Rule 103 of the Highway Code says that drivers “should always give clear signals in plenty of time” but you don’t have to cycle on Britain’s streets for too long to realise that many motorists, if they signal at all, do so at the very last moment, as shown in today’s video in our Near Miss of the Day series in which a London taxi driver almost left-hooks a cyclist.
The incident was filmed by road.cc reader Lukas, who was riding along Aldgate High Street in the City of London, heading towards Fenchurch Street, when a taxi driver turned across his path into Minories.
Lukas told us: “Another urban encounter with London's finest, apologies for the lengthy and robust swearing.
“I admit I hadn't put myself in a great position in between the first few cars, and I did stop accelerating when I noticed the cabbie lift off the gas, however I didn't expect him to left hook me without any indication (where I say he indicated once, I meant that he indicated as he turned rather than before, so there was only one flash of the lights).
“The cabbie seemed content with his driving judging by his instant response to me, however he was seemingly very contrite when contacted by the City of London police.
“Sadly, City of London Police are nowhere near as good as the Met and let this professional driver off with a warning for a really shoddy piece of driving,” he added.
“City of London Police have said: ‘The identified driver contacted us apologising profusely as he did not realise how dangerous the manoeuvre was’.”
Hopefully, the driver will give other road users – including cyclists – plenty of warning of his intention to turn in future.
> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?
Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.
If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.
If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).
Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling