Near Misses Thread Volume 2 (So close you can feel it)

Cycling home this evening on Aston Quay (not long after O'Connell bridge) where I always take the lane due to the poor road surface and with busses pulling in and out. Traffic was pretty heavy and more or less at a standstill but that didn't stop a taxi in a big Ford Tourneo (van/people carrier) from pulling in on top of me. Despite two rear lights and the fabled high vis he kept coming to within inches so I slapped the side of the van to alert him of my presence as if he hadn't seen me already.

He took umbrage with this leaning on the horn, 10 meters further with both of us stuck in traffic he then got out of the taxi, grabbed me by the arm and punched me in the shoulder. He was threatening further assault for hitting his van as he said but at this stage pedestrians were saying something from the footpath. I was in cleats with one leg clipped in so pretty immobile so just gave him a few verbals and said to expect a visit from the guards.

A short stocky hothead who was behind me all the way to the council buildings where the cycle lane opens up and he was left behind in traffic.

Nice Sierra.

Careless driving and a modest fine. Would have liked to see the prosecution proceed on DD.

To me that's an unarguable case of dangerous driving, although I'm not well up on the law. He got off very lightly. Fair play to you for holding it together.

This incident happened in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire. (google maps).

This shows how wearing a helmet can save your life. Cyclist had nothing broken just bruised and sore, bicycle a total write off

It does look like a case of 2 wrongs. Motorist made the first error taking the incorrect path through the roundabout. The cyclist is signalling to go straight ahead on entry to the roundabout then fails to stop, instead veering at the last moment in front of the car going the wrong way before he is hit.

I’d say chances of a DD charge are remote to say the least, based on what it seems to take to have that charge brought

You see, this is one of the reasons I'm against bike lanes and segregated bike lanes: drivers will now expect cyclists to use them all of the time. I seldom use them and I don't want anyone telling be that I have to.

IMO, mandatory cycle lanes (as in you have to use them) aren't a problem by themselves. If you look around Netherlands, especially rural areas you see lots of roads that are for cars and people on bikes are simply not allowed to go on them. The difference is, as we all know, in NL when you see that and you turn your head and see the alternative bike infrastructure that people on bikes "have" to use instead, it's of such a high quality that people would use it anyway, whether they were forced to or not.

Problem in Ireland is when it comes to delivering cycle infrastucture is that planners perceptions of the requirements of modern cycling culture seems to lag about 50-100 years behind the reality - many of the cycle paths we have now would no suit be perfectly adequate for a 1920s cyclist wobbling along at 8kph in a tweed coat and cap on a high nelly. For a modern commuter cyclist who needs to cover 20km in a reasonable amount of time to get to work safely, not so much.

Not a near miss but.....https://road.cc/content/news/moment-cyclists-bike-was-catapulted-after-collision-286439

I think it's a lot more serious than just people being tossers.

After coming off my bike before, getting up with blood all over my arm and leg I had a taxi driver slow down to gloatingly shout out his window at me - "That'll knock some of the attitude out of ya!" - My attitude was apparently because I had filtered past him a couple of moments before and made progress down the road when he was stuck in a line of cars.

Some peoples minds are just completly f**ked and incapable of any rational thought or reasoning when it comes to people on bikes.

Passat - weapon of choice for a legion of Rock Apes.