It's Official

[Diasi]

no matter what a cyclist does it's always the fault of the motorist.

So if you're on a narrow lane & a cyclist is coming towards you, you should stop until the cyclist has gone past .

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/driver-fined-1-000-cyclist-074931104.html

[Alex]

That's unbelievable, the car doesn't touch her !

[Michael Rolls]

frankly, I think he deserved it. I would never pass a cyclist at that sort of speed on such a narrow lane.
Mike

[Diasi]

frankly, I think he deserved it. I would never pass a cyclist at that sort of speed on such a narrow lane.
Mike

Dashcams & head cams distort the apparent idea of speed by a huge margin.

I could show you a clip from my dash cam & you'd probably estimate my speed at 40 miles an hour when I was actually doing 25 mph & I estimate the speed of the Land Rover to be no more than 20mph.

Anyway his speed isn't relevant as he didn't hit her, he left as much room as he could without driving off the road, he had no option but to pass her & she didn't fall off until he was well past her.

Plus it was a straight road with perfect visibilty so the cyclists should have seen the Land Rover coming for hundreds of yards, therefore she can't claim that it suddenly appeared & startled her.

In fact I challenge to you show one single part of that clip that directly caused her to fall off her bike.

[Michael Rolls]

She over-balanced - cyclists do that from time to time. I still reckon he was going too fast. 20? (It looked much more) In those circumstances I would have been doing no more than 10, if that. Blasting past cyclists - and even more so horse riders, which I have also seen - is potentially dangerous - they are very vulnerable.
The clip doesn't actually show how she came to fall - probability is she wobbled and touched the verge  and wobbling after a close passage from a MV is by no means unlikely
Mike

[Scrumpy]

They (cyclist) will all be out there now trying to make themselves a few bob...
They will be playing the 'It caused me stress' card anytime soon..

[Diasi]

She over-balanced - cyclists do that from time to time. I still reckon he was going too fast. 20? (It looked much more) In those circumstances I would have been doing no more than 10, if that. Blasting past cyclists - and even more so horse riders, which I have also seen - is potentially dangerous - they are very vulnerable.
The clip doesn't actually show how she came to fall - probability is she wobbled and touched the verge  and wobbling after a close passage from a MV is by no means unlikely
Mike

Well you need to understand the physics of peripheral vision v foveal vision in assessing speed, especially the recorded speed in video footage.

If you study the clip you'll see that when the rear cyclist turned round after seeing her fall off her bike, the Land Rover was only still a few feet past them so that indicates it wasn't travelling very fast.

But as you say you'd have slowed to 10 mph & as I said, soon we'll all be advised to stop to let cyclists pass.

Scrumpy has hit the nail on the head as it'll be "oh, I've fallen off my bike as I can't ride it properly, oh good, there was a car in the vicinity that I can blame as it shouldn't have been on a road used by us cyclists".

And when you slow right down & the cyclist still falls off her bike it'll be "oh, I fell off my bike because I can't ride it properly but I'll say I fell off because Mike Rolls slowed right down & I thought he was going to shout at me & it caused me to wobble".

So the only safe thing is to not drive on country lanes where there could be cyclists.

[1955vintage]

Need more piano wire.

[Diasi]

Need more piano wire.

Lol. 

[klondike]

I really should get a life 

There's a timestamp on the video so it comes down to guessing distances rather than speed which may be easier. I downloaded the video and extracted the frames.

This is the first frame where the seconds digit hits 03

this 04

and then 05


I also made the frames into a slow motion gif



I'd guess the speed was 40 feet per second or 27mph

Argue away 

[Michael Rolls]

look how close he is - OK, he can't help the narrowness of the road, but he can help his speed, and if  indeed it is anywhere near 27mph, that is too fast for the conditions - much too fast
Mike (mind you, I think £1,000 is a bit steep)

[Diasi]

Thanks for that klondikeke, I don't regard 27 mph as an inappropriate speed & your gif shows the Land Rover's nearside wheels on the grass verge, thus leaving as much room as was possible, in fact quite a decent gap for that road.

It also shows, in close-up slow motion, that the land Rover didn't contribute in any way to the cyclist falling off.

[klondike]

I'm unsure. I don't know what error of margin there is in my guess. She certainly fell off after the car passed rather than was forced off. In the audio, which is available from where I downloaded it, they are shouting slow down so they thought it was going too fast.

[Diasi]

I'm unsure. I don't know what error of margin there is in my guess. She certainly fell off after the car passed rather than was forced off. In the audio, which is available from where I downloaded it, they are shouting slow down so they thought it was going too fast.

I would imagine that it reinforces my view that the cyclists expected the driver to slow to a walking pace or to stop.

The fact that they deemed his speed to be too fast is only their opinion & the clip, as you say, shows her falling off  after the Land Rover has passed quite safely in my opinion.

What this case has highlighted is the fact that should I come across an injured cyclist on an unlit country road, as are most of them in Lincolnshire, I won't stop to give any assistance or call the emergency services.

[klondike]

One thing I will say is that the vehicle looks to be appropriate for the road. I'm not convinced that the cyclists are. Unsteady cyclists obviously only out for leisure should probably stick to cycle tracks. I am steady enough on a bike but I do that in the main.