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news
Near Miss of the Day 329: Aggressive overtake (includes swearing)
Today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series depicts something that many of us have experienced while cycling – a driver not only overtaking a cyclist too closely, but also beeping their horn as they do so. If you’ve ever been on the receiving end, you’ll know just how unsettling it can be.
The road.cc reader who submitted it said: “This occurred in the summer, in Shipley, West Yorkshire. Clearly a pointless and intimidating overtake.
“This incident was reported to the lovely people at West Yorkshire police. The driver in question has been sent on a close pass course and given an official warning which will stay on their record for a year.
“Whilst I'd rather have seen a more robust response, I'm generally happy with the way the police have handled this. I have sent a few more videos to them since, and I await the final decision on prosecutions on them.”
In the years we’ve been running this feature we’ve learnt that often it is a specific incident that leads to someone buying a camera to record their rides, and this reader is one of them.
“I have a complex relationship with bike cameras,” he said. “I always thought that they seemed unnecessary, and made out that cycling was overly dangerous.
“Then in March last year I was victim of an unprovoked assault where a violent thug was deliberately targeting cyclists on a shared use path, part of the controversial £29 million City Connect project in Leeds-Bradford.
“This left me bruised and bleeding, and totally miserable. I purchased a camera as a result.”
> 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.
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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14 comments
Sorry to report, but having grown up in and around Bradford till my mid 30's- its a shithole!
I only go back to visit relatives and I cringe when I turn off the M62
Can we have a 'nice pass of the day' series to offset some of the hostility?
Don't be silly - we wouldn't have anythign to moan about !
Where do you report such offenses to West Yorkshire Police? I was looking on their site for where to report road offenses (sick of seeing drivers on the phone) but couldn't find anything.
If it is an incident in the bradford area, then you can email it to Operation Steerside (https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/news-appeals/can-you-help-operation-...). I'm not sure about other areas within West Yorkshire.
Bradford, which includes Shipley as seen in the video, is in some ways the worst place in the UK for bad driving*, so the local police are really cracking down on it. This incident is VERY tame compared to some stuff I have seen on Bradford Roads. It's not accetable though, particularly with use of the horn.
*yes, I know everyone will claim their patch is the worst for bad driving, but statistically, Bradford does come out on top on many measures. E.g. see https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/17420107.bradford-west-worst...
+1 on the Operation Steerside link. And they DO follow up on Bradford's crazies pulling this kinda crap on cyclists. Worth knowing and using if you have the misfortune to be riding in or around Bradford.
The rest of West Yorkshire? Sadly, afik, there's nowt.
It used to be that you could email one of the three Roads Policing Unit centres ... but since traffic officers were cut by 50% in 2017 (?), from around 240 (?) to 120 (?), that facility has gone. For most of W Yorks, the savagely cut resources concentrate on motorway policing.
Apart from:-_
You could try the nextbase site and click through to the relevant police force
https://www.nextbase.com/en-gb/national-dash-cam-safety-portal/
Yeah, it doesn't look that close, but the horn is needless and scary.
I thought it looked close.
Bloody idiots.
Today I was driving a 40 tonne truck in the hills. Glad I didn't pass a cyclist. I had a snail trail and slowed further as cyclist was off road (on thin tyres) and I don't know, maybe many just pass. Double line blind corner at crest. A car happened to pass the opposite way during the wait.
Cars behind didn't seem to mind neither. Cyclist decided to pull up and allow all a pass yet wouldn't have mattered. It's what? 1 minute difference? Few corners later a stretch of straight to overtake yet no-one bothered. At end of road T junction, an indicator becoming a hazard flash as a shoulder allowed a roomy pass. Even scored a double hoot. They all knew well. A minute of mine was 5 minutes each to each of them. Ditto with cyclist. Half a minute he gave saved us each many.
Such a universal word..
Loving your explanation during video bro.
With the usual caveat that the camera doesn't always give an accurate impression, the pass itself didn't look that bad (or significantly closer than the one before or after it) but obviously the horn changes things. Re: "The driver in question has been sent on a close pass course" - I would be impressed if that's the case. The Met for example just sends them on the "What's driving us" course, which seeks to address the wider problem of anger management behind the wheel, but does nothing to explain why close passes in particular are bad. I think people caught during a close pass operation are different, they get the on the spot remedial training.
I don't think it was illegal, as overtaking rules normally refers to motorised vehicles at crossings.
Not sure I would have submitted it, but the use of he horn was neanderthal.
I watched it in the office, with the sound off, and didn't know which pass was supposed to be the NMOTD. None of them are exemplary, so you need the sound to signal which one is particularly bad.
Appalling. Apart from being extremely stupid and pointless, was it not also an illegal overtake on the zig-zag lines of the crossing? Like the rider, I would have expected a rather more robust response from the police.
Highway Code rule 191 says "You MUST NOT overtake the moving vehicle nearest the crossing..."
However, it references The Zebra, Pelican and Puffin Pedestrian Crossings Regulations and General Directions 1997* which makes it clear that it means motor vehicles. So a cyclist is allowed to overtake a motor vehicle, a motor vehicle is allowed to overtake a cyclist.
* One of my favourites