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Video: Road rage meltdown driver who threatened to kill cyclist fined for public order offence

Driver of a black Land Rover suffered meltdown because cyclists weren't using an adjacent pavement bike lane...

A driver who suffered a road rage meltdown and threatened to kill a cyclist for not using a bike lane has been fined under a public order offence, according to the man who posted footage of the incident.

The meltdown happened on March 14 on Priory Road, which leads to Richmond Park, a popular destination for cyclists. With numerous people on bikes travelling in both directions, bike-mounted camera footage shows the driver overtake the rider at close proximity, before pulling in and engaging in an expletive-laden swearing match lasting three minutes, including an interlude to yell at other passing cyclists. The incident ends with the driver threatening to kill the cyclist, before he finally drives away.

The rider's helmet camera shows a black Land Rover Discovery overtake at close proximity after a mini roundabout. When the driver pulls between him and the rider in front things escalate quickly, when the driver can be heard yelling furiously through the open window "there's a fucking cycle lane".

The driver swears almost continually through the encounter, as does the cyclist, all the while repeating there is a pavement cycle lane on one side of the road.

He goes to get back into his car after about a minute of yelling before cyclists coming in the other direction inspire him to cross the road, stand on the cycle lane and yell at them about the cycle lane. A second cyclist, not wearing Lycra, tries to calm the situation, with little success. 

The man goes to drive away before getting out again for a second, more heated round, at which point he yells he will eat the rider for breakfast, kill him, and smash his teeth in, adding the only reason he doesn't is because of witnesses.

The rider says he kept the video private "until it was all cleared up", only making it public yesterday. The footage, released less than 24 hours ago, has had more than 900 views so far.

The rider, who posted the video as cycletourer8, said in the video's comments: "Having ridden on the bike lane, I would only use it if really fatigued. It's very bumpy and often has kids walking in it during the week."

Jorgy1967Tiger commented on the video: "The "bike" lane looks really inviting with all the side roads, pedestrians and light and sign posts."

Sippiestraw comments: "'I'll fucking eat you for breakfast.' 'Well, what do you eat for breakfast now?' Now that's an instant classic."

Richmond Park is increasingly popular with cyclists throughout the week. Last year a man was fined for deliberately driving into a cyclist in Richmond Park, and given five points for driving away.

Road.cc has contacted the cyclist for comment.

Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.

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88 comments

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thereverent | 9 years ago
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For context Priory lane (and Clarance lane) are used as a rat run by cars from the west heading to the A3. This means the avoid the poor junction with Roehampton lane. The traffic using Priory lane to get to the park or somewhere on Priory lane is very light. The cycle path on the side is rubbish and vanishes half way along.
It's the rat runners that will overtake badly like the two in this video. Even in a car if you stick to the speed limit car will overtake you (or keep trying to). It's a road with much more motor vehicle traffic on it than it can handle.

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bikebot replied to thereverent | 9 years ago
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Why wouldn't you use the bike lane, what exactly is the problem?

//i.imgur.com/OGoqzz7.jpg)

 24

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.457532,-0.25332,3a,75y,354.08h,52.47t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sTLAu5TP1wQNUOWZ1xXP1Pg!2e0

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zanf replied to bikebot | 9 years ago
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bikebot wrote:

Why wouldn't you use the bike lane, what exactly is the problem?

//i.imgur.com/OGoqzz7.jpg)

 24

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.457532,-0.25332,3a,75y,354.08h,52.47t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sTLAu5TP1wQNUOWZ1xXP1Pg!2e0

The thing to remember though it is NOT a bike lane. It is a shared path.

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oliverjames replied to bikebot | 9 years ago
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It's a general problem. Bike lanes are still a secondary consideration and hence:
the trajectory is whatever fits without inconveniencing motorised vehicles,
the surface finish is often very poor and uncomfortable, even dangerous to ride on,
the lanes become repositories for gravel, waste and other bits and pieces deposited by passing traffic, and
they are always the location of choice for poles bearing road signs, and temporary road work signs.

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bikebot replied to thereverent | 9 years ago
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thereverent wrote:

For context Priory lane (and Clarance lane) are used as a rat run by cars from the west heading to the A3. This means the avoid the poor junction with Roehampton lane. The traffic using Priory lane to get to the park or somewhere on Priory lane is very light. The cycle path on the side is rubbish and vanishes half way along.
It's the rat runners that will overtake badly like the two in this video. Even in a car if you stick to the speed limit car will overtake you (or keep trying to). It's a road with much more motor vehicle traffic on it than it can handle.

Yep, and in a past job I was one of those rat running it most days with the rest of them! Being a long, completely straight roads it's always had a problem with speeding and rather than do anything to calm the traffic, if anything it looks like they're facilitating it.

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Metaphor | 9 years ago
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Oh the irony that a Range Rover driver thinks a bike is taking up too much room.

4x4 in urban environments should be banned - more emissions, more risk of serious injury if they drive into someone, more space taken up on the road and in parking spaces.

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Rupert | 9 years ago
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Well first off the person in the KA was driving dangerously and overtaking a cyclist on a mini roundabout. Then the Range Rover driver is following the Ka driver when it was obviously going to cause problems for the cyclist he was overtaking.

Both the Ka Driver and the Range Rover driver had no real care for the safety of the cyclists they were over taking. No wonder so many cyclists get killed in London and other towns and cities.

I think the Range Rover Driver should be done for dangerous driving as well as a public disorder offence.

As for the cyclist shouting at the driver obviously we don't like to see that but the cyclist was in danger of losing his life so it is understandable he is bound to shout at the driver if the a gets too close to the point of being run off the road.

So like many comments here I would agree the cyclist that has to be congratulated for not getting into a fight with the driver of the Ranger Rover when he decided to step out of his car to have a go.

Hats off to the other cyclist who tried to intervene and calm things down.

Scary to think that this Range Rover driver is still allowed to drive around with all that bottled up anger within him. What happened here to this cyclist will only happen again to another road user that crosses the path of this Range Rover driver.

A driving ban and many meetings with a psychiatrist to sort out this driver's metal health problems should be called for just in case he really does attempt to kill someone because of his uncontrollable anger issues.

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belgravedave | 9 years ago
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I cycle up that road every week and never use that dreadful bike lane it's hopeless. Well done to the cyclist for staying so calm with all those threats going on in his face. Will defo look out for that reg number and driver, maybe mention his youtube performance to him.

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crazy-legs | 9 years ago
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That shared used cycle/footpath on Priory Lane is more hassle than it's worth.

We had a similar incident a couple of years ago with a white van which cut us up, pulled in and the passenger jumped out screaming and yelling abuse about using the cycle path. Fortunately we could slam the brakes on and stop before getting to him and there were 3 of us.
Had numerous run-ins down there. The cycle lane isn't fit for purpose (well, it's OK for kids) but not using it really imflames drivers.

This is the problem with shit infrastructure. Build crap and cyclists won't use it but drivers get arsey cos you're not using it. It's actually more dangerous than building nothing at all.

If they removed that cycle path completely and had pavement/road you'd have no problems.
If they build a proper decent segregated track that doesn't give way to every side road and driveway, it'd be fine and cyclists would use it.

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FluffyKittenofT... | 9 years ago
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As well as the points made about giving way at side-roads, I've found drivers sometimes completely block it while using it as a handy parking-space (even though its on the pavement).

And was there no penalty for the initial downright-threatening overtake?

Why is menacing someone with a car treated so lightly compared with, say, swinging a baseball bat towards them?

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4ChordsNoNet | 9 years ago
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It's interesting that he was prosecuted for a public order offence and not his bad driving.

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bobster replied to 4ChordsNoNet | 9 years ago
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4ChordsNoNet wrote:

It's interesting that he was prosecuted for a public order offence and not his bad driving.

That was exactly my thought.

And what about causing an obstruction?

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Northernbike | 9 years ago
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small men in big cars - a problem all over, for other drivers as well as bikers and pedestrians  17

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Housecathst | 9 years ago
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A threat to kill on Twitter and made to anybody other than a cyclist would have ended in this guy spending a couple of months in prison.

Surely screaming "I'm going to kill you" in somebody's face is worse.

What makes this different ?

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gazza_d | 9 years ago
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Hard working, hard pressed family driver... Driving licences should be subject to psychological profiling

Roof rack mounted cycle carrier a nice ironic touch. Wonder how he'd react if some dick head driver threatened and then kicked off at him or one of his family when they were cycling.

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Flying Scot | 9 years ago
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Salt of the earth that bloke.....

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NorthEastJimmy | 9 years ago
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Love how he insults what the cyclist is wearing...lovely skin tight leather jacket!

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Awavey | 9 years ago
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he doesnt half look like ex footballer Neil Ruddock, if he'd lost a few pounds

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the_mth | 9 years ago
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The driver was very clearly in the wrong.

The cyclist knew he was taping the incident so once the guy stopped and was very clearly losing the plot why stoop to his level? The cyclist seemed to lose it every bit as quickly as the driver.

'I could eat you for breakfast'
'Why don't you drop me then?'

Again why respond to that threat? It's only encouraging a physical confrontation.

That, to me, is a textbook example of how not to respond to those incidents. There's plenty of witnesses and the whole thing is on tape. I would have kept my mouth shut, let him have his rant then report it to the police.

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CStar | 9 years ago
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What an utter dickhead!  21

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zanf | 9 years ago
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Uncouth of the cyclist to lose it like that but doesn't detract that the driver is clearly wrong and instigated the situation.

Also I have no sympathy for anyone who drives huge SUVs in London. In fact, they should pay an extra couple of thousands a year in cunt tax.

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Paul_C | 9 years ago
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what's truly ironic is that there's a bicycle rack on the roof of that SUV...

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Castelligirl | 9 years ago
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Well that escalated quickly! Should have got a driving ban, he's a danger to other road users

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bennettkaru | 9 years ago
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"did you thump my car?"
he was nearly inside/under it, champ!

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Alan Williams | 9 years ago
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Well it would have been a glesga kiss from me

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ron611087 | 9 years ago
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That guy need his SUV replaced with a bicycle to give him a sense of perspective. He has a serious problem.

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tower.ii | 9 years ago
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I am beyond impressed at both cyclists' calm manner of dealing with that confrontation. I would have punched him in the face 15 seconds in, but I think that's a New Yorker thing.

+1 for that British aplomb.  41

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don simon fbpe | 9 years ago
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There's a f**king field next to the f**king road you dull f**king 4x4 f**king driver, get your f**king 4x4 off the f**king road you dull c**t! You shouldn't be on the f**king road with a 4x4 you f**king c**t!
I always find it interesting that drivers are happy to pass so close, or even touch cyclists, that they might damage their precious cars. Yet the second they percieve that the cyclist touches their car, they go ballistic.
This guy needs help. Seriously, that is such an overreaction that he needs some sort of phsycological help.

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