Bad over take by police car :(

[gaz]

On actually looking into the youtube account, cyclechat account it's easy to see that this has been setup to promote policewitness. A website which aims to help people report bad driving to the police. Unfortunately the police aren't too happy with them and I suspect we won't see the same results we are getting out of Roadsafe

 

[Miquel In De Rain]

A trained professional should have been able to see ahead better and not committed.

 

[Cycling Dan]

There seems to be alot of helmet camera hatred on this forum and due to that its clouding their judgement, which is a shame really. However from the footage i dont see a shoulder check... maybe it was done before the video starts maybe not. Non the less the actions by the officer where below standard. In addition in no way was it acceptable for him to use the fact he was a police officer to pass the sole blaim over to the cyclist. Even if the cyclist did not look that is not in any form justification for the action by the officer driving.

 

[4F]

There seems to be alot of helmet camera hatred on this forum and due to that its clouding their judgement, which is a shame really.

To be fair it is not helmet camera hatred, more non event annoyance.

 

[gavintc]

Bad over take by police car
This should have been called “cyclist with camera causes scene”

Situation normal then.

I really do wonder if people with cameras are looking for some sensational footage to justify the expense of the camera. When in fact almost all of us have a pretty boring time on the bike.

 

[Matthew_T]

The cyclist pulled into the right hand lane without looking (we see him clearly look to the left as he reaches the front of the bus). What we can't see is how close the police car was when he pulled out.

I agree that the cyclist should have shoulder checked to the right when he started to pass the bus, and he should have heard the police car approaching. It is understandable that he made eye contact with the bus driver though, I just think the cyclist wasnt to aware of the vehicles behind him.
The police officer was still an idiot for trying to overtake at a pinch point though. He should know better.

 

[Hip Priest]

I don't think the cyclist did much wrong. The attempted pinch-point overtake was poor, but at least the copper abandoned it. This sort of thing happens quite regularly and isn't really a big deal.

 

[PK99]

If you look at the video, the cyclist had no chance at all of being able to let the bus out. If he had braked, then he would have ended up parrallel with the bus which would have been unsafe. The cyclist had every right to overtake the bus and the police car was just being and impatient sausage. The police officer then felt it necessary to have a go at the cyclist which they shouldnt have done at all.

The cyclist pulls out immediately behind the bus passing very close to the rear wing. Would have been better to indicate and move out much earlier.

riding close up behind a stationary vehicle then pulling out is poor practice

 

[BSRU]

From watching the video it appears the cyclist changed lanes to overtake the bus without a shoulder check, of course they could have a mirror but a shoulder check is required when changing lanes.
The officer misjudged the attempted overtake but safely aborted the manoeuvre, forward planning was missing.
The cyclist then used his horn as a rebuke, something he should not do, I'm guilty of doing it myself although never to a police car.

 

[Pale Rider]

I'm sure a copper on a nightshift in east London has better things to do than discuss this non-incident.

 

[MontyVeda]

Rubbish. There was plenty of time for the cyclist to slow and stop behind the bus.

...

bollox... the bus is indicating left until the cyclist is within cars length of the back of the bus, then it signals right, ... or should he have just slammed his anchors on to pedantically comply with the highway code?

edit... ok, much more than a cars length, but the bus switches indicator from left to right at 11 secs in, the cyclist is overtaking the back of the bus at 12 secs, one second is hardly 'plenty of time'.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

bollox... the bus is indicating left until the cyclist is within cars length of the back of the bus, then it signals right, ... or should he have just slammed his anchors on to pedantically comply with the highway code?

edit... ok, much more than a cars length, but the bus switches indicator from left to right at 11 secs in, the cyclist is overtaking the back of the bus at 12 secs, one second is hardly 'plenty of time'.

You actually made me loose another 15 seconds on my life checking this, but a question for you,

Where was the rider going if the bus hadn't of indicated?

To me it looks like he was still going to have to change lanes anyway, but he still did it without looking.

Just as another aside wasn't he a bit close to the car parked in the bus lane, just another cyclecam warrior who sees wrong in everyone but themselves

Alan...

 

[Buddfox]

Just so I can understand this, most people in this thread are criticising the cyclist for not doing a shoulder check, when a professionally trained driver, who should absolutely have anticipated that the cyclist was going to pull out, has to take evasive action for trying a dangerous overtake where there was clearly no room to do so? I think we're being a bit harsh here...

Completely unrealistic to expect the cyclist to wait for the bus to pull out, the bus driver presumably is doing mirror signal manoeuvre, so the cyclist would easily have been alongside the bus by the time he would have been pulling out, and bus drivers know to look for vehicles passing in these circumstances. At the speed the cyclist was travelling, he did exactly the right thing. And it's not as if he just pulled straight out into the right hand lane, he was moving across it from some way back. This is bad driving by the police car, plain and simple. Yes, it happens a lot, but of all the drivers on the road they ought to have known better. I would certainly put it into Roadsafe, so they have a record of it. I'm not sure he should have stopped in the road as he did without either putting on his hazard warning lights or some other indication to warn other drivers of the hazard he was creating in the road.

 

[4F]

The cyclist should have shoulder checked and indicated before changing lane. If he had done this and taken primary before the overtake then this incident would not have happened.

 

[boydj]

Not the best cycling, but a lack of foresight and bad decision-making, compounded by a total overreaction from the police driver.