Cyclist Puts Bike Away After Near-Misses
A Nelson man says his bike is going to stay in the shed after an incident in which a motorist opened his car door in a cycle lane and forced him into traffic.
Aaron, who asked for his surname not to be used, was on a tandem bike ride with his wife from Nelson to Bunnings in Stoke and back when the incident occurred at around 11.50am on November 9.
In the 11 second clip, the motorist appears to glance quickly to the right over his shoulder, and then opens his rear right hand door.
As the bicycle veers around the parked car, a blue vehicle overtakes the couple on the right as they swerve out further into the traffic lane.
“What concerned me was the complete and total disregard for other road users,” Aaron said.
“Had there been a truck, things could have been a lot worse.”
In other recent near miss videos shared with the Nelson Mail, a motorist overtook Aaron’s bicycle in areas of roadworks, forcing him onto the footpath, while two others drove on the opposite site of the road to overtake him while turning left on the corner of Orsman Crescent.
Aaron said he was “dumbfounded” by the Rocks Rd incident, after which he decided he would no longer risk his life cycling on the roads. Motorists “didn’t seem to see cyclists as human”.
“We passed hundreds of cars,” he said, “but it only takes one to kill you.”
Bicycle Nelson Bays convenor Bevan Woodward said as a frequent cyclist, the videos did not come as a surprise.
Opening the door in the cycle lane, the cyclist either had to jam the brakes on, or go wide and risk it in a busy traffic lane, he said.
Woodward said it was sad that the man no longer intended to cycle, and that was an indictment on our transport network.
The number one reason people wouldn’t cycle was because it was unsafe, and that was generally because they had to mix with motorised vehicles, he said.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop announced in June that under the Land Transport Rules Reform Programme, minimum overtaking gaps when passing cyclists and horses would be introduced in a rule scheduled to be signed off in June 2026.
Woodward said most countries in the world already had a statutory minimum passing gap, but New Zealand only had guidance in the Road Code.
“Right now it’s a really grey area. Legally motorists are okay unless they hit a cyclist, and then they say ‘oh, the cyclist weaved out in front of me’.”
With a legal minimum passing space there would be “real clarity and real responsibility on the motorists to give space”.
Research had shown that one in 20 cars passed too closely, he said. Woodward encouraged cyclists to take the lane rather than sticking to the hard left which created an opportunity for cars to risk squeezing through narrow areas.
Ironically, motorists in a hurry who were frustrated at being behind cyclists would rush past them towards a red light where they would end up sitting and waiting for 30 or 40 seconds anyway, he said.
“There’s a lot of pressures in modern day life, and they want to get past quickly, but they’ve got to realise if they make a mistake and they actually injure or worse, kill someone, obviously no time saving is worth that.”
Aaron said much of the polemic on social media about cyclists wouldn’t be said face to face.
“We’ve got to get away from the ‘bloody wanker’ on a bike, or bloody wanker’ in a BMW or whatever,” he said.
“You’ve got to look at the human aspect, and not the mode of transport.”
By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail
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