Please give me advice

[Matthew_T]

From posting this video online:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmp5j3bqGgw


I also sent an email to the company which reads:

I write to you with regards to the driving standards of your drivers. I am a cyclist and regularly have encounters with vehicles from your company. These encounters often put my life in danger and generally frighten me.
Bearing in mind you transport children and vulnerable people, I would expect that your driving standards would be far better than I have seen. I have complained three times with regards to three separate incidents involving a driver from your company and not received any feedback.

Today (8th April 2013) at about 8.40am I was cycling along Brompton Avenue, Rhos on Sea when I was overtaken by one of your vehicles. The large white coach (numberplate N322NHY) overtook me with an unsafe distance between myself and the coach. I felt very unsafe being overtaken this close and felt the turbulence of the bus passing me causing me to wobble a little.

This is unacceptable driving and I would expect more from a company such as yours.
I have gone to the trouble of creating a compilation of the incidents that I have encountered involving your vehicles and included the incident from today as the last video. I have created this video to show you what I encounter on a weekly basis on my commute and what frightens me the most about seeing one of your vehicle approaching.
A link to the video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmp5j3bqGgw&feature=youtu.be

Please bear in mind that I do not wish to cause offence to you or your company by showing you these videos and complaining about your driving standards. I simply want to bring it to your attention that some of the driving is under par and needs improving. I feel that this could be done with either a professional instructor who specialises in cycle safety or myself who would be willing to speak to your drivers and explain the concerns that I have with them.

Ultimately the decision is with you but I would like your standards of driving to be improved by any means necessary.

Kind regards

I then had the following reply:

Thank you once again for your correspondence & sincere apologies for any inconvenience or dangers to which you may have been exposed.

I have taken the liberty of copying my general manager & operational staff into my reply to you as it is of the greatest importance that we ensure that we make our drivers fully aware of all road users particularly cyclists who are incredibly vulnerable whilst on the public highway. I shall ensure that your latest compilation is circulated & made available in an attempt to increase awareness amongst our driving staff.

As a company we undertake a great deal of vocational training for our drivers, with your permission I would very much appreciate the opportunity of using your footage to again raise awareness of cyclists at this time, do I have your permission to do so?

As an avid cyclist myself, I am only too aware of the dangers that larger vehicles pose to our fraternity but likewise I am also very well aware of the need of all road users including cyclists to take responsibility for our own safety. From your compilation & your other 107 videos uploaded to YouTube, I can see that Brompton Avenue appears to be an area of particular concern, I shall ensure this is raised immediately with all concerned.

I thank you for the time you have taken to create this compilation & assure you that we shall do everything within our power to raise the profile of the need for greater care when encountering cyclists on the public highway. As a company we operate over 80 vehicles with as many drivers, all of our vehicles are tracked & monitored so that we can ensure that we can identify who was driving any particular vehicle at any given moment. If you would be so kind as to let me have the times & dates of the various encounters along with vehicle registration numbers I shall ensure that this matter is given the utmost priority with those drivers responsible.

Once again please accept my sincere apologies for what appear to be inconsiderate standards of driving & rest assured that we do take these matters extremely seriously and as such shall do everything possible to make amends.

Assuring you of our continued support.

Yours sincerely

Christopher B Owens
Managing Director
Alpine Travel

Dear Mr Owens

Thank you for your response. I confirm that you have my permission to use the video as a means of raising awareness of cyclists' vulnerability.

Brompton Avenue is a particular road which I have never been keep on. The road is narrow and often has leaves and twigs at the side which forces me to ride in a more defensive position. I often have vehicles passing me closely whether they are buses or ordinary vehicles. The road is unavoidable on my commute and I often have to cope with the dangers of it.

I can provide the details of the incidents in the video if you want them but I dont intend on making a specific complaint in relation to any of the incidents. I feel that it would be more worthwhile actually speaking with some of the drivers themselves as I anticipate a growing tension between myself and them. With the frequency that I have encountered your vehicles, I suspect that I have become relatively 'known' to the company.
I do not wish for there to be a negative relationship between myself and your company therefore I would like to have an opportunity to speak with some of the drivers involved in the video and possibly have a chance to actually discuss the matter with them personally, so that I can understand their concerns.

If you do not wish for me to meet your drivers then I can understand that and I further my apologies. However I do feel that it would be a worthwhile experience for me and them.
I am unsure about the feasibility of arranging a meeting but it could be incorporated in the vocational training.

Kind regards

Matthew,
Thank you once again for coming back to me.
I can confirm that outside of using some of your footage for formal training purposes, I shall also encourage operational staff to show your posts to our drivers in the form of informal awareness discussions, these often work well in a one on one situation.
Having reviewed a majority of your posts 2 things stand out clearly to me.
Firstly with regards to general driving standards of commercial vehicles, it is more than apparent that a majority of incidents highlighted occur when buses, coaches, lorries & alike have pulled out & given you the cyclist a wide berth but then appear to then pull back in either because of street furniture or on coming traffic far too soon such that your safety is compromised! This will be highlighted rest assured.
Secondly and without being critical, with regards to your general posts I see that you are rather confrontational, there are a number of posts where you see yourself as a champion of the roads, whilst I do not disagree that I also deplore poor standards of driving, cutting corners, the use of mobile phones & alike. Having viewed these confrontations, I feel that it would not be advisable for you to meet directly with my drivers as these matters are best kept on a professional level without personal involvement or emotion, although I certainly appreciate your offer.
With this in mind & your reluctance to name & shame individual incidents & events, we shall use your anonymity & the fact that you are protecting individual drivers to explain in no uncertain terms that any further occurrence will be dealt with severely!
Once again I thank you for your time & kind offer of assistance & assure you of our continued support.
Yours sincerely

I understand him saying that I seem confrontational in other videos and that it wouldnt be wise meeting based on that situation. However I dont understand why he has felt the need to call me a "champion of the roads" which I do not think myself as.
I am not reluctant to name and shame the drivers as in my previous email I asked him if he wanted the details. And by no means am I protecting the drivers at all.

Can someone please give me advice as to what to say next? I feel like he is trying to protect his drivers now and doing that by looking at previous videos which are of no relevance.

 

[400bhp]

You should have left it after the initial response.

Oh, and by posting the vid here it now in the public domain.

Leave it be.

 

[Cheddar George]

Matthew, you managed to get a good response/reaction from the bus company, the correspondence has now run its course, let it be.

 

[steve52]

let it go and be happy

 

[avalon]

I don't think he's being unreasonable and his request to use your videos for training purposes and it's a very positive move on his part. Obviously he would want to protect his drivers from any confrontational meetings with a member of the public.
The road does look very narrow and drivers are having to move into the path of oncoming traffic to pass you. If they slow down too much they don't have enough speed to pass you quickly before something comes the other way. It's a difficult situation for both cyclist and driver.

 

[Rob3rt]

Advice: Give it a rest!

 

[roadrash]

LET IT GO......... just ride and enjoy.........if you can

 

[Peteaud]

You got a good response, let it be.

You will end up doing more harm than good if you keep harping on about it.

 

[Matthew_T]

Okay, I have sent him the details he has requested and said nothing more. Hopefully that will be it now.

 

[Ningishzidda]

TBH mate, you gave the coach drivers opportunity to overtake by riding closer to the curb than secondary.
I notice most of the roads were quite narrow, so its a matter of politeness and manners to let faster traffic pass when you can.
Most of the passes gave you over a yard of tarmac.

6 of one.

 

[Tanis8472]

The road does look very narrow and drivers are having to move into the path of oncoming traffic to pass you. If they slow down too much they don't have enough speed to pass you quickly before something comes the other way. It's a difficult situation for both cyclist and driver.

Which they shouldn't do They should give as much room as they would overtaking a car.
If they cant, they should wait
https://www.gov.uk/using-the-road-159-to-203/overtaking-162-to-169

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

It was as good as done with the first email reply but you just had to keep on.

Then post it all here.

FFS give it up


PS:wouldn't do any harm if you moved further from the gutter either.

 

[akb]

At about 00:50, why, once the coach had passed did you then undertake? Surely the more sensible option would be to have the coach in front of you based on your personally formed reputation of "The do NOT have other road users safety as priority". Patience being the key thing here.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

You raised a point, he acknowledged that is should be given regard.

Job done.

 

[Deleted member 22722]

I've had a look at your compilation video and i'd only be unhappy with 2 of these incidents.

The first would be the one where the bus overtook you on the approach to the island. I'd have preferred him to hold back until after you'd cleared the island then overtook when it was safe to do so.

The second was the one where the bus jumped the red light.

The others don't seem particularly close passes in my personal opinion. Maybe it's just that i'm used to a different (lower) standard of driving that you generally find in a bigger city on the basis that there's more cars so likely more bad drivers as well.

I can understand what the Managing Director meant by "champion of the roads" and feel that this was said in a very diplomatic way. I use a helmet cam myself (but only on the commute) and have never felt the need to post any of the video clips onto youtube (let alone 107 videos!!), even when I have experienced close passes etc. The only reason I use one is for peace of mind that if i'm ever involved in an accident and need evidence i'll have a record of the incident for insurance purposes. My clips get deleted from my camera on a weekly basis.

You are never going to change the way bad drivers behave by moaning at them so why put yourself in a position of confrontation whilst out on the road. After all you'll immediately be the one that's in the vulnerable position. And posting the clips to youtube isn't going to do anything other than make you look like a "champion of the roads"

After saying all that, my advice to you would be to not take things any further with this company. I would have been quite happy that they took the time to respond to me in the first place. A lot of companies wouldn't have bothered. Whether they raise this issue with their drivers and implement any improvements in training is another thing. But I would like to think that they would as i'm an optimist.

Please don't take my comments as a personal attack on you as I don't know you. I'm just letting you know how others may perceive your actions.