This is from my commute this morning, it felt damn close and kinda spooked me.


Do I need to HTFU or is this guy too close?

yeah that seems pretty freakin close.

if i were you i'd take more of the lane. force them to go around you more.

Looks to be centered in the lane or even closer to the right.
Either didn't see you or didn't give a f.

I've only been commuting full time for 2 months but almost weekly I have someone buzz me that close and then slow down to yell obscenities at me. Fun times

You'd be surprised at the number of people who are looking for music discs and dropped cigarettes. Some are either texting or talking on the cell phone. Many never see us.

Move to your left... that little white line is not some special place for you.

If the road is not big enough to share, those behind you will have to learn proper passing techniques.

Now before someone utters "I didn't see you..." make sure you are well visible... wear bright clothing, use bright blinkies and maybe even use a flag.

You are riding on what appears to be country lane... traffic is not too heavy, so there is room to pass you.

Yep, the more room you give drivers the less they'll give you.

I'll fourth or fifth the motion -- get off the right edge of the road. Look at the lane, and see where the car's tires track; AT LEAST, get into the right-tire track, and STAY THERE. Let 'em blow the horn (at least they see you!), you have the same right to the road as they do -- LAW, in all 50. You do NOT need motorists' permission to be there.

YEAH, THAT CAR WAS PRETTY F'N CLOSE. Good reason to have an Airzound.

(And, while we're at it, since you have internet access, look up the law in your city & state.)

It's like that every day for me. +10 on the bright clothing. +10 on the advice to OWN the lane. I'd rather they honk knowing I'm there than to take me out with the mirror. But that said, it used to be 30,000+ people dying on the roads due to driving under the influence in the US each year. Death toll makes it seem safer to my bro-in-law who was serving in Afghanistan... comparatively. But while drunk driving has been slowly going down over the decade, the number of deaths are rising due to distracted driving with texting. Here in CA, we have no texting while driving laws, but lack of enforcement, and just plain driver negligence has at least 10% of the folks texting in the car. It causes all sorts of other issues. E.g. people who delay others behind them at stop lights because they aren't aware the light has turned green (which can get drivers irate who then punch it and speed through on reds or yellows and ignore cyclists already in the intersection). Another issue is the drifting that causes encroachment of drivers into the bike lane. And yet another issue is that they create long slugs of cars tightely spaced behind them who are irate and want to pass. This bunches a long string of cars behind the slow driver who's texting. And that creates a barrier for cyclists would are looking to change lanes to the left who are trying to pedal hard and insert into traffic but can't. All this must add up to more cyclists at higher risk.

in a perfect world i would want more room. but that would commonly happen to me once per ride.

one thing i noticed is that the road had widened a bit, just before it happened. i think drivers rarely anticipate the narrowing of a bike lane for a cyclist and don't or can't safely adjust properly when a cyclist is forced to move out to the left. (one way to avoid this is to never use any extra and/or obviously temporary riding space.) they treat it as a merge of sorts and expect the cyclist to assure a margin of safety by slowing down or even stopping and waiting for traffic to pass.

of course this ain't gonna happen, so i usually look back and try to make eye contact with any drivers approaching me from the rear. sometimes i'm lazy and just put my life in the hands of the almighty.

I get passed by that close all the time, on a road with no shoulder. I hardly even notice it anymore, since all my concentration is on keeping my tire close to that white line, and not hitting the curb with my pedal. As long as it isn't a big wind-buffet-inducing truck, that is. Getting passed by those at any distance is a bit of a trial for my stability...

unless i take the lane thats how close 95% of people come to me every time im out on the road in my hood, and then they beep at me

close is <6 inches from my bars

noone cares about us, we dont "belong" on the street

Not too close in my book, at least at that speed..

When the OP moves more to his left, he/she has to see what the car behind is doing. If they maintain speed and direction without giviing him more space, he could be in MORE trouble! This is why he needs to use a rear view mirror. If the OP had been taking the entire lane and slowly moved over as the car was approaching, he would have recieved way more room. The motorist will treat a cyclist as unpredictable and provide more room if they see you taking up the whole lane. Again, you can only do this if you have a rear view mirror.

The answer to both your questions is yes - yes the Camry was too close, but yes also you can be too sensitive. If you ride a bike people will drive like that and it's just a fact of life. "Getting used to it" may sound like giving up, but there's really nothing we can do about it.

Wow, I must be really jaded but I don't think that was unreasonable at all. Looked like 3 feet to me, and that's exactly as I would expect on a road like that. So IMHO and to answer your question directly yes. HTFU.

With that said, it's not my favorite type of road to be on, there is little wiggle room and I'd try to avoid it if there is another good option, but sometimes there isn't so...you can take the lane or part if you want as others have suggested but that's not my method. I say hug the line, keep your line, and get the hell through that section as fast as you can.

I've been cycling about two weeks and already had this happened (identical to video). In my opinion, people just don't care. In my area, around a college campus, it is often immaturity.. young drivers know everything and can never make a mistake. I now have an even greater respect for cyclists and runners on the road.

Well..Seems like the OP is using it as a bike lane. The OP should take a lot more of the actual lane.

That was about 2 feet clearance.

I get passed like that routinely in the city. I'm used to it, the speeds are not high, I use a mirror and know where the car is.

On that suburban/country road, with the car driving fairly fast (40 mph+ I think), and him having plenty of room to move over, that is too close.

I'd say that is a driver who doesn't give a damn, or has no sense of how close is close, or was daydreaming and didn't actually register your presence.

What I'd do there is ride a couple feet to the left of the white line AND monitor your helmet mirror and your ears. Because taking the lane works, until it doesn't. If you are watching the mirror, you have a chance of diving out of the way when the driver comes along who doesn't care or doesn't see.

The car is obviously too close to you. I do agree with what others have said that you were trying to ride too close to the edge, giving drivers the opportunity to buzz you. If it feels dangerous, then it usually is, so take the lane and whenever possible (road permitting), let the drivers pass.

Years ago, I would have called that a close pass, but not now. I've never been hit by a motor vehicle while riding my bicycle, and with my closest pass coming from a motorist's mirror going over the top of my bar end mirror at nearly the same speed differential as the one in the OP video. My second closest pass was at 3 inches and at a 40 mph speed differential. Both of these incidents are still recorded on video, with vehicle emblems and license numbers clearly legible, and both motorists being reported, by me, to law enforcement for making an unsafe passing maneuver.

Ever heard of taking the lane?

Too close. Close passes happen, but that one was purely intentional, the driver had plenty of room in the lane to move over.

That said, it happens. I get a few of those each week. Take more of the lane, you should never be more right than the right tire track.

A pass that close would annoy me. It's hard to judge on a camera, but it's probably closer than it looks. They didn't even go as far left in the lane as they could, which is just stupid

Hard to tell from a video. If you can hold a straight line, there is no reason for a car to give you a huge amount of room, which then creates issues with oncoming trafffic. I usually give cyclists more room than that, but it didn't look unsafe to me.