Today's incident featured in our Near Miss of the Day series could have been nasty, with the driver of a Thames Water van, towing a trailer, cutting up a cyclist using a bike lane at Woodford Green in north-east London, close to the border with Essex.
The rider it happened to, road.cc reader Alex, caught up with the driver shortly afterwards and, clearly shaken up by the incident, told him: "You were trying to kill me."
The van, you'll notice, has one of those stickers warning cyclists to say back - which isn't much use when the first you see of it is as the rear of the vehicle is inches away following a dangerous overtake.
> 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
> What to do next if you’ve been involved in a road traffic collision
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23 comments
Yeah, it is just getting too dangerous.
Me yesterday, on an 80kph road, and no I'm not riding in the gutter.
38cm handlebars, I may not be a big lad, but when you're wearing fluo yellow/red fade jersey and a seesense ace flashing away at the back...
...coincidentally there was no oncoming traffic or pinch points
Well, it was a Beemer...
beemer.PNG
2:11 White Ford Transit NG58XPW runs a red light
Tweet it out to Thames Water.
Does it make sense to move to the primary road position for pinch points like this?
Yes, every time. Even if I do a shoulder check and there is nothing in my vision, I still ride primary. You never know who is speeding up to get in front, turning onto the cariageway etc.
I feel that it if I do this every time, it is a reminder to myself and an automatic reaction. Also I always start off from an ASL, traffic lights etc in primary. Road positioning is very important and if a driver has a problem and swears blue murder at me for "being in the middle of the road" I just ignore them as I know that they are completly wrong and totally ignorant.
Does it make sense to move to the primary road position for pinch points like this?
Nothing to do with painted lines. Simply shit driving. End of.
yet more evidence that painted lines do absolutely nothing to protect cyclists. Totally stupid design having such a narrow lane in the first place and hardly a surprise that there is a conflict with traffic when the lane just suddenly ends. Obviously the van driver should have anticipated this but would probably have been avoided altogether if the cyclist was either A. in a primary position in the lane of traffic or B. fully segregated on a purpose built cycle track.
Or the best option for people on bikes no motors on the existing infra, removing motor traffic from strategic parts of the network means no building, no narrow bits, no deferring to exits/'motor' roads and continuous/direct. Segregated even in the best country in the world for cycling fails in a couple of those aspects, I don't want segregated here because it will never dissaude motorists, just always be piecemeal crap that is neither fish nor fowl.
But talking about the painted lanes, it's even more anger inducing when they narrow the painted bit even further when the road narrows or there's a pinch point.
I agree re not building cycling infrastructure. I would suggest the prioritisation of more bus lanes that are 24/7 restricted to buses and cycles alongside 20mph limits. Bus routes are normally the most direct and used routes and the complete removal of other traffic from these lanes would make them a comfortably safe place to ride with the ability to join and leave the bus lane/route at any point and not be forced onto odd diversions around junctions.
Always pull into the middle of your lane when approaching pinch points. Don't let motors pass until safe to do so.
I hate that type of cycle lane, it's barely 0.5m wide and actively encourages drivers to close pass you.
I hate that type of cycle lane, it's barely 0.5m wide and actively encourages drivers to close pass you.
Yup - the white lanes might actually be narrower than your handlebars, but so long as the motorist doesn't cross the white line they think its all good.
And I've seen videos where police have declined to prosecute, using the theory that it's not a close pass as it's a different lane. Depressing
I tend to hear them first.
That moment when you think "**** that was close", then see the towbar.
That would have been a bad enough overtake if it had just been the van by itself,but when its van + a trailer...sheesh,what on earth goes through what passes as the brain cells of that driver to think that's ok
That’s what happens when you mix piss poor cycle lane that vanishes just when you need it most with a nutter white van man who can’t wait a few seconds to overtake on a bit of road that’s neither a zebra crossing nor a mini roundabout.
As ever, utterly pointless manoeuvre, as the van just ends up getting to the queue sooner.
I think the scariest thing, is that the driver of the Thames Water van genuinely doesn't think he'd done anything (or anything dangerous).
So, as is usual on these videos, either the driver is vaguely incompetent and shouldn't be driving a commercial vehicle, or he's an utter sociopath who doesn't care if he hits or kills a vulnerable road user and shouldn't be driving a commercial vehicle. One or t'other...
Anyway: its a terrible piece of driving and, as burt says, definitely needs to be reported to Thames Water
Perhaps this needs to be shown on prime time tv for the next twenty years? https://www.facebook.com/adalchami/videos/10157564297715555/?t=0
Some very good overtakes there, before the obviously dangerous pass of course. There is a lot of "forgetting" about towing a trailer for some.
The last pass was a bit too close as well, with a potential red light jump at 2.06, ambler gamler at the very least.
An incredibly stupid overtake, exactly where the road narrows because of a pedestrian refuge. I trust the driver has been reported to his employers and the police?
The most remarkable thing about the vid was the courtesy and consideration exhibited by the other drivers, but as we all know, it only takes one.