Near Miss of the Day 392: The (lack of) social distancing edition

With social distancing in the headlines due to the coronavirus pandemic and the government advising us to keep at least 2 metres* away from non-household members, you'd think people would be getting used to visualising how far that is. However, there's a precedent in just how difficult it can be to get many members of the public to get their heads round such measurements, and it's regularly found in our Near Miss of the Day series.

Since West Midlands Police launched its Operation Close Pass three and a half years ago, forces up and down the country have been trying to educate drivers about the minimum space they should give cyclists when overtaking - 1.5 metres. But as video after video we post here demonstrates, the message isn't getting through to many.

The footage here was shot by road.cc reader John in Donacster, South Yorkshire this week as he went out for a bit of exercise to take a break from his COVID-19 confinement.

"A short clip showing how some drivers respect cyclists at [pedestrian crossing pinch points and some don't," he said.

* Or 1 Stephen Merchant, if you prefer ...

Vital social distancing advice pic.twitter.com/jyZLmx5ehf

— Stephen Merchant (@StephenMerchant) March 27, 2020

> 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