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Near Miss of the Day 232 revisited: Close pass motorist attends driver alertness course – and afterwards gives same cyclist plenty of room

“Looks like the course does educate drivers," says road.cc reader who submitted original footage...

It’s always good to hear a positive result from one of the Near Miss of the Day videos we publish on the site – and road.cc reader Dave from Northamptonshire has been in touch to tell us what happened next in relation to one of his videos that we featured at the start of the year.

> Near Miss of the Day 232: Punishment pass and brake check

Dave said at the time: “Yet another Northamptonshire driver who thinks this is acceptable driving standard.

“A punishment pass and brake check as he thought I was being awkward by riding in the middle of the road,” he continued.

“Of course I was riding in the primary position to try to prevent such behaviour.

“At least this time Northamptonshire Police agreed, I did have reason to report him, and the driver was offered (and accepted) a driver alertness course.”

“Hopefully he will be more considerate next time he overtakes,” he added.

If you commute by bike regularly – especially, like Dave does, in a more rural area – you’re likely to encounter the same motorists every now and again, and Dave added: “Hopefully he will be more considerate next time he overtakes”

Well, it didn’t take long for his wish to be granted – with the driver’s consideration at the start of the video above a world away from that displayed in the footage we featured in January, which also appears in the video.

Dave said: “Good to see that the driver awareness course this driver had to attend after his close pass and brake check seems to have had a positive effect if today's overtake is anything to go on.

“Looks like the course does educate drivers and hopefully covers the Highway Code and cyclists’ needs.”

> 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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5 comments

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NPlus1Bikelights | 5 years ago
0 likes

That's a reasonable amount of passing room but the cut in after looks a bit close. Possible improvement as the driver is now more aware of existence of cyclists with cameras.

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Legs_Eleven_Wor... | 5 years ago
1 like

I haven't watched the video, but note with interest the comment from someone who has, and who doesn't think that the piece of shit actually gives more space second time around.

But in any case, this is an invocation of the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy.  In other words: after this, and so therefore, because of this.  There is no way of knowing what the piece of shit was thinking - setting aside for the moment that he's a British piece of shit and so probably wasn't doing much 'thinking'.   Was it even the same piece of shit?  Was it the same road?    Was the piece of shit perhaps poorly the second time around and driving more carefully?  

There are any number of factors which could have influenced the piece of shit's behaviour the second time around.   One of them is certainly the 'piece of shit awareness course', but it's not the only one, and for the moment, there is no conclusive proof - or even evidence - that this influenced him.  

This is a bit like the death penalty in the US after the famous case of Furman v. Georgia when the US Supreme Court struck down the constitutionality of the death penalty.  Soon after, the rancid filth for whom the line between sexuality and violence was congenitally blurred (and whose only means of getting wood was to imagine the state putting their perverse fantasies into practice), starting trumpeting an increase in the rate of criminal homicide, as 'proof' that the death penalty deterred.   It didn't, and it doesn't, and the rate of increase (or vice versa) can't be used as 'proof' one way or the other.  

Avatar
EK Spinner | 5 years ago
2 likes

Call me a cynic, but i'm not so sure, he does give more space this time but is that just because the space is available.

He still appears to be passing on a pedestrian crossing

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mike the bike | 5 years ago
3 likes

 

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

Avatar
ktache | 5 years ago
1 like

Good news.

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