Official Closest pass video

[magnatom]

This is officially the closest pass I have ever had. I know this, as I managed to get my full palm on the taxi's window (illustrated in the video). Thus, taking into account his wing mirror, I am lucky that he did not knock me off.

I put my hand out as a reaction to his pass. As a result of this contact he decided to stop and tell me that it was my fault as I was in the middle of the road. If anything I probably didn't close the barn door enough, although (and I realise that Lee will think I am being melodramatic here) he may have made contact with me had I been any further out.

This driving and his attitude are not acceptable, even less so for a 'professional' driver. So I will be taking this to the licensing authority (is that the council in Glasgow?) and demanding that this chap is dealt with. I will also be suggesting that there needs to be an attitude change generally towards cyclists from a proportion of their professional drivers. So I will be suggesting involvement in a campaign similar to what I am currently doing with Arriva. I will of course be carbon copying my letter to the local press which will hopefully encourage a positive response .

Let's see what comes of it.

His passenger looked a bit shocked!

 

[Vikeonabike]

Oohhhhhhh that made me cringe....due care and attention I think.

 

[magnatom]

Oohhhhhhh that made me cringe....due care and attention I think.

Do you really think the police would do anything here? Not only did he endanger me, but I think he forced the car on the opposite side to swerve (it did hit it's horn). However, my experience with the police has been that they will have a chat, but no more.

Anyway it might be better to use that as leverage to get the licensing authority to do something.

 

[shunter]

That was close - are you sure drivers are not just picking on you to get on youtube

 

[rnscotch]

Ohhh sweet jesus, joseph, mary and the wee donkey... you are a better man than me as i can honestly say i would most likely knocked his head of his shoulders after that.

I can assure you that you are not being melodramatic...

 

[Scratch]

Wow, that looked very scary I hope you get some result from the council, one slip up and the video would have ended very differently.

Sadly I don't think the police would do much. West Midlands police told me they couldn't do anything following my incident with the bus driver and he swerved at me twice. At least this guy pretty much admitted it was deliberate by saying you were too far over maybe that would count for something

Best of luck with your campaign any way!

 

[jay clock]

He was very close.

As a separate point, did you go over the cross hatching on the right hand side of the lane as you went round the roundabout? About 30 secs in to the vid?

 

[Vikeonabike]

4x4 Index.

Tom
cn you get the index off the 4x4 or vehicle behind it?
If you can you may be able to get the police to contact the drivers for a statemetn!
Might help, also helps to try and contact a cycling friendly cop on your patch!

 

[magnatom]

He was very close.

As a separate point, did you go over the cross hatching on the right hand side of the lane as you went round the roundabout? About 30 secs in to the vid?

I did on the roundabout yes. I have had a number of cars undertake me on this roundabout in the past (see here for an example). If I obey the hatching it would often bring me into conflict with these cars. I must admit I'm not sure what function that hatching is trying to achieve.

I suppose legally I should not enter the hatching, but I challenge anyone to show that I would be safer to obey it.

Well spotted though Jay!

 

[BentMikey]

Wow, that looked very scary I hope you get some result from the council, one slip up and the video would have ended very differently.

Sadly I don't think the police would do much. West Midlands police told me they couldn't do anything following my incident with the bus driver and he swerved at me twice. At least this guy pretty much admitted it was deliberate by saying you were too far over maybe that would count for something

Best of luck with your campaign any way!

Did you protest their decision? That seems entirely unreasonable to me, given the camera evidence.

 

[magnatom]

Tom
cn you get the index off the 4x4 or vehicle behind it?
If you can you may be able to get the police to contact the drivers for a statemetn!
Might help, also helps to try and contact a cycling friendly cop on your patch!

Not quite. I'm pretty sure the 4x4 is a personalised number plate, but not much else. Of course the taxi had a passenger. Would it not be possible to find out who that was, i.e. where they were picked up? I can make out her face.

 

[magnatom]

Perhaps the worst case of lane positioning I have seen in a long time.

You are coming off the roundabout in a very poor primary positioning when imo there is no need to take up a primary positioning on the road in the first place.

From the junction of the roundabout to the ''pinch point'' I would say is a good 80-100 yards? Do you really feel the need to take up the entire road for this amount of distance?

Freeze the video at 0.48 you can see that when the taxi driver overtakes he is still on his side of the road, so there was still room for him to overtake (albeit very closely) even though you was in primary. Therefore imo there is ample room leading up to the pinch point. Why did you not stay in secondary and then 30 yards from the ''pinch point'' look behind you and move across?

I'm not finding excuses for the taxi drivers behaviour here, as his driving was poor. But I don't think you helped things by being where you was on the road.

When you mentioned this incident this morning, I was expecting a single carriageway with barely enough room for a HGV to go down, where taking up a primary position would mean taking up the whole road. However not in this case, there is more then enough room on each side of the road you can see this by looking at the space either side of the other vehicles coming the other way.

If that was more I would have come off the rounabout about 3 foot from the kerb, looking behind me every couple of seconds to pick my moment when I could move across. Did you look behind at all on the approach to that pinch point?

I'll get around to reading it later..... maybe.

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

Looks like Primary didn't succeed in discouraging an overtake and instead led to a possible nasty situation.

 

[BentMikey]

I think the problem is two-fold (excepting the driver of course). That road has a wide section followed by a pinch point that comes quite quickly after the roundabout, and this makes primary to control following traffic difficult, yet makes it necessary if you don't want to get stuck at the pinch point trying to renegotiate back into the flow. Secondly, Magnatom left the door half open instead of fully closing it.

I'm sure there must have been some feeling that this driver was going to be impatient, and that might have been enough to make me slow and go left into the recess on exit from the roundabout. A driver with that level of impatience will not usually take long to pass. I don't think it would have been good practice to exit the roundabout close to the curb like Lee suggested.

 

[swee'pea99]

Have to say I'm less inclined to stir it up than Lee, but I agree with him 100%. The only thing I would add is, if you were the cabbie, would you think 'so I have to slow down to his speed for the next 100 yards, then stay behind him at his speed for who knows how long, since the road narrows up ahead - fair enough', or would you think 'why can't that selfish xx%$%$$&x move over - perfectly safely - and let other people past?'