This driver came dangerously close to me. They forced me to change my position on the road to avoid being hit by their wing mirror. Reported to the Met, but told:
"The Metropolitan Police Service takes all allegations of bad driving seriously and is committed to road safety and improving driver behaviour."
"In this case the vehicle does not enter the cycle lane so no offence is seen and we are unable to pursue this allegation."
"Due to local authority outlining the cycle lane showing where cyclists should be and where vehicle should be legally there is no offence as the vehicle has abided to the road markings."
I asked when does a vehicle enter a different lane? As the wing mirror was most definitely in the cycle lane. I'm told:
"As the driver does not enter the cycle lane we cannot take this matter further as they have abided by the road markings and we can only define when the vehicle enters the cycle lane by when its wheels cross the white line."
I'm deeply dissapointed that the Met haven't taken action here. This was done by a 'professional driver', a TFL Private Hire Vehicle. They probably drive a significant amount, in 44 months they have driven 63,417 miles according to the MOT history. That's 1,441 miles a month. Presuming they work around 22 days a month, that works out to around 65 miles a day.
They drive 65 miles a day, and they think the right course of action here was to drive close to a cyclist? Not braking? Not looking at the road ahead, and if they couldn't see clearly then not attempting to overtake.
The issue with this road is cycling previsions were put in on both sides and a general traffic lane in both directions. However, parking is allowed and the other side of the road always has cars parked on it. This 'forces' traffic coming down the hill to be encroaching on the other side of the road, which forces people to drive in the cycle lane to avoid collisions.
This generally works fine. I've cycled up here hundreds of times and most people play ball like the BMW driver.
I'm mostly disappointed because the Met could do a couple of things here; written warning with a note on the system, driving course, fixed penalty notice or court action. Instead they have decided to do nothing, simply because I was on one side of a line of paint and they on the other.
We can only hope that the driver learned how bad their driving was by my shouting and the large hit on the rear passenger window.
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