Near Miss of the Day 673: “Way too close to ignore” – impatient driver brushes past cyclist

Shocking driving and whilst taking the lane might have prevented this the cyclist is not at all in the wrong, certainly not 100%. 

In fairness the driver of the van clearly recognises his stupidity and stops and appologises. I had a similar incident not long ago where I shouted out at a BWM driver who made a ridiculously close pass on me. He stopped a little further up the road and prepared myself for a confrontation. The guy was incredibly appologetic and recognised his stupidity. When I caught up with him again at the next set of traffic lights he was once again appologising. Hopefully they won't do it again. 

Not sure any of that is relevant or true...

Probably just because they want to get from A to B with minimum fuss and constantly being treated to people swearing or shouting at you just for existing,can be wearing, especially if its day after day you have to put yourself through it.

That wasnt just the van driver not leaving enough space pass that's a they basically all but did hit them, so what reason do we believe had the rider been more central, the van driver wouldnt have just done the exact same thing ? Theyve already demonstrated they dont have any empathy for you by driving like that around you and theres enough space for the van driver to lean more towards the car on their left to make a gap, they only need to get half way past you and then turn.

100% not the cyclists fault or blame for their positioning

While rarer, there's also take the lane, recieve punishment pass 300 yards later.   Most irritated drivers shout and swear, the odd one is just a total nutter and acts accordingly!

There's also nutter BMW driver threatening to 'fucking flatten' you and then threaten to 'knock you off' all perfectly recorded on video- followed by the police trying to forget all about the incident for 3 months. When the 'forgetting' ploy is prevented by persistent cyclist, the result is PC 'having a word with the driver' and generously accepting his monumentally insincere apology and that's the end of it. The entertaining part of this latest Lancashire 'Stuff the Cyclists' campaign is that LC claims that these actions represented 'restorative justice'. Yes, you heard it here first: psycho BMW driver 'apologising' to the PC is thought by the Pretend Police to be Restorative Justice.

I know the junction well, cycle it many times a month.  The cyclists movements were slightly bizarre, i'd always hold the centre through there and right through the junction.  It's really not a safe junction with narrow lanes and traffic switching between an ever changing number of lanes.

None of this in any way excuses the van drivers poor driving

HLaB wrote:

what I hate in large cities are folk constantly on their horn for something stopped for a second.  

Something I don't miss from my days living on a London red route. Every day, entirely predictably, there was slow-moving traffic at peak times. But someone always seemed to think that if you just lean on your horn long enough, it will simply evaporate. Howling at the moon.      

Having moved to London about 10 years ago, i'm still amazed at the ignorance the average driver pays to emergency services vehicles.  No efforts are made to clear a route.  Originally from Manchester and lived around the country.  This seems to be a very localised London issue.

That was my thought as well. I would have tucked in directly behind the VW and put myself in primary until beyond the junction. This would also have facilitated the right turn. Personally I never use the cycle lane to filter to the ASL unless I am going to reach it first. Otherwise I will filter the offside looking for a space to drop into if the traffic starts moving again. Though some take exception to this and try and close the gap when you do this and traffic starts moving again.