Near Miss of the Day 495: A close pass of two cyclists with no thought of slowing down

 Until drivers like this are given severe penalties and police are required by law to take action nothing will change

Unfortunately, this is true. Police attitudes engender the feeling of invulnerability in these dangerous drivers, because they know the police, in Lancashire at least, will seize on any excuse to do nothing.

wtjs wrote:

 Until drivers like this are given severe penalties and police are required by law to take action nothing will change

Unfortunately, this is true. Police attitudes engender the feeling of invulnerability in these dangerous drivers, because they know the police, in Lancashire at least, will seize on any excuse to do nothing.

I wish it was true, but you don't get the respect of your peers by imposing penalties on them for disrespecting you.  We need them to understand that we are real people, not some disembodied cyclist apparition with no relations.  We need them to understand that we are brothers, sisters, parents, children, uncles, aunts, neices and nephews; just like them, but on a bike.

Of course this all falls down when you consider that drivers really don't give flying flamingo about anybody else at all.  So the law needs to change to get these psychopaths off the road.

What is it about getting in a car that makes some many people forget these elementary things? Is it too many video games and action movies? is it, as Muddy Ford says, something also about the frustration and anger drivers have with their deteriorating lot, as they become more numerous and journeys get ever slower and / or more unpredictable?  This jam is not how the advert portrayed it - where is the sweeping road, the mountain track, the luminous city centre, the the four gorgeous smiling companions, or the 2.4 children and cute wife/ husband 

the adverts make me laugh. Nobody goes up into the open mountain roads of europe in their dacia or puegeot. Even if you did, youd still be behind another car or line of them. Car driving should be played on the adverts as it is really, glum faces, sat at 0mph, not even allowed to touch your phone, staring at the back lights of the car in front, watching your belly expand ever further. Then have a line of cyclists cruise by the window looking very happy. That's british reality.

i always give cyclists as much space as possible when im riding, mainly because i am one so i know how it feels. Theres literally zero reason to hate someone on a pedal bike. Its one of the best inventions ever. Its irritating, because as much as i like cars, it isnt the best invention. Its polluting, it cant get out of car parks when too many get inside [ remember the spur road being worked on and drivers said oh god we are stuck in RBH for two hours? yet bicycles and motorbikes were not affected? The car kills hundreds of people a day, it takes up too much space being parked on the roadside making a hazard for bikers and cyclists with door zones. The bicycle meanwhile doesnt kill anyone[ bar that charlie chap and the old lady]. Doesnt get stuck in traffic, doesnt need petrol, keeps you fit, can power you places cars would never get to, minimal cost to run. Its stupid, the people thinking they are better because theyve got a car than a person on a bicycle? well, why are they better? Because its faster? not all the time. Mostly a car is slower than a bicycle in ''rush hour''.   This video was shot in 2018. When the spur road got worked on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_QrtnpWYoI         so why dont they get it? its CARS that slow them to a stop all the time, a cyclist never stops moving, meaning averagely, your journey time isnt affected anyway!

People get angry stuck in their fast cars going nowhere fast, we are an easy target for them to vent their frustration. They can do a close pass to 'scare' us with no risk to themselves other than getting caught on video doing it but knowing the police make it very difficult for the victim to report it and the perpetrator to get punished. The rules around uploading video of transgressions is intentionally designed to reduce the number of uploads. The video must be on the original storage medium and I get a dangerous close pass on most journeys but I don't have an endless supply of memory cards to retain for each one reported. They require 2 minutes before and after the reported incident for context, the irony of which is that I've likely been close passed by more than one vehicle in that time, but what is the context they are looking for? That somehow your cycling behaviour has warranted the risk to your life?  In your video I would probably have used the crap shared path on your left and risked a puncture rather than filter, because I've experienced drivers who intentionally veer to push you into the path of oncoming vehicles. Those traffic jams were an everyday occurence for a while, I don't understand the mentality of someone who knows they are going to be stuck in their car for hours yet still chooses to do so rather than find another way to travel. I bet most of those lived close enough to their destination for cycling to be a viable alternative.

i do use that path, but i was on my 125 in the video there so might have got in trouble riding it on the pavement :}  

Gary's bike channel wrote:

thanks guys, but all i will say is the last time i took a driver on video to the police, when he punched me in the face for ignoring a shared use path at 30 mph, they actually agreed with the driver that i should have been using it. They're useless.

I'm trusting that you made an official complaint and took this to the media?

Gary's bike channel wrote:

...they actually agreed with the driver that i should have been using it.

Did they agree that he got a free punch to your face?