Had a near miss on my bike today.
I was merrily cycling along one of London's A roads (30 limit) and noticed the road ahead narrowing. There was a van close behind who didn't make any attempt leap ahead, the driver patiently followed behind me, not closely; so far so good. I wasn't hanging about.
I was looking for a place to hop on to the (non-residential, deserted) pavement so I could let it pass, but there was no dropped kerb areas, so that wasn't to be. The van had to follow for a little distance. Then I saw the road widen ahead, so I moved right over to give the driver an easy pass. I heard the engine speed up, but it didn't really get a move on. "
Come on, pass me. You have plenty of room!" I thought to myself, because the road ahead was going to narrow again. The van was passing me at a relative snail's pace. It was halfway through passing me where the stretch of road we were on narrowed. The van came close enough such that I could easily whack my fist on the side of it without reaching over (by which time I already used up the error margin be moving into the gutter), and it was still moving over; I had to back off to prevent contact.
For a moment I was utterly confused. I played it back in my head. There was no sign of aggression and the driver was obviously aware of me. Why did the driver simply not get the easy pass over and done with?
I was even thinking "now I can't say to weepej that I've never been cut up by a passing driver"
Then it hit me - clear as day.
Can you guess what I had realised?
That's right!
The whole event, where the road was wide, was observed and
enforced by a f*****g Monitron!
Evidently, the driver became more concerned about their licence instead of doing a clean pass (which is almost reasonable, not that it excuses the driver).
I nearly became a KSI at a camera site, thanks (partly) to the presence of the camera!
'Safety Camera' my fat a**e