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Close pass of the day - unhelpful, divisive and off putting

"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.""

This is how Road.cc justify publishing close pass videos and videos of drivers agressive behavour towards cyclists.

Well I don't agree.

I think it desensitises everyone to the seriousness of the problem. 

Watching the constant stream of videos here increses my stress levels and disuades me from getting out on my bike.

I think they are published for entertainment. They are published to provoke a reponse from both cyclists and anti-cyclists. They provoke conflict within the forum discussions but it all about getting eyeballs for Road.cc's advertisers.

I for one will never subscribe to Road.cc until 'close pass of the day' is withdrawn.

 

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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15 comments

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BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 3 years ago
4 likes

What 'disappoints' me is how so many of the Close Pass of The Day look completely 'normal'. I.e. just another day on the bike. 

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David9694 replied to BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 3 years ago
1 like

On many of my narrow country lanes, all too true.

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TheBillder | 3 years ago
2 likes

There is / was a feature in a pilots' magazine called "I learned about flying from that". Pilots who had made mistakes were encouraged to write in anonymously and tell a story that could be instructive for others. This is the closest we have, and as others have said, sometimes comments do help give the benefit of their knowledge of roadcraft.

On and off, I've been road cycling for 40 years (with quite a long break in the middle) but the regular commuters on here are still way ahead of me and I have plenty to learn. Nowhere else (that I know of in the UK) does this so I think it would be a shame to lose it.

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Hirsute replied to TheBillder | 3 years ago
2 likes

Pilot comments are very transparent though. They are encouraged to report issues. They built a whole new culture on reporting errors with out stigma.
In fact they were so successful, hospitals have used pilots in an attempt to change surgical procedures and prevent horrible errors.
There was a superb 30 minute programme on radio 4 a few years ago about it.

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HoarseMann | 3 years ago
2 likes

To be fair, most of the general news at the moment increases my stress levels.

I think that having at least some media coverage of this issue helps raise it's profile with the authorities. I certainly thought it was useful to tell police the clip I submitted had been published - therefore arguing it was 'in the public interest' for them to do something about it.

I don't think it's road.cc's job to fight the cause, we've got Cycling UK etc. for that. Although it would be interesting if they managed to interview a police spokesperson to get their response to the inaction that some forces are demonstrating.

Maybe a feature of the subscription could be a 'hide NMoTD' setting?!

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Mungecrundle | 3 years ago
2 likes

Having submitted a couple myself, I appreciate the feedback, even those that are critical of my own actions.

As Nelson Mandela once may have said. "I never lose, I either win or I learn."

If I can learn from other people's experiences then even better, and far less risk to my own scabby carcass.

Downside is that it can give the impression that cycling is more dangerous than it actually is, but personally speaking, in decades of motorcycling and driving a car I have never been put in a life threatening situation by another driver. On a bicycle and certainly in the last 3 years or so, I feel that drivers are far more likely to put me in harms way due to incompetence, lack of care or outright aggression. A camera is now basic self defence.

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Hirsute | 3 years ago
4 likes

I find it instructive and you get to think about different scenarios and what/if there was anything you could have done. ie defensive cycling/roadcraft (not the same as victim blaming).

It's good that different opinions are given and in a few cases, you can point out errors and poor judgement by the cyclist.

I don't find it puts me off, as I know these incidents are infrequent but it shows how you should not be complacent.

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Awavey | 3 years ago
2 likes

I think they are useful feature, both to air and share our own experiences of similar situations, but to learn from mistakes we can all make and gain from the road craft of others.

its incredibly naive to think close passes arent a regular fact of cycling on UK roads so pretending they dont happen by not publicising them is actually a far worse position to take.

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jollygoodvelo | 3 years ago
1 like

I just don't look at those posts at all now: I *know* there are loads of terrible drivers out there and I don't need to see the videos or I'd never ride on the road again.  I don't really see that these articles do anything to reduce close passing, perhaps they encourage sales of video cameras?

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AlsoSomniloquism | 3 years ago
3 likes

I agree with others on I use them to educate myself on the hazards. I normally prefer the ones with less upfront info in the title of the article/ video so I can try to guess where the hazzard might come from. And sometimes they show cyclists mistakes causing these as well like the Farmer Giles one the other day. 

I had a very closs miss yesterday when a car decided to come out of a junction a couple of meters ahead of me on a dual carriageway. However because of these I was more anticipatory of it happening and was ready to change lanes if needed (and it was). Unfortunately it turned out my camera hadn't been switch on otherwise it would have been a Police Submission to ignore. 

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Stef Marazzi | 3 years ago
3 likes

I find them useful, definitely for thinking , "what could I have done in that same situation?", and it makes me more aware of hazards to watch out for when I am out cycling. 

Lot of them get good responses from others and advice on what to do, or how they could proceed, even being able to work out the numberplates, if the car is taxed/MOT'd etc, the model of car, the name of the company written on the van, etc to help bring the careless driver to account. And its worked, you see it in a lot of the follow up comments.

I am glad Road.cc publishes them, other cycling media outlets like GCN or Bikeradar seem to paint a perfect world of cycling, which just isn't true.

I think without them being published, you wouldnt see so much momentum towards the new press guidelines for reporting on cycling in the press, or the whole "witness/victim" thing being debated and fed back to the justice system on.

Hopefully closs passes are going to be frowed upon as much as drink driving one day.

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Rich_cb | 3 years ago
2 likes

It's a bit of a double edged sword.

As Hawkinspeter said they can be useful for improving your road craft but at the same time they also help to exaggerate the danger of cycling.

Several of the frequently regurgitated articles on this site are written with beginners in mind so it's likely that many new cyclists stumble upon this site via Google etc.

I can't imagine that NMOTD is particularly inspiring to said newbies.

It gets clicks and engagement though and for that reason it will continue.

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David9694 | 3 years ago
1 like

it's your call - other sites are available. 
"I for one will never subscribe to Road.cc until 'close pass of the day' is withdrawn."

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fukawitribe | 3 years ago
2 likes

I think there's a fair bit of truth in that, although i'm sure they can also have some use or educational value. One thing that grinds my gears is that in all the time they've have been posting them, I don't think i've ever heard any road.cc representative actually talk about maybe doing something about it, e.g compiling them or presenting them to a cycling, police or government body, helping organise readers to do similar, provide collated data/resources.
Arguably readers should be doing these things as well (and some do) but it seems a bit off to me to have this obvious revenue line and safety issue and seemingly do nothing to actively improve things... perhaps they do, somewhere, in the background or wherever, but can't say i've noticed anything. 
Meh. More coffee.

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hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
5 likes

On the other hand, they highlight poor roadcraft and can be instructional. As a submitter of a couple of them, it also provides an outlet for discussion and lets you get the opinion of other cyclists - sometimes it helps to talk about possibly traumatic experiences out on the road and provides a sense of community (i.e. you're not alone in getting close-passed).

Sometimes, I'm not in the mood to watch them, so I simply ignore them - I get what you mean about making you anxious about cycling on the roads.

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