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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-61815609
Serves you right you entitled shite.
The other cars managed to leave more space, you just wafted by in your 2 ton tank.
Bet you wished you'd taken up the offer of the driver improvement course.
Bet you wish you'd payed the fixed penalty.
Have fun when you come to renew your insurance😡
I do like the claim about the last fine being 35-40 years ago.
So never been caught before then?
Modern technology really is an arse isnt it allowing cyclists to, relatively cheapily, attach cameras to their bikes to catch those dangerous passes which have been happening for years.
Although to be moderately fair perhaps he thinks his oversized piece of crap is still the same size as the cars he learnt to drive in which would have probably given the space he thought he was giving.
He’s probably the living embodiment of Mr Morris on Friday Night Dinner
Hahahahahaha
Daily mail readership are up in arms, with plenty of stories of cyclists(other road users) who haven't been prosecuted.
What I find remarkable about their protestations is here we have someone breaking the law, getting caught and being penalized for it.
You would think that's exactly the thing they were wanting to happen. But no accounting for the average intellectual capacity of your daily mail reader.
+1 all of the above. Lol.
Firstly, that's not an arbitrary fine - your wee man had an opportunity to attend a driving course or pay a fixed penalty, he could've avoided the cost.
Secondly, I think that it's about time that fixed penalty fines were adjusted to account for income and wealth - the thicker the wallet, the heavier the fine.
Thirdly, Audi.
But no accounting for the average intellectual capacity of your daily mail reader.
That's an oxymoron there.
But no accounting for the average intellectual capacity of your daily mail reader.
Nah. They are law abiding citizens and hence any law that they break is clearly an unjust one which should be removed from the statue books.
Or in special circumstances have those special circumstances recorded aka if they are the ones doing it then its fine but if its an unmarried single mother than she should be executed.
It's interesting that point about the readership of a certain publication and no doubt others of a similar editorial persuasion...It's all crime and punishment and death sentences for everything etc. except if it's a driving offence, which isn't a real crime anyway. Can you imagine a group of people coming out with "well we only kill 5 innocent people a day why is X illegal" in any other context.
In practice I think a part of this outrage is more about an underlying lack of confidence in the ability to meet an acceptable standard of driving and the fear of having to face the actual consequences of being unable to control their base impulses/ineptitude behind the wheel (see also hit and run accidents - whether car park scrapes or life ending/altering collisions). People object to enforcement because they know it could be them next and because they see elements of their own driving in the cases being brought. I still believe this a significant part of the cyclists "dead cat" arguments and why so many crown court cases seem to result in not guilty verdicts in driving cases.
Driving well is actually quite hard. Personally I work hard at it to consciously try and maintain good standards every time I get behind the wheel because always in my mind is someone's life might be ended if I mess it up. It needs concentration, self control, a high degree of environmental awareness, empathy, patience, anticipation and planning skills and good risk assessment. Lots of those skills are clearly lacking in a lot of drivers. It takes a bit of courage to say to yourself - "I didn't get that right, what would I do better next time?"
I've had much closer passes this year.
Brilliant. 😀
Driving well is actually quite hard. Personally I work hard at it to consciously try and maintain good standards every time I get behind the wheel because always in my mind is someone’s life might be ended if I mess it up. It needs concentration, self control, a high degree of environmental awareness, empathy, patience, anticipation and planning skills and good risk assessment. Lots of those skills are clearly lacking in a lot of drivers. It takes a bit of courage to say to yourself – “I didn’t get that right, what would I do better next time?”
100% this - the lack of care and respect that the average driver gives to piloting their car is terrifying.
This bloke got £2500 fine and 6 points for similarly appealing a speed awareness course & fine 🤣
https://road.cc/content/news/nmotd-783-ps60-fine-ends-ps2460-293549
Still absolutely flabbergasted, believing that some great injustice has been done..... rather than him being in the wrong. What an self-entitled tit. Further evidenced by the "but I haven't had a fine for X years!"...... surely this rule doesn't apply to ME? Only bad drivers, right?
I'm a gammon (according to some on here).....
I drive an Audi
I also drive a 2.5t SUV
I'll sit behind a cyclist for 5 minutes if I have to until there's clear road ahead
I give a good 2mtrs+ when I pass
Not all stereotypes are equal
*just had my first speeding ticket (second whilst holding a licence) in 30yrs though - 65/50 on a dual carriageway, awaiting the penalty
I’m a gammon (according to some on here)…..
`Welcome brethren.
The driver “measured” there was 4ft for the cyclist, which was safe. Yeah right! He was barely on the other side of the road in a “car” that’s almost exactly 2m wide. Are these idiots measuring from the kerb and saying “there’s your 4 (supposed to be 6) ft? It’s 6ft FROM the Cyclist!
https://road.cc/content/news/nmotd-783-ps60-fine-ends-ps2460-293549/blockquote >Miché added: "The driver did not attend court because he was bitten by an animal (squirrel).
Those pesky squirrels!
I'm sure he could pay the fine by selling his story to one of the local rags which they can run alongside a "who was in the wrong?" poll aimed at getting all the gammons clicking away...
77 year old man, probably a "kindly grandfather" who was no doubt on his way to do important charity work vs a lycra-clad cyclist who was probably hogging the road while also not using the cycle lane, not paying road tax and umm...err, oh yes, hurtling recklessly while also holding up all the hard working honest drivers.
Click here to comment.
(technically, he wasn't fined for the close pass, he was fined for not accepting the awareness course and then the Fixed Penalty Notice...)
Its been said before but I just love the quote:
Mr Humphreys, said: "The fine is absolutely appalling. I am 77 years of age and the last fine I had was 35 to 40 years ago.
"Other than that I have never had a fine and I have had a licence for 60 years."
So, apart from the fine he had he's never had a fine! I'm glad he cleared that up for us.
If the driver is not completely on the other side of the road (as they would be if passing a car) then I want to know why not. It hardly takes any effort to slightly turn the steering wheel to move the car to oncoming lane and then move back again after passing.
Measuring good or bad driving by speeding tickets is an odd approach but seeing as with very limited police on the road then the only way I suppose. In between those known camera positions the drivers can drive like ****s all day long.
That’s not the closest pass I’ve ever seen but still closer than it should be - the other cars managed to give the whole lane of room - and it’s on video. Then he’s ignored the driver awareness course and a fixed penalty fine - so he deserves the fine. Awful attitude towards it too.
The 2nd linked pass is way closer and then the guy gets out of his car and gets all chopsy about it and threatens violence. He still had to ignore the offered class and fixed penalty to get what he got. Lol @ couldn’t attend court because he got bitten by a squirrel 🐿
As much as I'm glad someone got found guilty of a close pass and was given a sizeable fine, I hate the idea of having to spend hundreds of squids on having decent quality camera technology front and back that can record rides of typically up to ~5 hours...
And then trying not to spend hours after each ride playing back footage, looking for what I would consider poor driving.
"This has already cost me about £4,500 with the money for the court and the solicitor. It doesn't make sense to me."
It doesn't make sense that you've ignored legal proceedings and spent your cash trying to get out of been guilty? Entitled to55er.
And the 4.5 feet he left, the rider themselves would make up nearly half that...
I don't get why neither of them turned up at the hearings. Why would you do that? It does smell of entitlement
Secondly, I think that it’s about time that fixed penalty fines were adjusted to account for income and wealth – the thicker the wallet, the heavier the fine.
Income based fines have been a thing for years and would have been applied here. Careless driving (in its lightest form, which I imagine was applicable here) has a fine of 25-75% of weekly income https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/careless-driving-drive-without-due-care-and-attention-revised-2017/
Given the retired chap is driving a £100k Audi, an income of £150k per year might be right
Brilliant the more of these arseholes get hefty fines the better !!
As much as I’m glad someone got found guilty of a close pass and was given a sizeable fine, I hate the idea of having to spend hundreds of squids on having decent quality camera technology front and back that can record rides of typically up to ~5 hours…
And then trying not to spend hours after each ride playing back footage, looking for what I would consider poor driving.
Easier if you're retired, my father spends a couple of hours a week doing this (regular touring cyclist). He's got enough spare time it's a minor impact for him.
I wouldn't spend the hours on it either but I'm grateful to those who do. After incidents like this week's neanderthal in a white van who decided shouting at my 13 year old son was appropriate or the many that close pass him each day on his way to school. He's got a cool head on him when he rides and so far nothing ultra scary but he shouldn't have to endure this **** just to cycle to school.
And then trying not to spend hours after each ride playing back footage, looking for what I would consider poor driving.
Funnily enough, any incident that I'd consider reporting to the police tends to stick in my mind so I'd know exactly where to find it. But I also only bother with the worst ones - a lot of bad driving isn't bad enough to warrant any police action, especially with the constraints they're working under.
(technically, he wasn’t fined for the close pass, he was fined for not accepting the awareness course and then the Fixed Penalty Notice…)
That's not quite the case, rejecting the course and the FPN just means he gets a chance to plead not guilty to careless driving in court. He was still fined for the original offence.
It takes a bit of courage to say to yourself – “I didn’t get that right, what would I do better next time?”
Not sure if it's courage or just self awareness and empathy. I'm obviously careful around cyclists, but I sometimes wonder if I got it right or could have done it better.
Driving 35 years, never had a fine except that one back in 1996 😎
Given the retired chap is driving a £100k Audi, an income of £150k per year might be right
More likely just to be the usual thing of a lease car/hire purchase etc.
The sheer number of ****ertankers like that on the road, they can't all be top 1% earners or lottery winners ...
Given the retired chap is driving a £100k Audi, an income of £150k per year might be right
He's not retired. He's a company director. Of 2 companies who routinely send in their annual returns late, and their accounts as well.
One company took a bounce back loan for 50k in 2020. It also has outstanding HP of £89k. £100k Audi did you say? 🤪
I don’t get why neither of them turned up at the hearings. Why would you do that? It does smell of entitlement
I think it’s the awareness course he never turned up to. Can’t see where it says he never turned up to court
I agree he sounds like an aging gammon though..
Daily mail readership are up in arms, with plenty of stories of cyclists(other road users) who haven’t been prosecuted.
What I find remarkable about their protestations is here we have someone breaking the law, getting caught and being penalized for it.
You would think that’s exactly the thing they were wanting to happen. But no accounting for the average intellectual capacity of your daily mail reader.
It's the same sentiment and worldview that our current prime minister has. The laws are there to be applied to other people, not them.
Quite scary to think that 35 - 40% of the populace haven't progressed past the 'toddler tantrum' phase of being unable to accept when they have done something wrong.
Interesting that GoPro is now apparently a generic term for any sort of action camera. The footage clearly shows CYCLIQ at the bottom, from a post mounted light with integrated camera specifically to record this sort of incident.
Yes, not the issue, but it piqued my interest.
As much as I’m glad someone got found guilty of a close pass and was given a sizeable fine, I hate the idea of having to spend hundreds of squids on having decent quality camera technology front and back that can record rides of typically up to ~5 hours…
And then trying not to spend hours after each ride playing back footage, looking for what I would consider poor driving.
You know you can buy cycling cameras for around £50 each that will record for 4+ hours, takes 2 secs to turn on or off
Records in 3 minute sections and takes around 5 mins max to find the clip your looking for and review the footage in a 4 hour recorded ride and the quality is fine for getting dangerous drivers prosecuted/fined/sent on driver awareness courses
Also have a dashcam front and rear in the car which cost more, if someone does hit me or someone else in the car or on the bike then at least i have evidence of who it was
The Chilli cam is meant to be good for the price, 2 cameras for under £100
https://chilli-tech.com/content/new-bullet-action-camera/
Remember seeing this a while back. Sorry for the FB link but the anti-cyclist frothing in the comments is brilliant.
Driver got fined £1200 but at least turned up at court.
It’s all crime and punishment and death sentences for everything etc. except if it’s a driving offence, which isn’t a real crime anyway.
'Tough on crime' is just a right wing dog-whistle. Heavy-handed policing just means keeping the poor, the minorities, and the disadvantaged (who are all disproportionately affected) down. The police exists to maintain the interests of large institutions in society and, in turn, to maintain the power structures that exist. If you're well-off, it's in your interest to maintain the status quo.
Driving is different, because it affects everyone in society, but particularly the wealthy. We don't necessarily think in these terms, but deep down we all know this.
Interesting that the papers took the angle sympathising with the gammon, when the story really should be about an entitled moron ignoring warnings and fines. I expect nothing better, of course.
If I'm riding on my own I have a Cycliq rear camera for exactly this reason.
Guy sounds like a right entitled plum, he's not in the slightest bit sorry for his crap, dangerous driving but he's certainly aggrieved at getting caught.
More like this please!
I don’t get why neither of them turned up at the hearings. Why would you do that? It does smell of entitlement
I think it’s the awareness course he never turned up to. Can’t see where it says he never turned up to court
Ah yes, you're correct. The first person didn't bother to pay the fine rather than didn't attend hearing. It was the second person that didn't bother to attend either of the two hearings. I don't get it, what were they expecting to happen
They were expecting the courts to think like them about cyclists and find them not guilty. These people can't believe that they are wrong.
i_scoff_cake
Free MemberI’ve had much closer passes this year.
TBF I used to get closer passes every week. I'm pretty surprised that this one was acted on- pleased, but still, surprised.
Superficial
Interesting that the papers took the angle sympathising with the gammon, when the story really should be about an entitled moron ignoring warnings and fines. I expect nothing better, of course.
It's not a case of judge strongly enforcing the close passing law either - it's "this idiot is wasting everyone's time by refusing to take the course when he's clearly in the wrong, so he gets the book thrown at him"
How about this one - looks like the driver even clips the cyclist with the wing mirror but because there’s no injury the police might only give the driver a warning / at most a fixed penalty. I don’t know what more they have to do to be hit with a careless driving charge 🤷♂️
https://road.cc/content/news/near-miss-day-784-293637?fs=e&s=cl
I'm currently averaging about 1 ticket every 2-3 rides on my current training route. Its not hard to pass safely, the more people read about this stuff the quicker attitudes will change. I've had one close pass in Majorca, the car had a GB sticker....
Not sure if it’s courage or just self awareness and empathy.
+1
Even a modicum of consideration for other more vulnerable road-user’s mortal safety is a step too far for many.
It takes a bit of courage to say to yourself – “I didn’t get that right, what would I do better next time?”
Yeah it does, but not a massive amount.
Driving is not a right, i do my best to maintain a good standard, because other peoples wellbeing/lives depend on it.
I genuinely don’t find it difficult, but i do pay attention to it.
Stupid old count could have avoided all of this by paying attention to his driving.
Large car? No excuse.
Running late? No excuse.
Kindly grandfather? No excuse.
I drive a coach, absolutely none of the excuses this fella gave would be accepted if i used them against an allegation of careless driving.
It’s not hard, pay attention to the road ffs. . .
As much as I’m glad someone got found guilty of a close pass and was given a sizeable fine, I hate the idea of having to spend hundreds of squids on having decent quality camera technology front and back that can record rides of typically up to ~5 hours…
And then trying not to spend hours after each ride playing back footage, looking for what I would consider poor driving.
You know you can buy cycling cameras for around £50 each that will record for 4+ hours, takes 2 secs to turn on or off
Records in 3 minute sections and takes around 5 mins max to find the clip your looking for and review the footage in a 4 hour recorded ride and the quality is fine for getting dangerous drivers prosecuted/fined/sent on driver awareness courses
Also have a dashcam front and rear in the car which cost more, if someone does hit me or someone else in the car or on the bike then at least i have evidence of who it was
The Chilli cam is meant to be good for the price, 2 cameras for under £100
I think the point is that it's quite a sad state of affairs when people using bicycles perfectly legally have to make a ~£100(+) investment (plus wasted time) in pre-emptive evidence gathering because there's an increased likelihood that they'll be squashed by a gammon operated SUV...
It really shouldn't be the case that people find it necessary to record relatively mundane, supposedly safe activities "Just in Case" a general purpose bell end attempts to kill them.
Unfortunately it just feels like yet more Broken Britain/Culture war, DM rage baiting fodder now. I'm almost past caring, just ban all Cars until the whole adult population of the UK proves they can behave like grown ups*
*(which we never will)
Unfortunately it just feels like yet more Culture war
Fortunately for us, there's no culture war to stoke against bike people. Unfortunately, that's because even the nice half of the country are against bikes.
I use 1 chilli tech cam, cost £50 takes about 10-15mins to report online. I mainly do it as it gives me a focus rather than wanting to drag the fat ****s out of their cars and kick them to death.
That BBC article is fabulous, it is a masterclass in entitlement and ignorance.
I've never had a fine before, except for that time I got a fine!
My son and I measured it, it proved that I definitely broke the law!
The fine is ridiculous, I don't understand it, but I refused to take the lesser penalty!
All evidence that he still doesn't believe he did anything wrong and is therefore still a risk to other cyclists.
All evidence that he still doesn’t believe he did anything wrong and is therefore still a risk to other cyclists.
Potentially even more of a risk of he decides to "teach cyclists a lesson" or something similar.
"A cyclist dobbed me in so I'll punish all cyclists" kind of mentality.
A rear camera is less than a tank of petrol. Commute by bike for a week and bingo. Free camera
Nothing happened with this one. Police not truly interested.
It felt close 🙁
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0bAyp3fNnwc
"It doesn't make sense to me."
Does to me you ****
Much easier to see how close the above one is, compared to the OP one.
Stopping the original video at 0:07, I'd eyeball the car-grass gap as 1.2m. Give 50cm minimum from bike tyre to the grass, then another 50cm for the offside of the bike to the handlebar, and we're at 20cm closeness.
I’m currently averaging about 1 ticket every 2-3 rides on my current training route. Its not hard to pass safely, the more people read about this stuff the quicker attitudes will change. I’ve had one close pass in Majorca, the car had a GB sticker….
And this is why I try and avoid roads these days. It doesn't help that the roads near me (in Cheshire) are absolute cancer being very narrow, full of blind bends (hedgerows) and super busy.
Yep, I avoid roads as much as I can for same reason (narrow, blind bends etc,.).
Not really for my safety as never actually been hit but for my state of mind. I ride for enjoyment, to relax, to clear my head etc,. and getting wound up over peoples dangerous driving ruins that.
I ride for enjoyment, to relax, to clear my head etc,. and getting wound up over peoples dangerous driving ruins that.
It's really depressing how much a single close pass or road rage incident can ruin an entire ride. You can have a lovely day out, amazing weather, nice trails/roads, pleasant cafe stop and then one senseless overtake will ruin the whole vibe. ☹️
Yeah, there is a particularly bad stretch just as I am nearly home. A completely pointless 40 zone between 2 villages that is only 500m long.
Last time I rode along it at the end of a ride got the usual close pass, car then turned down my dead end road. I arrived at the same time so his overtake didn’t get him there any quicker.
Fortunately I had calmed down enough not to confront the ruddy faced old tosser. But it ruined the end of the ride completely.
I'm not saying its not a close pass, but I have had closer passes than that, now I have a camera too!
I try hard not to let these close passes get to me, but it really puts a downer on the ride when they happen!
Last time I rode along it at the end of a ride got the usual close pass, car then turned down my dead end road. I arrived at the same time so his overtake didn’t get him there any quicker.
Fortunately I had calmed down enough not to confront the ruddy faced old tosser. But it ruined the end of the ride completely.
Similar happened to me, a real poor close-pass overtake in my village. I recognised the car to be someone from the next road along from mine, so went and had a word.
I like to think that the person has reflected on their actions and was reminded that I am a person just like her.
It’s really depressing how much a single close pass or road rage incident can ruin an entire ride.
Exactly my commute to work this morning. The number of close passes was off the scale today. Back to as much off-road route as I can. I was going to ask a 'why can't folks just...' question but now its got me annoyed and depressed again. Time to fix the MTB commuter again and try and enjoy the limited off-road routes I can.
Now we have 1.5 metres minimum passing space at speeds under 30mph in the Highway Code, I wonder how many more centuries it will be until we get markings on the road ~2 metres from road edge on 30mph roads?
Had to stop an old guy doing a very close pass yesterday.
2 lane road. Fairly narrow. I'm driving with a few cars in front of me and a few behind doing 30mph.
Ahead on the opposite side of the road is a cyclist coming towards me. Right behind his rear wheel is a car. As I get closer, the car is angling for an overtake despite the cars coming towards him in my lane.
I then move my car towards the centre white lines to basically force him not to do the overtake as he would have been about 30cm from cyclist.
As I pass him, he's a guy easily 80+ years old, looking very impatient
Exactly my commute to work this morning. The number of close passes was off the scale today.
Wonder what it'll be like next week with the train strikes - lots of people who don't normally drive to work suddenly being pitched onto unfamiliar routes in already heavy traffic...
Was close passed by a car yesterday. I shouted out ‘too close!’. Car screeched to stop and irate woman stomped out telling me she was a psycho killer threatening to beat me up. Changed her mind when I unclipped and stood my 6’1” 100kg self up. Was thinking how many times I had to let her hit me before I could reasonably lay her out given the queue of witnesses that were forced to stop behind, but just rode past in the end. This kind of shit happens now and again to me on roads. It’s ridiculous that the right wing press has worked these muppets up into a frenzy of indignation:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/16/blame-cyclists-stoking-flames-road-culture-war/
Similar happened to me, a real poor close-pass overtake in my village. I recognised the car to be someone from the next road along from mine, so went and had a word.
I like to think that the person has reflected on their actions and was reminded that I am a person just like her.
I had a close pass not so long ago and the driver turned into a supermarket car park almost immediately. I may have inconvenienced their shop by following them into the car park, slowly around the whole thing, and then straight out of the exit because they didn't want to confront the person they'd almost just killed.
Was close passed by a car yesterday. I shouted out ‘too close!’. Car screeched to stop and irate woman stomped out telling me she was a psycho killer threatening to beat me up.
I never understand this one.
Driver is presumably in a massive hurry because they just HAVE to get past you. There and then, right away. Can't wait.
Yet when they look in the rear view mirror to see the cyclist gesticulating angrily, they have all the time in the world to stop the car, get out and threaten violence.
I had it a while ago coming up to a set of traffic light,s they changed to red so like a good little cyclist I stopped. The car behind floored it past me to jump the lights, missing me by inches. When he saw me giving a "WTF?!" gesture to him, he slammed the brakes on and pulled onto the pavement on the far side of the junction, jumped out and started looking to cross the road. Thankfully, traffic was far too heavy for him to do this and eventually he got back in his car and drove off. I was already prepared to turn around or get on the pavement and ride off and I had a towpath not far away to escape onto as well but that was a close call both from his overtake as he jumped the lights and nearly being beaten up.
This week has seen an uptick in idiot passes. Last week was 0 submissions on the 3 days of commutes. This week has been 4 submissions out of 2 rides with a few not submitted as I'm out of time. They all seem to happen around the same roads as well.
Have even set up a little script that does the donkey work of entering my details into their website.
Dash cams are useful as well. Colleague got a FPN for speeding on the motorway. Viewed the footage and the sign changed literally as he went under it. Appealed and got it cancelled.
Occasionally on the worst ones I'm asked for the actual footage rather than a youtube link. That means they're actually being prosecuted rather than just a warning letter. Nice feeling as those are the ones that have very nearly taken me out. Will pop them over to NMOTD once it's clear of court.
@supernova I hope you told her you are Reverand Miller and you live at 666. 😉
I may have occasionally uttered an involuntary OI!!! but I try not to get involved now. If they genuinely don't know what they did, they deserve pity, not aggression, and if they do know and do it deliberately, I'm not going to challenge and find out exactly how unhinged they are when they have 2T of fast moving metal box to demonstrate it with.
10 metres up the road on reflection, I think that woman had spent most of her life being walloped by one bloke or another and my adding to it, no matter how justified, was not going to improve the life chances of the kids in the car.