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Near Miss of the Day 153: London bus driver pulls in while overtaking

Our regular feature highlighting close passes caught on camera from around the country – today it’s London

We've seen a good few videos in our time showing drivers of large vehicles overtaking cyclists then pulling in far too early, and that's exactly what's shown in our latest Near Miss of the Day video.

Not for the first time, the vehicle involved is a London bus, this one operating on route 151 from Shotfield to Worcester Park in the London Borough of Sutton - and complete with a sticker on the rear warning cyclists to stay back.

The footage was shot by road.cc reader Dan, who apologises for the swearing - although in the circumstances, it's perfectly understandable.

The close pass itself is towards the end of the video.

> 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

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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9 comments

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simontm | 5 years ago
0 likes

Lurker not poster but hi, wanted to post.

That’s the A232 isn’t it and the descent after Cheam? Know the route - and behaviour of the buses -well.

The one thing I would have done differently was to immediately slotted in behind the bus as it came alongside. They all go for that gap and it only took a couple of crap passes for me to start slotting in well before the island.

In fact that after a few months commute on the A232, I said to my wife that someone would eventually kill me on that stretch between Cheam and Carshalton and changed my route. 

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BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
3 likes

There is something the cyclist can do to control things here, I see this all too often, come up behind traffic then people on bikes either try to get down the left to get to the front (which is fine if enough space and the lights have only just turned or you know the phase length) or stand off to the left. He correctly chose not to try to filter.

You invariably can see or know (if it's a route you do frequently) that there is a somewhat narrowed gap just as you are exiting the lights on the other side as there will be a pedestrian crossing or as here a two into one and a pedestrian refuge further on.

He is initially whilst waiting far off to the left, this is not really a good position to be in, he continues far left and as he's coming through the lights at 55seconds you'll see his position is actually really far off to the left almost in line with the kerb itself, this opens up a huge gap to his right, he then moves back across moments later but it's already too late as this ceding position through the lights has already invited the wanker bus driver to pile through and no fucks given as to safety (might is right and all that).

My position here would be to either filter on the right and get in front of the motors (if as above you have time/know the light phase) and take a far right of the left lane position. If not enough time/not sure about the light phase wait behind the traffic in that same far right position. Check to my right and over the shoulder to see what vehicles might be in conflict with me that could cause me problems through the junction and beyond. Carry on through the junction being even more central to prevent dicks from filtering in from the right in front of me and continue to maintain primary so that they cannot overtake when there is no room, adopt secondary only IF the road widens and this allows following traffic to get past easily without impinging on my safety.

I know it isn't always easy but that central position/strong primary all the way through past the refuge will pretty much negate assaults like this. I know we shouldn't have to but because the government/police allow this type of cretinous use of the highway by people we know kill and maim every day we have to take more control.

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Scoob_84 | 5 years ago
5 likes

Road design is a large part to blame here. I live really close to where this is filmed and almost every set of lights spit traffic into multiple lanes then converge back almost immediately after. I guess the idea is that during busy times, you can park more cars side by side when the lights are red, and minimise tail backs.  But the reality is that each lights turns into a mini race to hold your place in the traffic or to stop the guy that was behind you from getting in front.  Its irrelevent, but human nature means people drive like dicks to avoid this happening. 

 

 

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crazy-legs replied to Scoob_84 | 5 years ago
1 like

Scoob_84 wrote:

Road design is a large part to blame here. I live really close to where this is filmed and almost every set of lights spit traffic into multiple lanes then converge back almost immediately after the lights. I guess the idea is that during busy times, you can park more cars side by side when the lights are red, and minimise tail backs.  But the reality is that each lights turns into a mini race to hold your place in the traffic or to stop the guy that was behind you from getting in front.  Its irrelevent, but human nature means people drive like dicks to avoid this happening.

High-throughput junctions. Exactly as you say, they're designed to shift higher numbers of cars through them but the bottlenecks immediately afterwards as 3 lanes go to 2 or 2 lanes go to 1 simply shifts the queue of traffic a few tens of metres up the road and means drivers charge away from each set of lights to maintain "their" place in the queue before slamming the brakes on 50m up the road.

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ChrisB200SX | 5 years ago
1 like

There are plenty of dangerous London Bus drivers, some of the stunts they pull on me are ridiculous. It's not all, but I find it's way too high a proportion.
The "I'll just get alongside this cyclist then pull in at the bus-stop" is quite boring and predictable now... I simply stay out of the "cycle lanes" which enables this lethal driving.

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danhopgood | 5 years ago
3 likes

Central traffic islands ni this country are always a hazard since they're almost always designed as pinch points.   I have some symapthy for the bus driver as he has a big vehicle without much acceleration, so overtaking safely takes a long distance.  Putting  pinch points in means large vehicles get held up.  "quite right too!" you shout.  But they have to keep to timetables.   My reading of this one is the bus driver initially gave lots of room, slightly misjudged the speed of the cyclist and then expected the cyclist to give way.   Blame the driver if you want, but I think decent infrastructure is the real answer to this one, not blaming other road users.  I bet situations like this are very few and far between in the Netherlands.  Not here, sadly.

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Kendalred | 5 years ago
6 likes

Yet another close pass occuring when the 'professional' driver (ha!) misjudges the speed of a fellow road user and has to swing back in because of a traffic island.

Some re-education needed methinks. I do hope this has been reported.

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Dnnnnnn replied to Kendalred | 5 years ago
1 like

KendalRed wrote:

Yet another close pass occuring when the 'professional' driver (ha!) misjudges the speed of a fellow road user and has to swing back in because of a traffic island.

Some re-education needed methinks. I do hope this has been reported.

Yes, it's no skin off TFL's nose to require their supplier (the bus operator) to sort out their dodgy driver.

Most London bus drivers are good IME but the few who aren't need to be improved or removed.

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Joeinpoole replied to Kendalred | 5 years ago
5 likes

KendalRed wrote:

Yet another close pass occuring when the 'professional' driver (ha!) misjudges the speed of a fellow road user and has to swing back in because of a traffic island.

Some re-education needed methinks. I do hope this has been reported.

Agreed. Not only is the bus driver's action dangerous but utterly pointless too. The cyclist was maintaining a decent speed and will undoubtedly pass the bus again at the next stop or traffic light.

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