Close pass - worth reporting to police?

[funkyrobot]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9B_DxuwyI4

On my bike going home from the local town and the plonker in the Almera nearly hits me. The sound you hear is me tapping his window as he started to drive across me before passing me properly.

Is this worth reporting? Or just forget about it and move on with life.

I know nobody was hurt, but this driver seems lack the ability to overtake cyclists properly. The fact that I could touch his car shows how close he was.

[madbadger]

Option B.

Move on.

[GOATever]

Ninja rocks are the answer.

[Marcellus]

I think it depends on which Police area you're in as only some are taking the whole close pass initiatives seriously.

However, before you do I don't think the footage you've linked to would be enough for them to pursue.

From what I've ready you need a while before then rear, then front and a little longer.

[funkyrobot]

Marcellus said:

I think it depends on which Police area you're in as only some are taking the whole close pass initiatives seriously.

However, before you do I don't think the footage you've linked to would be enough for them to pursue.

From what I've ready you need a while before then rear, then front and a little longer.

Ok. Thanks.

[budgie smuggler]

Lol at the ignorant dickwad already commenting on the youtube vid.

[TheInternet]

I imagine they were irritated with you riding so far out from the kerb. It's hard to say whether they were right to be irritated or not, but it doesn't excuse the pass.

[GOATever]

TheInternet said:

. It's hard to say whether they were right to be irritated or not.

It isn’t ( hard to say ).
I’ll give you a clue, they weren’t.

[funkyrobot]

TheInternet said:

I imagine they were irritated with you riding so far out from the kerb. It's hard to say whether they were right to be irritated or not, but it doesn't excuse the pass.

Defensive riding. You should never ride along the gutter.

Placing yourself a good metre or so into the road is supposed to help your position and make people think before they pass you. It's done to stop people squeezing by. Unfortunately, this person got really close anyway.

[ThorB]

funkyrobot said:

Defensive riding. You should never ride along the gutter.

Placing yourself a good metre or so into the road is supposed to help your position and make people think before they pass you. It's done to stop people squeezing by. Unfortunately, this person got really close anyway.

That's not defensive cycling, that's just getting in people's way. I'll take the primary position when I need to - approaching a hazard or where I consider there isn't room for a safe overtake. If I can make it easier for a car to overtake me without placing myself in danger I will and that is generally my default riding position.

Permanently placing yourself 1m into the road at all times will just piss people off and to me is the equivalent of being an MLM.

[washingitagain]

ThorB said:

Permanently placing yourself 1m into the road at all times will just piss people off and to me is the equivalent of being an MLM.

I have to agree (although don't condone a close pass). There's no need to be so far out and the car passing is trying to do so without going over the line. You're hogging the road and that will annoy people.

[Connectors]

From a cyclist. It wasn’t even worth starting a thread about. IMO if it was worth reporting it to the Police you’d have done that rather than posting about it here.

[funkyrobot]

ThorB said:

funkyrobot said:

Defensive riding. You should never ride along the gutter.

Placing yourself a good metre or so into the road is supposed to help your position and make people think before they pass you. It's done to stop people squeezing by. Unfortunately, this person got really close anyway.

That's not defensive cycling, that's just getting in people's way. I'll take the primary position when I need to - approaching a hazard or where I consider there isn't room for a safe overtake. If I can make it easier for a car to overtake me without placing myself in danger I will and that is generally my default riding position.

Permanently placing yourself 1m into the road at all times will just piss people off and to me is the equivalent of being an MLM.

Fair enough.

I'll ride a bit closer to the kerb and see how I get on.

[InitialDave]

Hard to tell from the perspective in the video, but I'd say you look a bit further out from the kerb than I would be in that situation. Might just be an effect of the wide angle lens?

[GOATever]

funkyrobot said:

Fair enough.

I'll ride a bit closer to the kerb and see how I get on.

It isn’t “Fair enough” how many cars do you know of that only take up the room you did there? None, I reckon. Motorists need to wake up, you give a cyclist the room you’d give a car, if you were overtaking it. In that example, a car would have necessitated a much wider over take, it matters not a jot that you’re on a bike. In your example there, If the motorist can’t get past without moving into the other carriageway ( at least partially ) there isn’t room to overtake, so don’t try. Your position was absolutely fine ( especially given the conditions ) The motorist was a prize tw@.

[Terminator X]

I treat cyclists like horses and pull over to the oncoming traffic lane when no one is coming of course that one was close but surely life too short to get "rage" about it.

TX.

[budgie smuggler]

washingitagain said:

There's no need to be so far out and the car passing is trying to do so without going over the line.

Yeah, that's the point really. The driver should not do that.

[Daveyraveygravey]

washingitagain said:

I have to agree (although don't condone a close pass). There's no need to be so far out and the car passing is trying to do so without going over the line. You're hogging the road and that will annoy people.

Er, if the car can't overtake without SAFELY crossing the white line, the car shouldn't overtake. The fact the rider can tap on his windows proves he was too close.

I'd report it. As others have said, it looks like you were a little further out in the lane than I would have been, but I won't allow anyone to get that close. I don't understand how anyone can say let it go, are we there to be shat on and treated like doormats?

[anonymous-user]

Daveyraveygravey said:

washingitagain said:

I have to agree (although don't condone a close pass). There's no need to be so far out and the car passing is trying to do so without going over the line. You're hogging the road and that will annoy people.

Er, if the car can't overtake without SAFELY crossing the white line, the car shouldn't overtake. The fact the rider can tap on his windows proves he was too close.

I'd report it. As others have said, it looks like you were a little further out in the lane than I would have been, but I won't allow anyone to get that close. I don't understand how anyone can say let it go, are we there to be shat on and treated like doormats?

Ride closer to the kerb and it wouldn’t have happened.

What gives you the right to knock on his window? Would you accept him getting out and knocking you on the helmet or kicking your tyres?

Idiot cyclist riding half-way across the road and wonders why a car gets to close when going past, nearly as bad as those cretins in full Lycra who like to ride 3 abreast down the main road.

[Ayahuasca]

Why do you have a rearward facing camera?