claimed it was the van drivers fault for waving him through (which I don't fully disagree with).
I think it comes down to realising that drivers just need to think bike! I play a game in the car with my daughter where we spot cyclists on our journey, I'm hoping that this will turn into her always looking for cyclists when she drives.

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beezus fufoon replied to ClubSmed | 6 years ago
3 likes
ClubSmed wrote:

I had a similar issue when a van overtook me as it could go slightly faster than me and it is motorised so it had to.
It did not manage to overtake me by it's full length before it noticed the queue at the traffic lights 200 yards ahead so decided to signal for the BMW wanting to turn right to do so. Needless to say the BMW turned right and as the Van had slowed it's attempted overtaking I emerged and missed the bonnet of the BMW by a couple of centimetres only by my quick reactions. The BMW appologised but claimed it was the van drivers fault for waving him through (which I don't fully disagree with).
I think it comes down to realising that drivers just need to think bike! I play a game in the car with my daughter where we spot cyclists on our journey, I'm hoping that this will turn into her always looking for cyclists when she drives.

I've also been in similar situations where pedestrians, including children have been waved to cross without the driver checking the nearside lane.

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Ush replied to beezus fufoon | 6 years ago
2 likes
beezus fufoon wrote:

I've also been in similar situations where pedestrians, including children have been waved to cross without the driver checking the nearside lane.

Good point.  Very good point.

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FluffyKittenofT... | 6 years ago
4 likes

I hate to display weakness by admitting it, but I'd find cycling on that road a bit confusing. Owing to it being extremely wide for a single lane and yet only intermittently being divided into lanes (judging from streetview there's a central line that appears and disappears at intervals).

So you can pass on the left and then you can't and then you can again. Yet the road is so wide it would seem silly to join a single file lane of traffic.

Not to mention there are those randomly parked vehicles blocking half the road (are people supposed to be using that half of the road to travel on or not? You can use it but you have to merge right every time theres' a parked vehicle, and you can't undertake except when a dividing line appears?)

I'd probably have ended up in the same position as Vine, but I'm sure I'd have wobbled to a halt as soon as I realised the turning driver wasn't planning to give way, owing to uncertainty as to whether I'd done something wrong. Vine's presumably more 'alpha' than me and his first instinct was to lock horns, I guess.

The driver's an entitled arse, judging from his emotionally-incontinent shouting, But the situation just demonstrates to me why cycling is more complicated than it needs to be.

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steviemarco | 6 years ago
2 likes

You just don't undertake a bus, full stop. Jeremy IMO you're in the wrong on that one.

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beezus fufoon | 6 years ago
1 like

personally, I would've spoken to the bus driver about giving way without checking

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muffies | 6 years ago
1 like

Cyclist is technically correct. That why we have laws.

Should the cyclist yell at the dude? probably not, but that's his call. It's still in the right regardless. Again that is WHY we have laws. You don't have to like them.

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Jackson | 6 years ago
10 likes

Agree with BTBS here. Yes you can let these things go, give up your rights and let every other road user push you around etc and then wonder why there is such a bad culture among drivers. Or act like you belong there and follow the rules properly. Letting the Merc guy cut you off isn't going to make him less of a dickhead in his next encounter with a cyclist. F*** him, he can wait his turn. 

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BehindTheBikesheds | 6 years ago
10 likes

The reason JV didn't stop and give up his priority (not his right of way) then went around the front for the confrontation is because this shit happens every day, and because it happens every day it starts to grate and grind, it turns you from a once relaxed, reasonable person into someone that thinks do you know what, fuck you. I let x slide, I let y slide, much of it just to avoid being hurt or worse and now it has to stop, I'm standing my ground to make a point that I can't be bullied out the way or have to take drastic action just avoid being killed, i'm going to protest your actions.

You get to a point where the confrontation is part of the therapy because just like the guy near the hospital a while back who launced his bike at the car or even further back the chap who was done for one punch manslaughter because someone opened a door on him, it builds and builds and builds and then boom, things get ugly and out of hand.

And the root cause of this, selfish twats like the guy in the merc, like the dipshit plod giving the cyclist grief in the 20 zone, the motorcyling cop (in london again) coming over to give the people in the correct lane hassle over their positioning/lecture on lanes, MPs opening doors on others, all the other cretins in tin cans including the killers that get off scott free, the heinous criminal inaction/actions of the MET in the michael mason case & others pathetic inaction by police forces, the inaction of government and even the shitty std of cycling who simply don't want to abide by the rules.

I totally understand why J.V. acted the way he did, talk of he should of done x is all well and good but you give a little and 'they' take, you give more and they take more and all of a sudden you're fucked no matter what you do. it's like the other thread with the guy on the roundabout, well i would have done x, well eyeballing means shit these days. in the end it will be get off your bike and walk, go around the outside, oh and the favourite, let's build infrastructure, no screw that, the infra is already there, the ONLY solution is to address the main problem and that is those that are causing the harm!

Police and government could resolve this for many, many situations just like this and certainly for more serious outcomes in a short period of time, but they won't, they like to target the victims and are gutless criminal @@@@s.

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beezus fufoon replied to BehindTheBikesheds | 6 years ago
2 likes
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

The reason JV didn't stop and give up his priority (not his right of way) then went around the front for the confrontation is because this shit happens every day, and because it happens every day it starts to grate and grind, it turns you from a once relaxed, reasonable person into someone that thinks do you know what, fuck you. I let x slide, I let y slide, much of it just to avoid being hurt or worse and now it has to stop, I'm standing my ground to make a point that I can't be bullied out the way or have to take drastic action just avoid being killed, i'm going to protest your actions.

You get to a point where the confrontation is part of the therapy because just like the guy near the hospital a while back who launced his bike at the car or even further back the chap who was done for one punch manslaughter because someone opened a door on him, it builds and builds and builds and then boom, things get ugly and out of hand.

this is the thinking of every antagonistic road user which gives rise to these situations in the first place

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srchar replied to BehindTheBikesheds | 6 years ago
6 likes
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

<long explanation of mentalities that lead to this>

A standing ovation for this post. I'm a reasonable person but I'm sick to death of being treated like shit when I swing my leg over a bike. It's actually quite depressing if you spend any time thinking about how little regard there is for human life out there. When you encounter selfish pricks at the rate you do on an average London commute, it's very easy to choose defiance over absolute safety when some arsehole decides that, because you're vulnerable, you'll cede your priority and allow them to get the back of the next queue three seconds sooner than they would have done if they'd just followed the fucking rules.

And Jesus, if "fuck your mum" is the best thing the cretin in Vine's video can come up with, I'd rescind his licence purely on the grounds that he doesn't have the intellectual capacity to safely operate a motor vehicle.

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gunswick | 6 years ago
4 likes

I would have slowed up and waved him across. When you left filter you have to watch for, and ultimately give way for right turns like that as you cannot be seen (behind both cars and busses etc). He has right of way yes yes fine, but, on planet real we have to give way to each other to help each other safely go in and out of minor roads. A quick slow up and wave over and all problems solved - maybe the driver acknowledges the inconvenience and says thank you.

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riotgibbon | 6 years ago
7 likes

My experience of these videos is that you know what's going to happen, so that clouds your judgement of it. When you're riding, most drivers are rational and careful (they really are), and would have stopped to let you through in this situation. No drama, footage gets deleted and forgotten

It's these situations that makes it easy to say 'of course, the driver was in the wrong, but if only the cyclist could see into the future and be an expert like me, then they would have avoided the situation'

Well yes, of course, but that's not life. You constantly make split second choices based on the information available to you and the assessment of risk. It's reasonable to expect a driver to avoid running​ you over, that's not 'making a point', just normal riding

I'm glad Vine puts these out, they get more traction then every other bike vid put together, just because it's that funny man off Strictly demonstrating the problems of inadequate infrastructure and selfish attitudes. They tell a different story to the popular notion of 'Camera Vigilante', i think they help make a difference

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Daveyraveygravey replied to riotgibbon | 6 years ago
6 likes
riotgibbon wrote:

My experience of these videos is that you know what's going to happen, so that clouds your judgement of it. When you're riding, most drivers are rational and careful (they really are), and would have stopped to let you through in this situation. No drama, footage gets deleted and forgotten It's these situations that makes it easy to say 'of course, the driver was in the wrong, but if only the cyclist could see into the future and be an expert like me, then they would have avoided the situation' Well yes, of course, but that's not life. You constantly make split second choices based on the information available to you and the assessment of risk. It's reasonable to expect a driver to avoid running​ you over, that's not 'making a point', just normal riding I'm glad Vine puts these out, they get more traction then every other bike vid put together, just because it's that funny man off Strictly demonstrating the problems of inadequate infrastructure and selfish attitudes. They tell a different story to the popular notion of 'Camera Vigilante', i think they help make a difference

 

I completely agree, and if there is just one clueless fucker in a car who doesn't turn across someome because of this, then it is all worth it.  

I don't think infrastructure has anything to do with it, it is inconsiderate selfish bastards who think they can drive around in their 2 tonne £50k tractors just as they want with no regards for any other road user.

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Jimmy Ray Will | 6 years ago
8 likes

Car driver was in the wrong.

Apologists can mutter all they like, but my understanding of road laws and the highway code says that the cat should have yielded when the bike became visible.

I can see the argument that they were both as stubborn as each other, but one had the right of way on his side, the other the sense of superiority of being in a merc.

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Yorkshire wallet | 6 years ago
7 likes

A second of  coasting and he would avoided all that. He pedalled himself into that one IMO. A case of being about 80% in the right but wanting to make sure the driver realised he was 100% in the wrong. 

 

 

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simonmb | 6 years ago
4 likes

I think you've all missed the story here. Isn't that Terry Pratchett appearing in shot at 16 seconds? "Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving".

(And, for the record, J. Vine was wrong not to have let the Merc cross in front of him - the maneouver had begun and if Vine had enough time to deliver so many 'oh oh ohs' then he had plenty of time to stop. But the driver is simply crude  - not unlike much of the general public these days).

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wycombewheeler | 6 years ago
9 likes

firstly the bus may signal; he is waiting he cannot give priority over other road users, but really, if you are filtering down the inside (legally) and you emerge from beside a large vehicle to find someone already turning right in front of you, its not rocket science to just wait.

You can't expect anyone to see you through the bus, and once he has started his attention should be on watching for pedestrians crossing. 

 

JV's speed was such that there was no danger here, just two people too important to wait for anyone else

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Mungecrundle | 6 years ago
10 likes

Just because you are in the right doesn't mean you have to push the point.

Would it really have made the world a worse place had JV stopped and waited for the car and for the driver to have said "sorry, my bad"?

Or am I more deluded about the real world than a Jeremy Corbyn supporter?

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shay cycles replied to Mungecrundle | 6 years ago
13 likes
Mungecrundle wrote:

Just because you are in the right doesn't mean you have to push the point. Would it really have made the world a worse place had JV stopped and waited for the car and for the driver to have said "sorry, my bad"? Or am I more deluded about the real world than a Jeremy Corbyn supporter?

Yes actually it probably would!

That would be because the more we, as a whole society, accept and fail to challenge such rubbish driving (and behaviour) then the more prevalent it is likely to become. The driver was unlikely to have said "sorry,my bad" or similar but more lileky would have grumbled about the cyclist "coming out of nowhere".

Being disparaging about others' political views on a cycling site hardly makes you appear more reasonable.

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