Near Miss of the Day 76: Cyclist is squeezed by close-passing bus driver (includes strong language)

The cyclist who was almost squeezed to the kerb by this passing bus believes it was a punishment pass because he failed to use a “pointless” 20-metre cycle lane.

The incident took place on Friday December 22 at around 2.30pm while the cyclist was riding past Victoria Circus in Southend on Sea.

Westcliff GoPro – who has already submitted a couple of other videos for this feature – said:

“As shown in the video, it was ridiculously close but the bus driver’s reaction shocked me more. When I gesticulated how close he was he said: ‘Don’t talk fucking bollocks’.

“I think the driver’s attitude was far from what you’d expect and, in my opinion, I think it was done deliberately because I didn’t take the pointless cycle lane.”

The incident has been reported to both Essex Police and First Group, but there hasn’t yet been a response from either.

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 [at] 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.