Near Miss of the Day 513: Taxi driver in “terrifying” undertake on cyclist

Not condoning the car, there were parked cars which obviosuly made it an unsafe undertake. However, if better positioning could have prevented it I think its worth pointing out. Would you rather be in the right, or still on two wheels. I'm just making the point that you've got much more control of the traffic around you than you think and you should try to take a dominant positon to protect yourself

The cyclist's position looks about right to me - they have positioned themselves (in good time) to pass the parked cars with a decent margin to avoid being doored. It's exactly where you want to be prior to passing parked cars. Indeed, with 99% of drivers (even the terrible ones featured here) the positioning would have controlled the traffic and prevented a close overtake (on the right) and the cyclist being squeezed between the overtaking car and the parked cars.

Unfortunately no amount of road positioning can completely control the traffic when some drivers are prepared to do something as reckless as this.

Thank you Stig. (Honestly, thank you)
I'm the OP (video author).  I did not read the comments "below the line" until now. 
Remarkable how people feel they can critique my road skills,  lane postioning, etc, particularly on a route I know and ride several times a week.  Some of these comments are somewhat omniscient.  

For those who asked, the reason to filter to front at 3.05 is that the subsequent road has a dedicated lane and therefore no conflict anticipated.  Therefore as I know this junction, these lights timings etc,  I can continue on my way.  

tripster29 wrote:

...not in the primary position as the article says but on the white line...

I've helpfully marked the white line and the cyclist's path of travel as you seem to be having trouble. The cyclist is maybe 2/3 of the way across the roadway here, and lined up to be fairly centered once the line of parked cars narrows it.

To be fair your image is pretty accurate, by the time the cyclist is close to the white line the car has started to undertake him and he's not in the centre of the road until after the car is gone. Would be intersted to see from other angles as I'm not the only one who thought he was about to turn right. 

To be clear I'm not trying to blame the cyclist, just provoke thought about how much we can control traffic around us and how that will make you safer.

tripster29 wrote:

[...]

To be clear I'm not trying to blame the cyclist, just provoke thought about how much we can control traffic around us and how that will make you safer.

I'm all for improving my skills but personally the closest calls I've had have been:
 - those who didn't see me and weren't going to (I remember a couple of junction close calls - looking people in the face and suddenly realising there was no awareness)
- those who had a rather poor grasp of the dimensions of their vehicle - can't say if they saw me or not but they subsequently passed rather close to other vehicles
- those who definitely saw me but didn't care (because horn / abuse / sudden engine revving)

So for those ones "how much we can control traffic around us and how that will make you safer" would be "not at all" and "none".

Like most people on here I already make special efforts just for drivers to make myself more visible, day or night. It's certainly a good idea to teach newer cyclists this.  But you quickly reach a point of diminishing returns, so I'm after some decent apartheid.

Very different scenario, but you reminded me of it - a couple of weeks ago the driver of a Smart car stopped in the middle of the road, waited patiently for me to pass on the pavement, and then put two wheels up on the pavement so they could drive around, rather than over, one of those square speed cushions. Gobsmacked.