Yes, I Do

April 25, 2022 Longrider General News, Transport 17

I tend to agree with the Black Belt Barrister on this one.

A driver has gained five points on his licence and fined £417 after ‘accelerating’ and passing too close to a group of cyclists.

In a video shared by Sheffield North West policing team, the driver of a silver Peugeot speeds towards and past the group, with some of his car crossing over the central white lines, and into the other lane.

It’s the crossing the line that’s the issue here. I’d also observe that the driver appears, in the footage, to fail to reduce speed on the approach to the hazard. Looking at it from the perspective of the cyclists, I would have suggested that they back off and wait for a bigger gap even though they are on their own side of the white line. This isn’t about fault or who is in the right, it’s about survival. I’d tell a motorcyclist exactly the same thing, throttle off and let the oncoming traffic clear before moving out around the parked vehicle. Being in the right is no use from a hospital bed. For the oncoming driver, I’d say something similar. A hazard on the right with the cyclists looking to move towards the centre line, back off and give them some space. Either way, slow down and stay to the left of the white line.

The prosecution has sparked a row between motorists over who was in the right.

The Alliance of British Drivers said it ‘undermines the credibility of the courts and the police’, with other critics suggesting the cyclist should have given way.

No, not really. My recommendation from a survival point of view doesn’t change the fact that the oncoming driver paid no heed to the risks posed to more vulnerable road users. The prosecution was not a waste of the court’s time. It is precisely why we have courts. To determine guilt when a case is presented to them.

But the force has defended the decision, stating if the driver had slowed and stayed in his lane, he would not have been prosecuted.

Precisely. Stay on your own side of the road unless passing obstructions or another vehicle.

The decision to prosecute was called ‘idiotic’ by the Alliance of British Drivers, which said it ‘undermines the credibility of the courts and the police’.

‘We all know there are fanatics who want drivers to stop and bow down before every cyclist. If the police foolishly choose to side with them it will damage the relationship with the public,’ the group said.

‘This is not policing, this is intimidation.’

If the ABD want to make this point, they have chosen the wrong case with which to make it.

Other critics on Twitter argued that the cyclists should have given way to the passing car, due to the parked car in their lane.

Not necessarily. It depends on whether they are inconveniencing the oncoming traffic. If there is room to pass safely without encroaching on the oncoming traffic, they are doing nothing wrong. However, I go back to my earlier point – discretion suggests that it would be wise.

I notice in the comments to this piece that the usual idiots are bleating about ‘right of way.’ There is no such thing. There is priority – no one has ‘right of way.’ In this instance, if the obstruction is on your side of the road, then oncoming traffic would have priority. However, as the cyclists did not cross into the path of oncoming traffic, the issue is moot at best. The only vehicle to cross the white line was the Peugeot, and in that case, the cyclists had priority – it being their side of the road. I’d still say they allowed themselves to get far too close to oncoming traffic and I’d be ticking off any students of mine who did that and they would fail a driving test for doing it.

17 Comments

  1. On my cycle commute there was a straight road that had traffic islands that allowed pedestrians to cross in two stages. I was approaching one such island and a hot hatch, lacking patience barged past me so that he didn’t have to wait for me to pass it. He clipped the kerb with both of his offside wheels. Alloys with low profile tyres, I bet that cost him a bit more than £417.

  2. I’ve noticed that there are lots of drivers hereabouts – Doncaster & North Notts – who will drive into the face of oncoming traffic at speed rather than slow behind cyclists. They deserve all they get, much like the cyclists and pedestrians who wear black after dark . . .

  3. I’ve watched video and assessed stills

    imo driver did nothing wrong and crossing dotted white line irrelevant, especially on a narrow road.

    Driver would have had to do an emergcy stop, not slow down, to let line of cyclists pass parked car they were deliberately too far to right of. The one cyclist affected didn’t seem rattled, only the howling Vine banshee behind.

    Cyclists should have stayed further left and not provoked and encouraged a close encounter. Idiots intententionally putting them selves at increased risk to demonstrate their woke anti-car prejudices.

    As for the fine and points: unjustified and outrageous punishment by woke infested judiciary. Eco and BLM terrorists receive a slapped wrist, anything not woke hammered as we saw with Grenfell mockery last week and now ‘sexy Rayner’ this week

    btw I’m cyclist, mc and car

    • Okay, I see similar situations on a daily basis with motorcycle students. Had the rider been on a motorcycle, that would have resulted in a test failure. Not because of position because moving well out past a parked vehicle is the right thing to do, but because it meant moving too close to oncoming traffic. So slowing down and moving out after the car had passed would be the correct approach.

      If the oncoming vehicle needed to do an emergency stop, then they shouldn’t be on the road. There was more than enough time to adjust speed to react to a clearly observable hazard and avoid crossing the line. As you mentioned it was a fairly narrow road, so adjusting speed accordingly is a part of good driving. This was piss poor driving. I stand by my position here, the prosecution was justified.

  4. I think the issue here is not the specifics of this particular incident, on which I pointedly will not comment.

    It’s the general rights vs responsibilities thing. One can talk until the cows come home about relative vulnerabilities etc and idiot drivers vs idiot pushbike riders.

    The bottom line though is that the stupid driver (wilful or otherwise) is the subject of the law, insurance, licence with all the ramifications. The stupid pushbike rider absolutely is not.

    I have no problem with stupid drivers suffering consequences. I have a very real problem that stupid pushbike riders do not, indeed I would posit they are being positively encouraged to.

    “Cycling mike” (orwhatever the infantilised moron was called)?

  5. That’s a good take on this particular situation, but now the Government has started messing with the highway code and the ‘war’ between cyclists and motorists intensifies, there will be more and more situations like this and many more grey areas where it’s not easy to determine responsibility, or even if anyone did anything wrong, but each time it happens, the motorist is the one who will be hammered.

    There’s a wider political picture to all this in my opinion, and it’s about making the roads less easy for motorists

  6. I’m (pleasantly) surprised the police wanted to prosecute this driver. I’ve seen much worse than this in other YouTube clips where the police response was “Nothing to see here, please move along” or something similar.

    In this case, the driver appears to accelerate as he approaches and veers as close as possible to the cyclists. I think he gets even closer to the camera bike than he gets to the bike in front.

    As a cyclist, if there’d been a bus or HGV coming the other way I might have hesitated to go through but with such a large gap I wouldn’t have waited for a car. There’s no reason for the car to veer out of its lane.

  7. Cyclists should be insured, have registration plates, and pay road tax. We need to identify the lunatic fringe cyclists who obey no road rules just as we can the idiotic motorists.

  8. It’s the Stanford prison experiment. With highly educated students who were raised in a free society that was a disaster.

    Look at what the doing it with now!!

  9. The problem is that the government is emboldening cyclists to act in stupid ways, like cycling side by side. It would be better if both parties were left to muddle through as best as they can.

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