Last week on Near Miss of the Day we featured two videos from a cyclist in Brighton – and that’s prompted another rider there to send us two clips of close passes he experienced in the south coast city.
> Near Miss of the Day 109: Double trouble for one Sussex cyclist
In the first, road.cc reader Simon, who filmed the footage, approaches a crossing towards the western end of Marine Parade where a Toyota Yaris is stopped.
He continues through the crossing once the lights start flashing amber, putting himself in front of the car, the driver then cutting across him as they exit the roundabout onto the seafront and Kings Road.
The other video shows two more drivers making close passes on the cyclist as he rides northwards through Waterloo Place and onto Richmond Terrace.
The second of those close passes after the rider has to pull a little further out into the lane due to a van parked in spaces marked ‘car club’ – and while it does bear the livery of Enterprise Car Club (and the same van, or at least a similar one, can also be seen on the Google Street View image below), it is too wide for the space set aside.
> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 – Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?
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@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.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling
16 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 112: Close passes on Brighton cyclist”
Yet another who shouldn’t be
Yet another who shouldn’t be on the road, too fucking lazy to hold their lane, too oblivious to what’s around them, not able to judge speed nor distance, another day and this a serious injury, maybe even death simply because driving like this is brushed off by police as a totally acceptable way to drive and not doing anything wrong (until it happens to them) in which case the kitchen sink is chucked at the perp.
… and that cyclist that
… and that cyclist that rides straight through a red light. If he paid road tax, rego and had a clearly visible number plate the video owner could report three crimes to the police.
Sorry mate but you clearly
Sorry mate but you clearly need to improve your awareness of what’s coming up behind you and move out to take control of how those drivers overtake. With that awareness I’ve often ‘persuaded’ against overtaking by giving a hand signal where my hand clearly aligns, in a through the windscreen sense, with the face of any passenger in the vehicle coming up close, or it would clearly take off their nearside mirror if they continue to overtakewithout alteruing course.
Any argument that ‘you broke off my mirror’ will clearly be demolished when you point out that to do this their vehicle must have been far too close as they passed.
A V Lowe wrote:
not sure if saw any genuine overtakes there – more like 3 x opportunistic, aggressive, thoughtless and pointless must get in front irrespective lane changes – cyclist position looked ok – no enthusiasm here for smashing mirrors, to avoid escalation i try my best not to thump any vehicle that is too close – the pointy “finger of doom” might be used to politely ask a driver to maintain a safe position but I’ve no idea why it is 150%+ up to the cyclist to attempt to control bad drivers*
edit *other than the obvious need to stay alive
Take the lane and get beeped
Take the lane and get beeped at, followed by a punishment pass later. ‘Share the road’ and cycle at the side, and get close-passed multiple times. Those, ladies and gents, are your choices every time you go down a road like this.
Three words:
Infra Struc Ture
Bikebikebike wrote:
Too right, but could be simplified to Respect.
Had a discussion yesterday
Had a discussion yesterday about a person of my acquaintance. This person close passes whenever she can out of principle- she “doesn’t like cyclists”. The mutual acquaintance who told me this is equally upset, but we do not have the power to do anything about such idiocy.
Ask the plod to have a word?, but can’t imagine that this would be a possibility. She’s an accident waiting to happen.
My blood boils.
clayfit wrote:
Tell her that when she eventually has an accident you’ll stand up in court to tell everyone about her personal vendeta with cyclists and how she passes them closely on purpose so hopefully the judge throws the book at her.
DrG82 wrote:
Back that up with reporting her to the police, even if nothing is done there is previous evidence of her hatred and callousness when the inevitable happens
DrG82 wrote:
Exactly.
Trigger warning: Godwins Law incoming.
If a White British bloke got in a fight or something with an Asian bloke, the police and prosecution would be *very* interested to know that Mr White British had a room full of Nazi memorabilia or had voted Britain First or something, wouldn’t they? Why is your acquaintance any different?
brooksby wrote:
clayfit wrote:
Need to have it on camera preferably front and rear facing, plus be in a friendly police force area.
clayfit wrote:
Every time you see her take a swing at her face and miss by an inch or two.
I don’t think either of those
I don’t think either of those were close passes. Both looked like intentional acts to cause intimidation or harm.
This sort of aggressive driving needs to be taken more seriously by the police, not just brushed off because no one was injured.
That roundabout is always an
That roundabout is always an utter nightmare to negotiate – plenty of similar experiences myself when riding home via that way. Always worse in the summer.
Surely you don’t need a
Surely you don’t need a collision for this to be a charge, whether careless or dangerous. In this case it is the latter, given the option of hitting a solid kerb or squishy cyclist the driver aims straight for the cyclist!