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Driver swerves towards club run riders due to traffic island

Near Miss of the Day 263: Driver veers in on one club run, plus not so close pass shows that things can still go wrong on another

Our regular feature showing close passes from around the country - today it's Kent ... and Dorset...
by Simon_MacMichael
Mon, Mar 04, 2019 19:33
15

Our Near Miss of the Day feature today has two videos from recent club runs in different parts of the country – one from Kent, the other from Dorset.

The one above shows members of Canterbury Bicycle Club out on Saturday. The first driver overtaking gives plenty of room.

But the second – whom it is noticeable unlike the other motorists in the clip is not using headlights, despite the poor light conditions – realises belatedly as they overtake the riders that there is a traffic island ahead and veers in dangerously towards them.

The footage was shot by road.cc reader Barry, who said: “We have not contact Kent Police regarding this – I have looked on their website and most of their cycling related FAQs are aimed towards people complaining against cyclists rather than the other way round – anyhow not a great piece of driving at all.”

The second clip, below, was filmed the previous Saturday by Mike from Gillingham Wheelers Cycling Club – that’s the Gillingham in Dorset, rather than the one in Kent and demonstrates that even when the pass isn't that close things can still go wrong.

He told us: “Not quite a close pass, but as a result of a car overtaking our Saturday morning ride last week the riders slowed a little and caused two to go down as this video shows.”

> 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 [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.

> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling

Near Miss of the Day
NMotD Kent
NMotD Dorset
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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15 comments

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
1 like

I've recently started a new job involving some driving (I haven't driven my own car since Oct '17), it's a social/community org that delivers meals, assistance/coming out of hospital packages, help with welfare and nutrition for older/vulnerable persons in the locality etc.

So when I started I was talking about how despite the fact we are tracked all the time that we could have driver updates on best practice with regards to overtaking vulnerable road users, refamiliarising with hazard perception etc. Hoping that we can have some group sessions in the near future though our drivers tend to be pretty good in any case. Certainly wouldn't hurt IMO to be more familiar with respect to those on bikes and their needs and a drivers requirements by law as well as simple common courtesy.

I already mentioned that for the very local drop offs we could think about get some e-assist delivery bikes when we need to replace some of the vehicles. That would be epic, especially for when it snows/60mph winds.lol

Avatar
alansmurphy | 5 years ago
4 likes

Brooksby, it won't even have registered as that unfortunately.

 

Dassie, I don't agree. The centre islands are to protect the pedestrians and make the lights more obvious. They aren't doing anything wrong, I've never been close passed by a traffic island...

Avatar
Legs_Eleven_Wor... replied to alansmurphy | 5 years ago
1 like

alansmurphy wrote:

Brooksby, it won't even have registered as that unfortunately.

Exactly.  The same way it 'doesn't register' if I stand on a cockroach as I'm walking down the street. 

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dassie replied to alansmurphy | 5 years ago
0 likes

alansmurphy wrote:

Brooksby, it won't even have registered as that unfortunately.

 

Dassie, I don't agree. The centre islands are to protect the pedestrians and make the lights more obvious. They aren't doing anything wrong, I've never been close passed by a traffic island...

I realise there is no such thing as a 'bad roads', only poor drivers; not trying to let drivers off the hook of course!  However the lights turn green at that ped crossing,  cars slow and stop, peds cross, why does there really need to be a central island?  

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janusz0 replied to dassie | 5 years ago
1 like

dassie wrote:

However the lights turn green at that ped crossing,  cars slow and stop, peds cross, why does there really need to be a central island?  

I presume that you don't live in the places that I live in or visit.  How I wish that cars would stop when the lights change where I cross the roads.

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dassie | 5 years ago
0 likes

So many drivers just simply fail to grasp the concept of a clear way ahead, and giving cyclists safe space.  Also, why does there even need to be a centre island - pinch point, on that light controlled ped crossing!  They're all over the place; an ill conceived menace.

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alansmurphy | 5 years ago
2 likes

The driver in the first video probably went on his/her way happy with their weaving skills, nobody dead means they did nothing wrong!

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brooksby replied to alansmurphy | 5 years ago
1 like

alansmurphy wrote:

The driver in the first video probably went on his/her way happy with their weaving skills, nobody dead means they did nothing wrong!

Well, it was "only" a near miss...  

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pasley69 | 5 years ago
0 likes

2nd video - thankful there wasn't another car coming up behind to overtake.

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Boopop | 5 years ago
3 likes

First video was cockwomblery of the highest order. Yet another example of MGIF mentality as soon as a bunch of cyclists appear ahead on the road. It's like the red mist descends and they stop paying attention to anything else. Just as well they noticed the island eventually.

As for the second video...if this was shot from my video camera on a club run I'd have kept it pretty private. I think it's quite a stretch to say it had much to do with the car, it gave as much space as it could. To my mind just momentary laspe of concerntration on the part of the cyclist. Happens to the best of us, sorry!

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Nick W | 5 years ago
2 likes

1st one was a dickhead to even think about moving out. 

2nd one looked like one rider touched wheels with the rider upfront. Difficult pinning that on the driver other than that the rider that went down was maybe distracted by the car instead of looking at the rider ahead who appeared to be slowing down to single out for a car that had already passed.

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Tony Farrelly replied to Nick W | 5 years ago
0 likes
Nick W wrote:

1st one was a dickhead to even think about moving out. 

2nd one looked like one rider touched wheels with the rider upfront. Difficult pinning that on the driver other than that the rider that went down was maybe distracted by the car instead of looking at the rider ahead who appeared to be slowing down to single out for a car that had already passed.

Yeah we included the second one more as an indication of what can go wrong even when the driver is giving as much room as the road seemingly allows (we've made that clearer in the text now) - had he or she been closer things might have been a lot worse.

Avatar
Boopop replied to Tony Farrelly | 5 years ago
0 likes

Tony Farrelly wrote:
Nick W wrote:

1st one was a dickhead to even think about moving out. 

2nd one looked like one rider touched wheels with the rider upfront. Difficult pinning that on the driver other than that the rider that went down was maybe distracted by the car instead of looking at the rider ahead who appeared to be slowing down to single out for a car that had already passed.

Yeah we included the second one more as an indication of what can go wrong even when the driver is giving as much room as the road seemingly allows (we've made that clearer in the text now) - had he or she been closer things might have been a lot worse.

Ah OK, that makes sense then. That crash + a close pass would have been much worse, like you say.

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ktache | 5 years ago
6 likes

It is so strange that these drivers seem to be incapable of using that brake pedal of theirs.

Or that big window thing at the front of their cars, or the eyes in the front of their heads.

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brooksby | 5 years ago
2 likes

MGIF MGIF MGIF... no

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