Near Miss of the Day 568: “Too dangerous” – close pass van driver’s response to cyclist who invited him for a bike ride

A cyclist who found himself on the receiving end of a second close pass on the same stretch of road inside a year invited the motorist involved to join him for a bike ride – only to have the offer declined because despite owning a bicycle, the van driver believed "it's dangerous to cycle on the road.”

The incident in Buckinghamshire that gave rise to that invitation is shown above, with the following video showing the earlier one, both submitted to our Near Miss of the Day series by road.cc reader John.

“The white van driver got a Section 59 from the police,” said John, referring to a warning given to motorist for having used their vehicle in a manner which causes “alarm, distress or annoyance” to others.

“That's not really something that I think is very effective, but that's what the process is,” he continued.

“So when the green van close passed me I decided that it would be better to talk to the driver and try to help them understand the danger.

“He said he did nothing wrong and that there was loads of room.

“After a relaxed conversation I found out that he was an ex-HGV driver with 6 points on his licence and has attended a Driver Awareness Course.

“The van is probably not worth £500 and with his history he said he doesn't think his insurance company will give him cover when it expires soon.

“I asked if he would he has a bicycle and would come out for a cycle some time. He confirmed that he owned a cycle but wouldn't want to come out as it's dangerous to cycle on the road.”

John added, with a winking emoji: “I’m going to keep putting any close passes on my channel so a Like and Subscribe is always appreciated.”

> 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