Chris Boardman's horror at video of lorry close-passing his mother

Isn't Aldi a member of British Cycling and Boardman's #Choosecycling network? 

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/aldi-is-the-first-british-supermarket-t...

Surely British Cycling should be censoring such a prominent member!

I didn't think the pass was THAT close.  There's no reaction from the riders - if it was close you'd expect something.   It's hard to tell from the camera - but I'd think about 3 feet was left ?

More would be nice but when you get vehicles coming within a foot when the road is wide - that's when I get annoyed. 

I'd avoid that road anyway - there are nicer routes around.

Sometimes this is a scary place to come. So much bias in the comments section that it would be hilarious if you weren't all serious. 

There is nothing dangerous about that pass. And the best evidence for that is the reaction of the cyclists themselves. None of them even flinch. 

If anyone on here really thinks that is dangerous, or illegal, I suggest that you wrap yourselves up in cotton wool and go and lie down in a dark room because the world outside must be absolutely fucking terrifying for you!

As for starting some internet rage against Aldi for the behaviour of their driver. He doesn't even work for them! Even if he did, what do you want them to do? Fire him because you think he behaved badly? Imagine if someone started videoing you at work, how long would you last before someone with an opinion went running off to your boss to get you fired?

Obviously in competition with Lidl for the worst driver award.  Lidl were very happy to continue using a transport contractor for deliveries after one of their drivers killed two cyclists (for which he was later jailed) and continued to be happy to use them up until the Traffic Commissioner put a stop to it by banning the contractor.  The TC described the contractor as

"By far the worst case I have seen since I started as a Traffic Commissioner in 2007"

and

"Mr Fry has a calculated approach to road safety – it appears that the interests of profit supercede road safety."

Yet Lidl claimed that the contractor had

"always been fully compliant with all Lidl Service levels and Contractual obligations."

I agree with kevinmorice, that pass was perfectly acceptable. Plenty of room between the lorry's rear wheel and the cyclist in the Hi-Viz. TBH I am more used to what the fictitious rider 3 abreast normally gets!

I have to say, although it is plenty close enough, and the lorry looks like it's doing a fair speed, to me it doesn't look horribly close; but the camera angle etc is not perfect, and I appreciate the suction / bow wave of (wet!) air caused by a vehicle that size going past at that speed would be bad.  

I'm not sure if the lack of visible reaction from the riders is symptomatic of them being used to such close proximity passes as someone earlier said, or them having nerves of steel, but in my hometown, I reckon that would be the average distance given for overtaking a cyclist - perhaps I'm just used to really poor driving here! (there are a large number of people who don't know how to use roundabouts properly for example).  

We've all seen worse but, given the speed, that close pass was not only dangerous but completely unnecessary. I have written to Aldi (thanks for the details). I will not buy anything from Aldi in the future (not that we buy much from them anyway). I suggest others do the same.

Most roads are not intended for cyclists and when I cycle I accept this and try to apply common sense. You are playing with death riding on a busy road two abrest. Lets face it most drivers do not ride bikes and to them cyclists are just a bally nuisance. Nothing can change that point of view. We should ride accordingly and to be safe, avoid riding on busy roads and walk on the pavement if part of your route takes you down a busy stretch . It's just stupid to adopt the attitude 'well it's my right to cycle on any road so I'm going to'. Ask yourself why cyclists are banned from cycling on motorways - in many ways it's more dangerous on ordinary main roads. A main road is for motor traffic to get from A to B fast - not for going tortoise speed dodging in and out of cyclsts. You can say motorists are inconsiderate if you like but until everyone rides a bike then it's best to be sensible and safe.

Dear cycling friends from the "mother country" one thinks you have grossly overreacted to what is a non issue with this truck. Plenty of room was left, there was not even a wobble from the air wave always a sign of closeness and clealry the cyclist did not even blink.

Fair dinkum react to issue that are worth reacting to.

It's getting a bit Monty Python...

'where I ride, I get decapitated by at least 3 trucks before I've even clipped in, and you don't hear me moaning.'

Thanks for sharing. More, please.

Time for a special lane for lorry loads.....a train track.

I am a cyclist and I'll probably gets dogs abuse for this, the two riders should also take responsibility as per Rule 66 of the highway code, it is a busy road (I live locally), it was narrowing in addition it was wet and poor visibility therefore the riders should have been riding single file. The truck is close but the riders could have applied a little more common sense on a road leading to an Aldi Distrbution Centre where this type of vehicle is the rule rather than the exception. I do not condone the drivers actions and get buzzed regularyly how ever as cyclists we have to do as much as possible to keep ourselves safe. You may guess im not a fan of two abreast on busy roads.

I presume that the transport company's representative was watching a completely different video to me.

The first lorry to overtake the cyclists gave them an entire lanes width.  Despite the fact that the road on the cyclists side was wide the first lorry was straddling the white line during his overtake, which is giving the cylists plenty of room.

The second lorry made no attempt to give the cyclists any room, and from the video their drivers side wheel was on the white lines in the centre of the road despite the fact that the road was beginning to narrow.  Also, the lorry has completed the overtake of the cyclsits by 31 seconds, yet it is 36/37 seconds on the video before there is any sign of an oncoming vehicle on the opposite carriageway, which meant they could have used the entire other carriageway to complete the overtake thereby giving the cyclists the room that they deserved.

Time to stick my head up again and be shot, but here goes.  Not trolling deliberately but this seems a little one sided.

Not many HGV drivers on here it seems, and would welcome their view.  They are now being liable for cyclist undercutting them at the lights, before a left turn.  They also now have to stop their truck on an A road to give a full lane width space to two riders abreast.  44 tonnes takes quite a lot of stopping and starting, but thats okay, because we can carry on our chat.

"Those who know their rights but not their responsibilities", springs to mind.

 I removed the post, because the herd reaction got me flustered and damn right, it got me emotive.  Now I'm being called a liar.

I will not defend any of this here, behind the safety of a keyboard or place my wife's name in the public domain.  She thought she was in the right and resultantly safer to follow the guidance in the highway code, she blames herself for that and the loss of her horse, not me.

Peace out.  You go your way.

Peter, no dramas, I could be a serial killer behind bars for all this forum knows. (I'm not btw, the event is very real too) and no offence taken.  I just wouldn't wish it on anyone else. 

Yep, Davel, that was my point, but you wordsmith'd it perhaps more elegantly. 

The status quo sucks right now, but the more people being dragged out of a metal box  onto a bike the better and that would be an agenda perhaps best served through positive news and unashamed spin doctoring.  With numbers, we get representation either through forward minded councils, or in parliament.  Car numbers are going up, we could lose the quota battle and be extinguished. 

I'm suggesting that a negative agenda including getting people sacked (deserving Merton councillers aside) won't necessarily help with this.  A sacked Aldi driver with a family will have plenty of sympathy at the bar, with a population audience far greater than this thread. 

Windydog - I'm with Davel on this. I think standing up (or should that be sitting on a saddle?) for our rights is better than clinging to the gutters and being thankful for it. You do have a point, though - there are some battles better avoided and some roads are better riden with caution rather than bravado.

I think we (cyclists as a group) should welcome the use of cameras/video and name and shame poor driving to prompt a re-think amongst the bad drivers. I'd rather have motorists being careful around bikes even if it's only because they're scared of being youtubed. If they resent me because of that, then so be it.

(Personally, I'm just holding out for our benign robotic self-driving car overlords to take over).

But, and this is my self confessed narrow view, the single biggest change in public opinion and takeup of late, was positive news from Olympics, TDF etc that dragged people onto bikes.  I sadly feel an ebb (with no statistical evidence) happening.  No one *outside of this forum* wants to be outraged. *edit*  

I spoke to Aldi customer services today.  They said that apparently it was not Boardman's mother, and also it was not one of their drivers.  So that's ok then.  Right....

I mentioned that we might not care whether it was somebody employed directly by them, or by a sub contracter.  I also asked if it's Ok for their drivers to be a menace to cyclists so long as they are not famous (or family of famous people).

These seemed to be new lines of thought for Aldi customer services. I think the video needs to be shared much more, and they need to receive a lot more e-mails and phone calls, to make sure the message gets through.

They don't appear to be advocating cycle lanes or for that matter, riding in single file, on their own website https://www.aldi.co.uk/specialbuys/all-specialbuys/sports-and-outdoor/c/...

Nevermind - I've fixed it for them...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59646998/fdsjj009_po67444/aldi.html