“The most pointless close pass ever?” asked Paul, who sent us today’s near miss. Quite possibly – but only equal worst alongside all the millions of other occasions when drivers have done the exact same thing.
The incident occurred on Thomas Street in Abertridwr, Caerphilly, on Monday December 7.
As you can see, the driver pulled alongside Paul and forced him over, at pretty much the exact moment they were being forced to stop because of a queue of traffic.
“The driver of this vehicle had no regard that I was there,” said Paul, adding that the car had brushed against him during the manoeuvre.
“When I tapped on the window and said, ‘You need to be more aware of cyclists madam,’ she rolled her eyes and drove off. The message is simple: please be aware of other road users.
“I have not reported this to the police as I believe it to be a waste of time.”
> 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
32 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 509: The (equal) most pointless close pass ever”
dont brake when people do it.
dont brake when people do it. Just crash into them. They get the blame then.
Well, maybe a bit more
Well, maybe a bit more controlled with a pedal scrape if you have the right pedals.
Although I don’t think I really want to crash at my age – been there, done that a few times.
Agree with @hirsute, been
Agree with @hirsute, been over a few bonnets in my time, but too old to risk doing it delberately now. However try this for “arm’s length contact”:
From the pound shop pick up a double syringe of clear epoxy. Squeeze a bit out, mix, and put a decent size blob on your right glove, behind the little finger, mold it into a blunt pyramid shape. You don’t want it too pointy in case it should ever hit a soft part of your anatomy. But any moderate sort of point of something hard like epoxy resin has the potential to damage paintwork or even shatter safety glass should your “instintive fending off” of the encroaching automobile just happen to connect with the relevant part.
If you are inclined on this
If you are inclined on this sort of action, you can purchase cycling gloves with metal studs! I would not recommend it. More likely to make your day even worse!
However, what I do in these very situations is give the driver some practice in overtaking cyclists, by repositioning myself in front of the car again.
Or Charge Straw handlebars
Or Charge Straw handlebars with bullet shaped ends!
I’ve done that a quite a few
I’ve done that a quite a few times and on occasions I’ve experienced an irate and even more dangerous driver when overtaking me for the second times. Is it really worth trying to wind up an already incompetent/Idiot driver and putting yourself in danger for a second time?
I’ve folded a mirror in
I’ve folded a mirror in before as I was pushed off the road. Not sure that was any inconvenience as the type of person to drive like that probably never looks in them.
I’ve also found that my wedding ring makes a very satisfying sound banged on a car window, but doesn’t break it.
In younger, stupider years I
In younger, stupider years I did once ‘allow’ myself to be left-hooked to make a point to the oblivious driver. I saw it coming and probably could have avoided impact entirely, but instead braked only enough to make a controlled but loud impact on the side of a Transit van. Quite a satisfying noise, but no way I’d do it deliberately now. I seem to remember I also opened the passenger door to ask what he thought he was doing. Must have had a death wish.
Don’t just accept that
Don’t just accept that reporting would be a waste of time, and please do report it; next time the cyclist might not be so lucky, so you could save someone’s life if you report it and chase it up. Try taking it to the media as well and embarrass the hell out of this woman and get her to change her behaviour.
Media is a good idea. We
Media is a good idea. We should have a database of local papers. Incident at Box Hill? Send copy to the Box Hill Bugle. Also, cc in the <whisper it> Daily Mail, for trolling purposes only 🙂
Yes, keep up the Police
Yes, keep up the Police complaints and take it to the next level (up or down?!) if you can.
“I’m going to suggest the driver is a complete fuckwit.” – not wrong.
I was going to suggest that
I was going to suggest that the driver never saw the cyclist. Nope, that was a deliberate overtake.
I’m going to suggest that the driver never saw the mass of brake lights ahead <facepalm>
I’m going to suggest the
I’m going to suggest the driver is a complete fuckwit.
Why have a camera if you dont
Why have a camera if you dont report?
If it is anything like
If it is anything like Lancashire Police, it is a complete waste of time.
Agreed!
Agreed!
For me, I only report the
For me, I only report the most dangerous and malicious incidents and try not to dwell too much on the others. I find that the reporting process means I am reliving the experience and getting angry about it again, so I limit myself to the egregious ones. I guess maybe that’s not great for the wider cycling community, but it’s better for my own sanity that way.
There must be a whole
There must be a whole industry grown up around dashcam, bike cam, pedestrian cam (?) “look what this idiot did” uploads.
Although I appreciate ideally we want to un-normalise this, I think on balance your aproach is the right one.
A Classic example of the
A Classic example of the “Nobheads manoeuvre”
A totally uneccessary aggressive overtake to get onto the end of a queue of traffic.
The Driver has wasted a tiny but of fuel and brake lining to get in front of the cyclist., to gain absolutely no advantage on the road. A few seconds later the cyclist passes him. Does he sit in his car thinking “I showed that cyclist” or does he think “I’m a proper nobhead”
The driver has done you a favor, you will probably meet him again further along the road. You know you are dealing with an aggressive driver with low intelligence. A bad combination
Knobhead, not nobhead.
Knobhead, not nobhead.
OK he’s a nobhead with a
OK he’s a nobhead with a silent K
hg09foj did that. Really
hg09foj did that. Really wanted to get in front of me so she could sit behind the focus instead.
The car in the video needs
The car in the video needs more ventilation ?
The solution might be found in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRbR2fynp1o
Just to repeat my self. I
Just to repeat my self. I think this needs reporting. If you do not get a reply then you should send the clip to the local PCC and then your MP. If we don’t do it no one will. We aren’t doing it for ourselves, we need to increase awareness amongst drivers if we are to get more people cycling and clean up our cities air.
May be it is a waste of time but I for one am not ready to give up yet.
Looking at it again, I
Looking at it again, I wondered if the driver doesn’t consider a cyclist to be a valid road user, and just didn’t care. The result of vicious campaigns by the usual suspects to disenfranchise cyclists.
Probably one of the 90% of
Probably one of the 90% of drivers who consider themselves to be of above or well above average driving ability, but in reality lack the basic skills of observation and forward planning to be able to deal with anything slightly out of the ordinary, not even being able to overtake a cyclist safely.
I know from personal
I know from personal experience, those Kuga wing mirrors are pretty expensive to replace. You were very very close to it. Is was thier fault after all….
Please report it, the police
Please report it, the police definitely won’t do anything about drivers like this if they aren’t aware of it.
I concur?
I concur?
This was a threat so MUST BE REPORTED, particularly that the dangerous driver caused an impact that could have caused a tumble and unpredictable how serious it could have been. And she needs to be punished (if cops don’t ignore their public duty) so she may think twice next time before commiting such crimes.
Had exactly the same about
Had exactly the same about six weeks ago. When I tapped on the window to ask why the driver thought that the manoeuvre was necessary, she told me to “fuck off”.
it’s probably past time I started smashing wing mirrors.
Please Paul, report this soon
Please Paul, report this soon to gosafe.org who hopefully will address this and the other dangerous close passes you’ve had in the Caerphilly area. That’s my route to and from the Mineworkers Memorial in Senghenydd. I too ride around the Caerphilly area and never feel comfortable when being overtaken.
On one return journey from
On one return journey from work i had a nice solid d-lock resting on the handlebars. A particularly hard of thinking driver hit me 3 times whilst I was knocking on the window pointing out his stupidity.
I managed, via the d-lock, to place his wing mirror about 20 metres away into the centre of aroundabout. He seemed to notice I was there then!