Must Get In Front
Update 9th August 2023: just inside the time limit and to my surprise, North Yorkshire Police emailed stating that they would take positive action in this case. I have therefore temporarily removed the video from this post to give a reasonable period for any action to happen. Action could include anything from a letter to a court summons, and the police don’t provide any details.
Anyone who regularly navigates an urban area by cycle is familiar with a phenomenon called Must Get In Front. MGIF happens all the time.
I filmed the incident shown in the image above and the video below [temporarily removed] on 28th July 2023.
The driver in question joined East Parade in the left, Left Turn Only lane. I joined from the roundabout, which put me in the right, Straight Ahead lane.
Approaching the next junction, I sensed the driver wanting to swap into my lane – but they didn’t because I was there.
Nevertheless, I got the strong impression of an impatient driver treating my presence as an irritation, and trying to intimidate me out of the way by making little movements as if to side-swipe me.
A safe driver would have slowed down and joined the Straight On lane behind me.
This dangerous driver stayed in the Left Turn lane but continued straight ahead. They accelerated through the junction to undertake me, leaving very little clearance.
There are six points to make about this incident.
1) An MGIF Attitude is Commonplace
A Must Get In Front attitude is commonplace – something you encounter on a daily basis if you cycle around a town or city.
It is a major problem, because it causes danger to people on bikes. Further, it can make using a bike as urban transport unpleasant, and therefore puts people off and prevents modal shift.
2) It’s Worse on Friday Afternoons
My subjective experience is that driver behaviour is worse on Friday afternoons: people behind the wheel are generally more impatient and less courteous. They commit more road traffic offences.
This instance of dangerous driving happened at 17.32 on a Friday – prime time for bad driving.
Of course, if you want people to cycle it needs to be safe all the time, not just on Sunday afternoons. That’s why infrastructure and policing are sina qua nons.
3) The Impatient Overtakes are Mostly Entirely Pointless
Although drivers like this one are desperate to Get In Front, most of the time in urban areas the impatient overtakes are entirely pointless.
In this case, I followed the driver down East Parade and to Asda, and any time the driver gained was less than 5s.
4) Speaking to Dangerous Drivers Rarely Helps
If you confront a dangerous driver, the chances of them admitting that they are a liability on the road are miniscule. It’s very unlikely that they will apologise. That’s why I generally don’t bother (and I didn’t in this case).
This is where a cycle cam helps you to stay calm. You know the dangerous driving was recorded.
5) Op Snap in North Yorkshire
You can submit video footage of driving offences to the police, including in North Yorkshire. I thought this one was worthy of a police report.
Unfortunately, North Yorkshire Police are not currently dealing with Op Snap submissions.
They might reply if they can think of an excuse for the dangerous driving, in which case they send a quick email stating No Further Action.
If there’s no element of subjectivity and it’s a clear offence, they don’t reply at all.
That’s what I thought had happened here when I wrote the post – no response. As noted above, I got a response the next day. This is unusual.
6) Hope is in Short Supply
There was a time around 2020 when there was some hope for active travel and decarbonisation of transport.
With Andrew Gilligan at the DfT, we had Gear Change, LTN 1/20 Cycle Infrastructure Design, and the Active Travel Fund. In 2021, there was the Transport Decarbonisation Plan.
In 2022, Active Travel England started work.
Since then the wind has gone out of active travel’s sails. Rishi Sunak does not support active travel – he is far more interested in high-carbon travel by helicopter and private jet than in cycling.
The government’s attitude filters down – certainly to North Yorkshire Council, which has defaulted back to its bad old ways of cynicism and inaction.
Between the council and the police, it feels like living in a broken county and a broken country, where nothing works and nobody cares.
No doubt the emergency services would be there to mop you up off the road if it came to that, but they won’t do anything to prevent it happening in the first place.