A London cyclist has today posted a shocking video to YouTube showing the moment a rider overtaking a man riding a Santander Cycles hire bike clipped the other cyclist’s shoulder, almost sending him into the path of a lorry.
Uploaded with the title “Cyclist MGIF” – the acronym stands for “Must Get In Front” – the video shows one of the most frightening near-misses we’ve ever seen, and serves as a sobering reminder of why you should allow fellow cyclists space when overtaking.
The incident happened beneath Grosvenor Bridge – also known as the Victoria Railway Bridge – on the north bank of the Thames, on Cycle Superhighway 8 which runs from Wandsworth to Westminster.
39 thoughts on “Video: Overtaking cyclist almost sends another rider under a lorry”
complete *£&”^$£&£(
complete *£&”^$£&£(
I was wondering if he stopped for the lights ahead or just plough on through…
charitable assessment of the
charitable assessment of the incident: overtaking cyclist was in error for assuming the cyclist in orange jacket would remain in the left of the lane after the previous overtaker moved ahead.
less-charitable assessment: overtaking cyclist clearly cocks their elbow and deliberately shunts the cyclist in orange jacket. fortunately for the overtaking cyclist, the front wheel of the santander bike didn’t swipe their rear wheel – that would have been instant-karma-of-the-year.
Video stops just before
Video stops just before junction. I wonder if the psycho was stopped and words exchanged.
This is an appall ing overtake. Overtake must move completely out of cyclepath to pass only after checking it is clear, not try to plough through an occupied lane.
Lucky the wheels didn’t touch or he would have killed the orange jacket rider.
wycombewheeler wrote:
Shocking stuff. Looking at it it’s hard to see how he expected to get past. I’m genuinely interested to know does he do all his overtaking like that? Does he think that he is not allowed to move out of the cyclelane? I hope he looks at the video and realizes that all the other people passing are capable of shoulder-checking and moving out into the outer lane.
So glad this wasn’t a tragedy. Guy in the orange must have been quite shaken up by that.
Both parties were very lucky.
Both parties were very lucky. This is why the infrastructure just isn’t fit for purpose, it’s really not wide enough for overtaking and the magic white means motorised vehicles are only inches away. Also, cyclists need to give room when they overtake, just as we tend to tell drivers they need to give us room when they overtake.
ChrisB200SX wrote:
How is this remotely anything to do with the infrastructure?! If there’s not enough room to pass you don’t pass – wait until you can!
The same can be said of cars on any narrow road anywhere – but there’s usually some tosser who’ll try it on like this cockwomble did.
STiG911 wrote:
it IS everything to do with the infrastructure… it’s rubbish…
STiG911 wrote:
Because if someone is a twat overtaking you in a protected bike lane you’re less likely to go under a lorry if it goes wrong.
Assume people won’t behave properly, and make the environment forgiving of it. That’s what infrastructure is for.
HKCambridge wrote:
Yep, safety by design rather than education. That’s the way lots of the rest of the transport network works.
HKCambridge wrote:
That reinforces my point – a protected bike lane has more space!
STiG911 wrote:
If it’s a good one, which isn’t necessarily the case!
But there can still be too little space to pass in a protected lane if it’s busy. A protected bike lane isn’t going to eliminate idiot passes by other people on bikes. It will reduce the consequences of them.
Wow. seriously what a knob of
Wow. seriously what a knob of a rider, could have killed both of them. Imagine how the truck driver must have felt too- good to see the driver checked he was OK as they slowed down for the lights. All to gain a few couple of seconds.
a1white wrote:
To be fair to the knobber, it was a full 15 seconds before he had to stop for the red light, so that would have been well worth it.
This was captured by a guy on
This was captured by a guy on the cycle chat forum ( he’s the one recording it ). The knobber who clattered the guy on the Boris Bike, did stop at the red light (amazingly). I think he just did the ‘stare ahead, no one will say anything’ manouvre.
Seriously, that guy shouldn’t
Seriously, that guy shouldn’t be on a bike. No spatial awareness at all.
unconstituted wrote:
like a lot of drivers then… once you’re no longer in sight in the front windshield, you’re no longer there…
Watched it 20 times. It
Just more proof about how bad cycling infrastructure is.
If most countries spent on education what they spent on infrastructure, archaic bike lanes wouldn’t need to be necessary.
The guy on the B… sorry,
The guy on the B… sorry, Santander bike is so very lucky there. I can’t tell from the video whether it was on purpose (“Get out of the way you nodder!”) or an accident caused by rubbish spatial awareness. I truly hope the latter. But I would love to have been a fly on the wall when they all stopped at the next lights…
“My other bicycle is an Audi”
“My other bicycle is an Audi”
Total idiot overtaking.
Total idiot overtaking.
At first I though the overtaking rider had just badly missjudged the speed difference, but he braces before the contact (rather than braking), so I really don’t know what he was thinking.
This is on one of my routes home from work, this is a bit after the cycle lane narrows and is not the pace for overtaking (and you almost always hit the red light shortly after). Hopefully I don’t see this idiot on my commute.
It looks to me like the
It looks to me like the overtaking ‘cyclist’ realised at the last moment that if he pulled out to overtake properly the approaching lorry would have had him, so chose instead to bounce off his ‘fellow cyclist’.
Which only goes to show that a to$$er on a bike is still just a to$$er I suppose.
‘Superhighway’ is clearly meant ironically in that location. However I can only speculate whether he would have done the same thing if the lane were twice as wide and he was overtaking two people abreast.
Poor behaviour remains just that whatever the circumstances, better infrastructure just offers the potential for more margin for error.
STOP calling this C U Next
STOP calling this C U Next Tuesday a cyclist.
He is NOT a cyclist – he is a tw*t who rides a bike.
There are a lot of them about.
Whingy b******s in my experience….
I hope this does not stop Santander man riding his bike.
I only wish c**t on a bike had tried that move on with me.
A few have, including cabs (bless ’em), they dont do it again.
I’m XXL and dragged up through 70s racing.
PROPER cyclists!!
Take care y’all
Nemesis wrote:
No, no, no, no, no! No!
Cyclists *are* people who are riding bikes. It’s just that some of them are indeed twunts.
Thank the lucky stars this
Thank the lucky stars this was not a protected section. Otherwise (IMHO) both would have hit the kerb and probably ended underneath the lorry.
Echo a previous post;
My other vehicle is an Audi/BMW.
Yorkshie Whippet wrote:
I take umbrage at that, I drive an Audi and even I wouldn’t be that much of a dickwad. 😉
Shocking stuff – I’m by no means the slowest but I’m not Chris Froome either… and I’m often spotted on Boris bikes since carting mine on a plane isn’t always practical. Er, they’re not particularly geared for high speed either, you just KNOW to give them a wide berth, or simply WAIT for an opportune moment to give plenty of width. Fool.
That sent a shiver down my
That sent a shiver down my spine.
You’d like to hope that offender will have learned a lesson but aggressive close passes by other cyclists aren’t uncommon on the busy roads (and cycleways, protected or not) in London.
Duncann wrote:
It is indeed a scarily bad example of overtaking. I wonder if the rider reads this website? The rider on the Santander bike was very, very lucky.
That scared the sh*t out of
That scared the sh*t out of me, hands are majorly sweating!
Apart from this … calm down
Apart from this … calm down… calm down… sort of cyclist: may I ask, what exactly makes this … calm down… calm down… sort of cycle lane a “Cycle Superhighway”?
The overtake was foolish but
The overtake was foolish but not stopping was more than that, a jerk with a diploma.
And yes that is not a superhighway.
For a long time I resisted
For a long time I resisted admitting there was a ‘lycra lout’ problem in London but this is a perfect example of it.
Arsehole on a road bike, wearing shorts, bullies another cyclist almost putting them under a lorry.
I see this kind of behaviour every mornining along the Embankment with tossers like this bullying the very people who the segregation was built for. You can easily spot them because they push to the front at the lights, try overtaking when its already two abreast both ways, and generally have the MGIF wanker attitude.
If I was that guy on the cycle hire bike, I would have lamped the cunt at the lights. Even then he probably still wouldnt get it.
This is not a “lack of
This is not a “lack of spatial awareness”. It looks like a blatant deliberate hit by the passing cyclist. Does anyone else see that? He lean to the left as he passes and knocks the inside rider. I hope the faster rider can be found and charged with some form of dangerous behaviour. His hit on the rider came very close to being fatal. Another Strava fuelled, crap for brains, wannabe racer. Tosser. There was a cyclist in Perth Australia who would deliberately make close passes to people walking along a shared bike/walkway. He was known as “Roadray” (a play on road rage, his first name was Ray), also known as a proper dickhead.
Moultonista wrote:
Sense of proportion please..
Moultonista wrote:
I’ve watched it a few times, even doing the stop motion thing and I think he just left it too late to overtake. He almost rides into the back of him and takes a very sharp, late swerve to get past. His lean to the left is just counter balancing imo as he’s already on track to move out of the bike lane. Stick your head and shoulders where you want to go and you body follows.
I’m not saying he’s a not a twat but it’s easy to get caught out if the person in front just drops the pace slightly. Personally I would have looked over my shoulder, seen the lorry and left it a few seconds before I tried to get past.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
That’s why you should pay attention, leave sensible space between you and other road users and avoid risky manoeuvres that endanger others.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
The hire-bike rider swerves a tiny bit from left towards middle of the lane (no blame is due here), the overtaking twunt hadn’t allowed for this and only had time to adjust body position in order to change course. This makes it look like he is leaning left into the (hire-biker), he’s done what he could to avoid the collision, but only after he’s put himself in the position where it would happen.
I do a similar thing on the TT bike when I see a sharp stone at the last second, throw my mass to one side so the bike goes the other way for a split-second.
The overtaking cyclist
The overtaking cyclist misjudged it. Beyond rude to not slow and say sorry, check the rider is okay. Had the rider gone down, or been injured that would have been a ‘Failed to stop’.
The reactions on the lorry driver were on point, driver was clearly watching the cycle lane traffic.
Swearing at the overtaking guy on the internet, doesn’t serve much purpose.
This incident shows that bike on bike collisions don’t carry the heavyweight penalty of a vehicles on bikes.
Good save by the hire bike rider.
It does look to me like the
It does look to me like the racer checks over his right shoulder then deliberately sticks his left shoulder out and braces to bump the hire biker. Oh and what kind of Superhighway is that with narrow width and full of manholes etc causing riders to slalom around them?
Speaking with a colleague who
Speaking with a colleague who lives out west, and he went through that way last night. He said at that spot there are 2 drains [1 covered the other a slice] that suggests both cyclists were taking the conflicting lines around them.
The CYcle hire guy goes wide into the lane, while overtaking guy tries to go left
They are visible here: https://goo.gl/maps/nDs79vXfAJ52
The blame lies squarely with the overtaking cyclist as he is just a MGIF’er even though he will get caught at the lights. An utter cockwomble of the highest order.