The roads may be much quieter than usual at the moment, but there’s still every chance of experiencing a close pass while out on the bike, as road.cc reader John found out when he was riding past the railway station in the Hertfordshire town of Royston and had a bendy bus driver getting a bit too close.
“First ride to work in the last two weeks,” John said. “I had to go in to physically restart a piece of equipment.
“The roads are quiet, the air is clean, the sun is shining and I still have a week’s worth of spare bog roll at home. What can possibly go wrong?”
Talking through the footage, John said: “I went wide by the pedestrian on the pavement as I was not able to make eye contact and was anticipating him stepping off the kerb.
“The cycle lane here is slightly less than the width of my handlebars.
“I did not bother reporting as the driver did eventually offer an apology and I’m feeling a lot more mellow about things in the context of current events. I certainly don’t want to see anyone else losing their job.
“Damn but I sound whiny!,” he added.
> 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">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
18 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 394: Bendy bus driver gets close on quiet road”
Good restraint mate.
Good restraint mate.
I still think you should have reported him to both the company and the police. If he cannot drive such a vehicle in a safe and responsible manner then he at least needs a warning, and something on file.
Oh, that bus don’t bend.
Thing is at the moment all
Thing is at the moment all driver awareness courses are suspended for 3 months,and the Times had a piece today that claimed many police forces have decided its “not in the public interest” to pursue prosecutions for lower-level driving offences.
So that’s the green light for motorists to carry on speeding and close passes ?
Who needs a green light when
Who needs a green light when a red will do?
Ha!
Ha!
I’d report the driver too.
I’d report the driver too. Even if the driver just gets a letter, it’s a sign.
Awful driving, well done to
Awful driving, well done to John for confronting the driver about it in a calm and reasonable way. It would be good to report it to the bus company (saying the driver apologised and you wouldn’t want him to lose his job if that’s how you feel).
That “cycle lane” is terrible. The local Highways Authority should be ashamed of it. I think the only way they will change is if they are sued following an injury that occurred in their totally unsafe infra.
Agreed re reporting it to the
Agreed re reporting it to the bus co.
The driver wasn’t quick to apologise, rider had to argue the point for him to eventually get there ;-(
The rider kept his cool and
The rider kept his cool and got the bus driver to apologise. Maybe the driver will think again in future, maybe not.
If it was me I’m not sure I could’ve kept my cool. Being aware of this, I probably wouldn’t have spoken to the driver.
Either way, I’d still submit the footage both to the bus company and the cops if it was me.
How did “Bendy Bus” get into
How did “Bendy Bus” get into the story? Bloody journalists eh..
Why let facts get in the way
Why let facts get in the way of a good headline?
If that bus was bending then
If that bus was bending then the driver was doing something seriously wrong…
Frankly even labelling that a
Frankly even labelling that a ‘cycle lane’ should be a crime, how on earth anyone expects you to ride in that I dont know.
But it’s the classic bus overtake, starts off well but as soon as your behind the passengers door, they are magnetically attracted back to the kerb
Well done for keeping utterly
Well done for keeping utterly calm during the incident, and when talking to the driver.
That was close, but it was
That was close, but it was caused mainly by the white car emerging from a side road into oncoming traffic.
The bus driver, when confronted with that situation should have aborted the overtake. I think they had time to brake.
Again, the pointless cycle lane that actually encourages bad overtakes. The bus didn’t cross the dashed line of the cycle lane, but clearly that was very dangerous.
At 59 seconds you will see
At 59 seconds you will see both the bus driver driving on the dashed white line and whatever horrible cyclist warning there is in the left hand side of the bus.
There is always the opportunity to brake. It is ALWAYS an option.
It’s not that the bus driver was having to desperately make up time because they had been held up in the huge quantities of congestion at the moment.
They’re not called murder
They’re not called murder strips for nothing.
The rider had primary postion
The rider had primary postion and gave it away a little too early. Bus driver should have kept wider or not overtaken.
I ride primary all the time and on the rare occasions the road is completely clear will I wave a vehicle through. I still hold postion so incase they do pass too close I have a least 1.5 yards to escape to my left
Not a bendy bus, but a guided
Not a bendy bus, but a guided bus; or in this case a misguided bus.