There is, quite rightly, a lot of focus on NHS staff at the moment, with healthcare professionals in the front line of the battle against the coronavirus pandemic and the steps that can be taken to protect them while treating patients – but, if they commute to their workplace by bike, they’re simply another cyclist on the road and as exposed to danger from motorists as anyone else on a bicycle.
That’s highlighted by today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series, submitted by reader David, a GP trainee who currently works as an accident & emergency doctor in Wrexham, North Wales
David, a three-time Scottish hill climb champion who nowadays is primarily a time triallist, said: “I was riding to work and nearly didn’t make it yesterday [Tuesday].
“Dark Mazda CX5 H14TSG brushed past me at circa 45-50mph, overtaking then immediately swinging onto slipway in front of me.”
Thankfully, David managed to make it to work in one piece.
We’re sure you will join us in wishing him and his colleagues at the hospital where he works and throughout the NHS strength for their efforts on our behalf in the weeks and months ahead.
> 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@road.cc">info@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
6 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 390: A&E doctor gets fast close pass”
This is unfortunately, far
This is unfortunately, far too common at this type of junction. Fast road, shallow angle slip road so the driver doesn’t need to slow down, and doesn’t.
A case in point was on the Long Ashton bypass near Bristol, where the road was designed that way despite objections from cyclists, and a cyclist was killed. Not sure if it ever got re-designed.
There are lots of road
There are lots of road junctions out to the south and west of Bristol which were very much designed so that motor vehicles could go around them fast.
When they put in the new shared-use path through Abbots Leigh, a couple of years ago now, this was something I raised with the council (North Somerset) – lots of the side roads have very wide turnings so cars can go in and out of them quite fast even though visibility is appalling. Nothing got changed.
Far too many junctions get
Far too many junctions get lengthened to allow the continuation of motorist’s speed.
I can avoid many of the ones on dual carriageways, but some of the ones roundabouts are unavoidable.
There’s a balance to be made
There’s a balance to be made here, and it’s not just a matter of convenience. Where you have a continuing fast road, e.g. a dual-carriageway or motorway, then you don’t want an abrupt turn on entry or exit as that has safety consequences in the traffic flow, potentially a way up-stream of the turn for exits (have a search for ‘characteristic waves’ and shock or density waves) – but you obviously don’t need or even want something that barely deviates from the original either, which just makes the potential speed differences between road users that much more acute at the point of exit (well, not motorways generally).
Where there is the possibility of road users with radically different speeds, you would hope that the design is done such that you reduce that difference as much as possible on exit (or design around it, such as segregation) whilst avoiding too many discontinuities in the flow on the main highway – that’s clearly not happening in many cases alas, but I don’t think it would be necessarily good to design those junctions in a similar manner to, say, residential urban areas with limits a fraction of the ones on major highways – hence a balance.
You could mandate a slowing zone before each junction, which might help reduce speeds in a more predictable and controlled manner, and hence allow for more agressive exits – can’t see that happening alas.
Ultimately though, regardless of design, it’s the responsibility of the drivers of the faster vehicles to make sure the path is clear ahead.
That would’ve been a shorts
That would’ve been a shorts cleaning fright for me ;-(
Glad you’re safe and well
Glad you’re safe and well David as we need you around particularly at the moment. That sort of driving is dreadful but not entirely unique sadly and it was not even ‘necessary’ as there was nothing in the outside lane.
Hopefully you can confirm that it’s been reported to the police via the extremely efficient Operation Snap, I’m confident they’d action that one, as I’ve submitted a few from round that area.
Stay safe and stay healthy