A driver pulling out straight in front of a cyclist on a roundabout and carrying on regardless despite the rider’s shouts features in the latest video in our Near Miss of the Day feature.
The incident happened yesterday afternoon at the West Bar Roundabout in Sheffield – which Simon, the road.cc reader who shot the footage, described as the Wild West Bar in the title to the YouTube video.
He told us: “Despite the fact he saw me and I was in front of the lane before he arrived at the Give Way line, he pulled out regardless.”
> 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
14 thoughts on “Near Miss of the Day 628: Motorist drives straight across cyclist at roundabout”
Was this reported?
Was this reported?
Had a very similar incident
Had a very similar incident myself yesterday, though in my case the driver did stop only to then give me some abuse, screaming/swearing at me and giving me a middle finger salute!
driver did stop only to then
driver did stop only to then give me some abuse, screaming/swearing at me and giving me a middle finger salute!
I would certainly object to this imported middle finger bollocks, when we have our own perfectly expressive v-sign!
Roundabouts in Sheffield
Roundabouts in Sheffield always seem a bit wild IME, even in a car.
The only mitigation I might give the driver there is alot of street furniture clutter to be staring through to see a cyclist already on the roundabout there and with the converging angle, it feels more like a driver expects only to see 4 wheeled shaped objects,none visible in field of vision,so just carries on going, kind of move, not a beat the cyclist move because they probably arent even aware you were there.
Absolutely doesnt mean the driver wasnt to blame though, they should have stopped and looked properly.
On the plus side it appears they want to Dutchify that roundabout so cyclists would be much safer, even if their route becomes longer to get around, which might suggest it’s identified as a bit of a problem roundabout to begin with.
I’d just assumed that was
I’d just assumed that was something they taught in driving lessons nowadays. None of that “give way to traffic on your right” malarky – just a simple “if you get there first, it’s your right of way”.
You just need to watch any
You just need to watch any dash cam videos on Youtube to find that a staggering number of motorists don’t have any clue as to how to drive at a roundabout. Admittedly a bigger portion of those videos tend to be motorists who approach a roundabout at speed and rage because someone beeps their horn at them even though they were on the roundabout first.
I have a bit of speculation as to this incident…. looks like the driver of the golf wasn’t paying attention when the car in front moved off, and decide to follow without looking properly. They never even reacted when the Simon shouted at them…. which makes me think there was an element of a MGIF involved as drivers who do that try to pretend you are not there.
Golf driver wasn’t in view
Golf driver wasn’t in view when other driver pulled off from my viewing. My speculation is VWat was approaching island, didn’t want to lose momentum so just looked ahead and to very side for checking of clearway. Potentially A pillar AND street furniture “hid” the cyclist because VWat couldn’t be arsed to actually check properly.
As for not reacting, the one who pulled out in front of me didn’t even react to the glaring light in his face or the clonk as my front wheel hit his rear wheel arch and I was sent sprawling. So a shout might not do it either.
I think sometimes some
I think sometimes some drivers view cyclists as probably moving a little slower than the average snail. We are seen as some way off and therefore not in the mix. This is odd because in towns and on smaller roundabouts we can easily be travelling at 20mph or more and be not that much slower than the motorised traffic in those situations. I find it happens with people turning right onto the main road out of junctions and I am suddenly riding alongside them or just in front because they simply think I will not have got to them by the time they pull out.
I think most of us have
I think most of us have experienced something similar.
Anticipate. Direct eye contact to make sure driver aware. Driver jabs accelerator.
It’s not just the wannabe-men-in-an-overgrown-rollerskate, or even smidsy. I genuinely think there’s some weird reflex going on, a kneejerk version of MGIF.
Captain Badger wrote:
Or possibly they are DM readers who hate cyclists and have no empathy or compunction about putting their lives in danger. I’m pretty sure some of them do it deliberately to scare people; it somehow makes them feel bigger in their pathetic little lives.
You got it. Every single one
You got it. Every single one of the million plus DM readers are just the same, and all hate cyclists, to the point of endangering the cyclists lives.
Or, alternatively, there are various shades of grey in the world, and you are too blinkered to notice them.
Yes, I think that’s it. Jayz, you truly are a bore.
Flintshire Boy wrote:
Perhaps the proprietors of the Heil could help by directing their editors to balance the output, and not pander to the minority of their readers that are extreme right? Some editorial fact-checking might help too.
Got twatted off on the very
Got twatted off on the very same roundabout back in 2001 having approached the roundabout from the Broomhill direction, so carrying plenty of speed due to one of the many hills in Sheffield working in my favour.
Unfortunately, the design of almost all the roundabouts in Sheffield seem to be about maintaining a higher speed for motorists, rather than giving everyone an opportunity to get where they want to be safely.
The motorist accelerated into me from the right, just clipping my back wheel, sending me sprawling in a heap on the road where a second motorist very kindly drove over my bike, but luckily avoided hitting me.
Neither vehicle stopped. Even with all the comprehensive CCTV in the area, neither motorist was found let alone charged.
Can’t say I’m a fan of the place.
Didn’t have my camera on me
Didn’t have my camera on me but a few days ago was cycling through a traffic calming measure and was my right of way, positioned clearly in the middle of the lane on the approach and a driver coming the other way (should have stopped) sped up and drove right at me with 2 fingers up. They don’t care and know the police won’t do anything beyond maybe sending a letter…