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news
Near Miss of the Day 534: Motorist justifies bad driving by telling cyclist "You don't pay road tax"
A motorist excused her poor driving by telling a cyclist "You don't pay road tax" - even though no such thing exists, and if people on bikes were required to pay Vehicle Excise Duty, as it is correctly known, they would do so at the same rate as drivers of electric cars, ie zero.
The clip, filmed in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, was sent in by road.cc reader Lyndon, who said it happened on his commute home from work.
"The lady in the vehicle came up very, very close to me at a red light," Lyndon said. "Her reasoning became clear later when she explained since I don’t pay road tax, her behaviour is justifiable.
"I doubt the police would even send her a warning, even with video of her justifying her own bad driving."
A couple of days earlier, Lyndon had sent us a compilation of close passes, telling us: "I went out for a ride today for 3 hours, and the following clip shows what happened during that ride.
"It’s becoming clearer to me that a small minority of drivers actively attempt to pass as close as possible, or intentionally put cyclists into dangerous positions with their driving.
"I rarely react anymore, I don’t bother telling drivers to be more aware at traffic lights. Today I cycled alongside a man driving with his elbows while eating a Big Mac. I tapped my helmet to say 'what are you thinking' to which he accelerated and sped off.
"It’s a feeling of being numb, this is what’s not only acceptable, but normal. I’ve been hit twice by cars, and hospitalised once, with countless near misses.
"Is it a matter of time before i am seriously injured or worse, just so a driver can check their phone or get to the red light three seconds faster?"
"It’s utterly dumbfounding that during a national lockdown there is so much 'essential' bad driving," he added.
> 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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48 comments
The driver did not 'almost run him over at the lights'.. she pulled alongside the cyclist, which may have breached some traffic rule but she didn't put the cyclist in danger - any rhetoric to suggest that is overblown nonsense.
But in setting off the rider could well wobble or have an issue, what advantage does she get putting her tonne plus of metal so close to him?
And the aggressive way she pulled off at the lights was not in control.
Oh and she's a complete drain on the world's resources.
Apart from that, and every word she uttered, I liked her!
VED should be renamed Pollution Penalty or similar. This would also give the government options to apply it elsewhere such as gas boilers etc. It might stop people shouting how they pay for the privilege to spew child killing poisonous emissions.
If that is where she works, I'd be tempted to go in and speak to her employer
Her employer isn't responsible for an employee driving her personal vehicle on her own time, whereas your attempt to compromise her employment by making various allegations about her, may put you at risk of civil legal action by her.
An employee's behaviour in or around her workplace may impact on the reputation of the company. No allegations required, just show the tape of this vile individual.
"Allegations"?
"Civil action"?
Clearly you don't know what you are talking about...until you do, keep off!
Before you start giving us your list of all the possible civil actions can I just get soem popcorn and a drink? There's nothing that's more fun to watch than a cavalcade of ignorance and if that's what you're offering, I'm up for it.
It's a real slap in the face having had to tolerate that driving to then have to listen to that, but as we all know, there's a lot of drivers that think the "you don't pay road tax" comment is fair justification of their driving.
This woman's entrenched levels of self entitlement, ignorance, perceived superiority and utter whataboutery mean the chances for her to recognise and improve her standards in the future are probably quite low.
"How much do you think they should pay?" works quite well. It stumped someone in a 'cyclists should pay road tax' conversation I had last year...
First of all let me say I share your pain and I agree with everything you say. Drivers do think they can get away with intimidating cyclists because they don't get prosecuted and no physical harm will come to them. I suspect most of them think its OK because they are god's gift to driving and their judgement is impeccable so they can intimidate by driving closely without colliding. I've given up trying to argue with them I just submit footage and I think that it is beginning to pay off. I don't expect prosecutions, unlike others I feel that a warning letter from the police or an offer of a driver awarenesss course is a good result because I really believe that they think they are doing nothing wrong.
Having said that I wouldn't submit the first video. The second video is a lot more worrying. Firstly failure to give way by the flatbed. I would definitely submit this because I see it as bullying driving. Next cutting in and then a close pass. I would submit the close pass but I wouldn't expect any outcome other than a letter. Next an overtake near the brow of a hill. Potentially very dangerous but s/he got away with it so I wouldn't submit it, not because it's not attrocious driving but because I wouldn't expect to get a result and there are better ones to submit. Finally an overtake before turning left at a roundabout. This is specifically addressed in the highway code and I would submit it.
It will be a long struggle but we have to start somewhere and if enough of us submit footage the police and law makers may realise it's less work to deal with the problem rather than all the submisssions.
Finally, in the days before I saw the light, my answer to "you don't pay road tax" was "I pay nearly £300 a year, how much do you pay?. The puzzled look on their faces was priceless.
Not exactly dangerous and I would have let it pass, but then I'm not wearing a camera and trying to get footage.
As for the woman, to retort 'you don't pay road tax' as some sort of justification for her attitude towards cyclists just displays how probably ill suited she is to teach our children.
Parking in a school doesn't make her a teacher . . .
Chances are though that she is..
Even if she is support staff, she has some (limited) responsibility for the image of the school and a duty of care. It would be interesting if the cyclist is a parent of a child at the school!
Does the school really want someone with such disregard for others being in a position of dealing with minors?
Schools are very big on "Safeguarding", which is essentially about protecting the vulnerable from abuse by those who would exploit their vulnerability. And as any school will tell you, it is everyone's responsibility, be they a cleaner, HoD, TA, teacher, whatever.
Of course this is a different field of play, but the parallels are there - vulnerable road users and those seated in a position to exercise their power, for good or ill, over the vulnerable.
Quite honestly, if I was a school principal or governor, I would be wary of employing anyone who abused their power over the vulnerable, in whatever sphere. Knowingly doing so, as evidenced by them giving a rationale for it, I'd say summary dismissal.
What a ridiculous screed.. her employer has no reason to get involved with a complaint about her driving; if her employer did follow 'cancel culture' and sacked her, she would have an excellent grievance for unfair dismissal.
Sacking is not the only involvement an employer can exercise...
In addition, it doesn't take too much reflection to recognise that a school's interest in its employees' conduct does not stop at the school gates
This is the occasional downside of taking primary. The ignorant driver who thinks they need to educate a cyclist about their road position with vehicular intimidation.
That was not intimidation.. she pulled alongside the cyclist at a red light.. the fact that she went over the line to do so may be a breach of road rules but to construe that as 'intimidation' is ridiculous.
Why are you so defensive of this woman.
Is this the standard of driving you'd be happy for around yourself, children, mother on a shopper? Is this the standard of driving that would be acceptable on a driving test?
So what's your line of defence exactly?
And why did she do that? Would she have done so to any other road user?
It may be my failure of imagination, but I cannot fathom why you would take that aggressive action if it were not to intimidate.
What a hateful human - hope karma hits her hard and slow!
I hope you reported it though......
Was that a school at the end ?
I'm wondering if the effects of isolation in the lock down are affecting the attitudes of drivers?
I'm wondering if the effects of isolation in the lock down are affecting the attitudes of drivers?
No. They couldn't care less about hitting a cyclist, and they couldn't care less now- that's setting aside those who deliberately run into cyclists knowing that even if they are filmed and caught, the penalties are minimal. I assume most of you saw the loathsome fat b****** in the white vest swearing at the cyclist on the video in the last couple of days. What has happened to him?
He tripped over his flips flops but his fat gut saved him from any facial injuries.
How could you tell?
It says under the YouTube video "charged with Common Assault and Public Order offences and was sentenced to a Community Order, three months curfew at his home from 8am - 8pm, and ordered to pay £85 court fines." Minimal indeed.
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