Sometimes you’ve just got to reach the back of that queue at the traffic light a second or so quicker, seems to be the mantra of the London black cab driver in our latest Near Miss of the Day clip. The road.cc reader who sent it in says that because of examples like this, he thinks taxis and private hire vehicles should not be allowed to use bus lanes.
The road.cc reader – who uploads to YouTube under the name sci-z5y – turns left onto Chelsea Bridge at the start of the video. After navigating his way around a bus mechanic who was in something of a precarious position, our impatient cab driver appears around 21 seconds into the clip. He overtakes the cyclist while a car is almost level with him in the lane to the right-hand side, then proceeds to do it again a few metres up the road. The second cyclist appears to let the cab driver know what they think of the manoeuvre.
Inevitably, at around 52 seconds into the clip our cyclist goes past the cab driver again, who by this point has joined the back of the queue they would have joined anyway.
“I reported it to the Met, no response from them and it’s past their six-week timeframe to expect a response”, said the road.cc reader.
“For me, this video is why taxis and for-profit drivers/vehicles shouldn’t be allowed to use bus lanes. The driver wildly misjudges the gap between the other driver and the cyclist – or just chooses not to care, perhaps – and swerves their way between both of them. The black cab driver left maybe a bar width to spare at best?
“I’ve left the last part of the video in to show, inevitably, the part where everyone on a bicycle passes them anyway.
“Separately, I didn’t feel at all comfortable passing that person working on the bus. By the time I saw them, I tried to give them enough room as… I knew there was another person on my right and there were vehicles behind on my right too.”
Do you agree with the cyclist behind this video? Let us know your thoughts in the comments as always.
> 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 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
11 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 926: “This is why taxis shouldn’t be allowed to use bus lanes”, says cyclist who watches cab driver squeeze between cyclists and drivers in dangerous overtake (only to get caught in traffic seconds later)”
Don’t feed the troll
Don’t feed the troll
Please follow this everyone.
Please follow this everyone.
Sometimes this forum reminds
Sometimes this forum reminds me of Highlander… I keep hearing “Another time, Macleod!”
Did you know that trolls make
Did you know that trolls make amazing cellists? And they need lessons from the finest cellist tutor in the south east?
And, IIRC, they have
And, IIRC, they have particularly rigorous standards and dress codes for social events and dinner parties…
There may be other reasons to
There may be other reasons to keep taxis out of bus lanes but this isn’t one of them. The problem here is the failure of the police to respond adequately to reports of bad driving around vulnerable road users. The solution here is to ban THIS DRIVER from driving a taxi.
Bungle_52 wrote:
That bus mechanic should have
That bus mechanic should have put out protection bollards whilst attending to the bus, he was nearly clipped by both cyclists and sat very close to the main traffic.
Muddy Ford wrote:
The close pass on the Cargo
The close pass on the Cargo bike looks shittier than the close pass on the OP.
But (genuinely not trying to troll here) the prior close pass by the illegal e-motorbike rider put the OP at much greater risk imo – would have sent the OP straight under the wheels of the taxi.
Perception is a funny thing isnt it?
I don’t think there was a
I don’t think there was a suggestion that the close pass in question was on the cyclist with the camera:
The wording of the second para is a little confusing, but I think it’s still referring to the passing of the two cyclists in front of the one filming (the second of which is the cargo/childseated one).