A Scottish cyclist riding with a close pass prevention stick attached to his bike – offering tetchy drivers a physical reminder of the requirement to leave at least 1.5m while overtaking – has baffled passing motorists, with one contacting the local press to debate the merits of the “bizarre” pole.

The cyclist, and his anti-dangerous driving equipment, were pictured riding on the A85 from Crieff to Comrie, in Perth and Kinross, last week during his morning commute.

“I thought I saw him in the distance, and suddenly the car in front of me slowed down,” the motorist who spotted him told the Courier (link is external).

“When they overtook him I saw him properly and I thought: ‘What the hell is that?’ I had never seen anything like it in my life.”

He continued: “It could be dangerous, but I think he just wants to get the space that he’s legally entitled to.

“But it certainly is a funny thing to see – he’s certainly going to get his space with that sticking out. He’s maybe had a scare before so does something like that. You never know with people.

“I got passed him pretty quickly. He wasn’t quite in the side though and gave himself a bit more space than he needed.”

Someone needs to dust off their Highway Code, by the sounds of things.

And imagine the scenes if he stumbled across my favourite denim-clad cyclist and his much more rudimentary close pass prevention device:

https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-13-february-2024-306711

On 13/02/2024 07:25, Simon Mason wrote:

> A Scottish chav-cyclist riding with a close pass prevention stick attached to his chav-bike – offering tetchy drivers a physical reminder of the requirement to leave at least 1.5m while overtaking – has baffled passing motorists, with one contacting the local press to debate the merits of the “bizarre” pole.
>
> The chav-cyclist, and his anti-dangerous driving equipment, were pictured riding on the A85 from Crieff to Comrie, in Perth and Kinross, last week during his morning commute.
>
> “I thought I saw him in the distance, and suddenly the car in front of me slowed down,” the motorist who spotted him told the Courier (link is external).
>
> “When they overtook him I saw him properly and I thought: ‘What the hell is that?’ I had never seen anything like it in my life.”
>
> He continued: “It could be dangerous, but I think he just wants to get the space that he’s legally entitled to.
>
> “But it certainly is a funny thing to see – he’s certainly going to get his space with that sticking out. He’s maybe had a scare before so does something like that. You never know with people.
>
> “I got passed him pretty quickly. He wasn’t quite in the side though and gave himself a bit more space than he needed.”
>
> Someone needs to dust off their Highway Code, by the sounds of things.
> chav-
> And imagine the scenes if he stumbled across my favourite denim-clad chav-cyclist and his much more rudimentary close pass prevention device:
>
> https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-13-february-2024-306711

He almost certainly spoke those words (out loud).

It was an illiterate road.cc chav-cyclist correspondent who rendered the
spoken "got past" as "got passed".

And they expect to be taken half seriously!

I like that close pass stick, it'd keep the dickheads, all of them, at a safe distance too.

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Matthew Acton-Varian replied to don simon fbpe | 5 hours ago
6 likes

Might be worth sticking a pedal to the end of it, considering the damage that one caused to Jeff Stelling's car (According to some Twitts)

Definitely stop close passes if it does that to a car!

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yellowjack replied to Matthew Acton-Varian | 59 min ago
1 like

I've thought about this in the past. A nice carbon fibre rod on a sprung swivel joint, with a diamond tipped cutting bit attached to the end. If it'll cut glass or tiles, it ought to do a number on car paintwork with no bother...

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adamrice replied to yellowjack | 20 min ago
0 likes

I talked to a guy once who said he had rigged up almost exactly such a gadget. Didn't see it with my own eyes.

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OldRidgeback replied to don simon fbpe | 3 hours ago
1 like

I made one out of heavy gauge piano wire with an old record player stylus on the end and had it on my old tourer, way back when in another century. There was a piece of red insulation tape on the end to warn people it was there. As I recall it was about 3' long. I took it off soon after as it was a pain.