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Near Miss of the Day 525: Cyclist has to thump on taxi window as driver squeezes him into verge

Our regular series featuring close passes from around the country - today it's Oxfordshire...

A cyclist had to thump on the window of a taxi to attract the attention of a driver who, unable to overtake a tractor and trailer ahead of him, was squeezing him into the grass verge – that’s the scenario of our latest Near Miss of the Day video, shared by road.cc reader Tom.

“I moved from London to Thame (Oxfordshire) ten days before lockdown 1 last year,” Tom told us. “During my three years of commuting from Chiswick to the City I never got round to getting a cycle cam but felt that it’d be more important to get one now I’d be on less busy but faster roads (the new commute is Thame to Oxford).

“However I found out that drivers in Oxfordshire (on the whole) were much better than most in London – That is until recently; from about November I’ve had more frequent close passing and careless/dangerous driving.

“However, I’ve been working from home (no commute currently) and so recently all of my rides have been around my locale, meaning any bad driving I encounter is more than likely to be people from my local area too.

“I will say Thames Valley Police have been excellent with letting me know the outcomes of close passes that I’ve uploaded onto their portal (funnily enough each time the police officer has told me that the person driving the vehicle has said ‘I’m a cyclist myself’).

“I’m sending this video across because I’m still, even now, getting used to riding with a cycle cam and I’m still a bit naive with it,” Tom continued. “This has been a valuable learning experience if I have a similar incident happen to me again.

“This is me about two minutes from home arriving into Thame. There’s a tractor with trailer that passes me (well and with a lot of space), it’s downhill so I’m able to keep a constant speed. The driver of the tractor then lets out another tractor pulling out of a side road (I see this and moderate my speed and position in the road – this part of the road also has some deep potholes on the left so I normally take a bit more of the lane here).

“At the same time a taxi driver (in a seven-seater van) for some reason pulls alongside me (into the opposing lane for vehicles turning right) but then realises he can’t get past me and the two tractors in front. At which point he just starts to pull back in and squeeze me out into the verge.

“At the same time I’m level with the taxi’s passengers (who look a bit confused) and start gesturing for them to have a go at the driver. It gets to the point where I start to hammer on the side of the taxi (the sound is terrible on my camera but you can hear the thwacking) and he eventually pulls back.

“My naivety with cycle camming that I mentioned earlier is that I was just happy to be free of being squeezed so took the chance to establish prime in the lane and be in front – whereas in hindsight I should have pulled up and tried to get the number plate (I can’t even remember the taxi company, but I was being forced off the road so it wasn’t my priority).”

Tom added: “As you can see the lens angle isn’t wide enough for me to see the taxi company and I don’t run a rear camera. I haven’t reported this one to the police because I don’t have any details of the vehicle/company that I can attribute it to (unless someone has any advice on what I can do with this footage?).”

> 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

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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23 comments

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JLasTSR | 3 years ago
1 like

Nearly very nasty. Well done on avoiding the accident. Does the car behind the Taxi flash him to say I'm here or let him back in? If they did that probably made matters even worse. 

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Pedantic Pedaller | 3 years ago
0 likes

This clip has got me thinking how road cycling has changed!

I have been a keen cyclist for 40 years now, mainly in London and SE England.  Back in the 80's and 90's, close passing was a lot more common than now.  Generally, that was the worst I experienced apart from a rare case of negligent driving.  I rarely encountered any acts of aggressive driving, such as deliberate high speed close passes or being 'nudged into the kerb'.

More recently I have found many more drivers are more considerate and actually pass with greater distance.  However, I now experience acts of driving aggression such as: 1) deliberate high speed close passes ("punishment passes"). 2) As per this video, overtake then followed immediately with a side swipe 'nudging' me into the kerb. 3) Drivers deliberately pulling out of side turnings into my path even though they have seen me clearly.

It seems to me, as cycling has become more popular and there are many, many more cyclists on the roads, there has been a growing resentment within a small minority of drivers against this trend.

BTW: I have also been a driver in London for 37 years.  Several years I worked as a delivery driver throughout London.

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mg129523 | 3 years ago
5 likes

Had one a while ago where I had to make a driver aware of my presence by thumping on the window as I was being squeezed into the kerb. With the support of video evidence, that driver now has a conviction for Careless Driving; plus Common Assault and Public Order offences due to the subsequent behaviour.

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disherwood replied to mg129523 | 3 years ago
0 likes

Well done

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wtjs | 3 years ago
3 likes

Taxi driver is guilty, and you'd probably have got him if you'd hung back after the window-thumping (which was completely justified). GoPro would certainly have nailed him

I will say Thames Valley Police have been excellent with letting me know the outcomes of close passes that I’ve uploaded onto their portal (funnily enough each time the police officer has told me that the person driving the vehicle has said ‘I’m a cyclist myself’)

I am interested in this comment- has the outcome included any real action, which means prosecution, or has it all been pretend action like 'we've had a word with the driver' (which means they did nothing at all) or 'we have sent a warning letter' (which means they probably did nothing at all, but even if they sent a letter they'll make sure they don't notice that if the same driver does it again)?

When the police interview a cyclist about an offence they always say 'I'm a cyclist myself'- but in Police Newspeak this means anyone who has ever been on a bike once from the age of 2.

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TGT replied to wtjs | 3 years ago
0 likes

From what the officer has said to me (and it's been thre same officer each time so we actually have a friendly patter now...) - of the 5 videos I've uploaded, 3 he said he'd spoken to them and 1 he said a letter had been sent. The other 1 didn't meet the threshold supposedly. I have actually warned him there'll be another one he should be giving me a call about soon and let him know it's the worst I've had (bar this most recent taxi incident) so a talk/letter will not be enough. I'll see what happens.

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IanMK | 3 years ago
2 likes

It's like deja vu. I'll repeat my post from NMOTD 523. The HC is clear "DO NOT overtake where you might come into conflict with other road users. For example approaching or at a road junction on either side of the road".

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eburtthebike | 3 years ago
10 likes

Must have been one of those kind, considerate cabbies who are so concerned about the disabled.  I hope you offered him compensation.

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chineseJohn | 3 years ago
2 likes

Typical MGIF driver. 

Good to hear that TVP do feedback reports, I've reported a punishment pass last week, driver took it upon themselves to enforce a non-existing rule of telling me to ride of poor shared path to the left of me.

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Hirsute | 3 years ago
3 likes

Why was the driver in the hatched area ?

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Captain Badger | 3 years ago
7 likes

Interesting overtake by the tractor. Reasonable in terms of distance and cutting back in, but utterly pointless in terms of progression - the rider was going a similar speed. MGIF writ large....

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brooksby replied to Captain Badger | 3 years ago
4 likes

VERY large  3

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to Captain Badger | 3 years ago
2 likes

Probably not from the description and the speed of the initial pass. Everythhing had to slow down as the other tractor joined the road just after the take. You actually see it's yellow flashing light at 13-14 seconds to the left of the initial tractor. It just seems to pull out with no slowing either so I wonder if they were racing each other somewhere via different routes. 

I suspect that was also the reason it knocked back to the cyclist almost being killed. 

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TGT replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 3 years ago
3 likes

You can't tell from the video but the driver of the tractor in front of me sounds their horn signalling the other tractor to pull out the side road. So slows a bit but not much. The tractor driver IMO was actually pretty good. Waited behind me at a distance until they could overtake and have enough room.

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mdavidford replied to Captain Badger | 3 years ago
0 likes

It looks like they may have misjudged the speed of the vehicle in front - initially thinking it was going faster than it was, then panicking when they were closing quicker than expected and underestimating its speed, resulting in them hauling on the brakes harder than they really needed to. If they'd just completed the overtake and eased off a little they probably would have been fine and not even raised an eyebrow.

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wycombewheeler replied to mdavidford | 3 years ago
0 likes

Deleted

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mdavidford replied to wycombewheeler | 3 years ago
0 likes

You've misread the thread / my comment. I wasn't talking about the taxi - I was referring to the tractor.

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wycombewheeler replied to mdavidford | 3 years ago
0 likes

Apologies

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sensei | 3 years ago
7 likes

It never ceases to amaze how so-called professional drivers can go about with such poor awareness of hazards on the road. It is a shame but understandable that you didn't stop to take reg and company details. I too would have been relieved that I didn't get crushed against the verge. This moron will more than likely put the next unfortunate cyclist in danger no doubt very soon.

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wycombewheeler replied to sensei | 3 years ago
4 likes

I don't believe taxi drivers are required to prove a higher standard of driving proficiency than anyone else.

In my experience they are some of the worst around, but they think they are great.

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AlsoSomniloquism | 3 years ago
0 likes

Get a better camera (Go Pro with image stabliser) or better padding around the connection between the bike and the camera as all the jittery roads make it useless unfortunately. 

As for what I could tell, arsehole cabby was going to pass you AND the tractor then had to abort and thought you would give way. You shouldn't have to but I probably would have as 2 tonne car V 90kgs is a no win. Shame nothing could be done about the twat though. 

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NZ Vegan Rider replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 3 years ago
1 like

Agreed. 

Good on you for whacking the car etc!

If you can stretch your $ to a Fly6 for the rear of your bike please do so. 

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nniff replied to NZ Vegan Rider | 3 years ago
0 likes

In general, I find a rear view camera more use out of town and a front view in town.

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