A Loud Close Pass

Keighley, United Kingdom

11 Feb, 2026 - 6 months ago - on Hawthorne Street
Cycling west along Elliot St, Silsden, approaching cars parked on both sides of the road; at the point the road narrowed, a driver in a silver Ford Focus came up behind quite fast, very close to my rear wheel and hooted loudly: the shock almost caused me to fall off my bike. I assume he wanted me to get out of his way, somehow. He continued tailgating and, just before the road widened beyond the parked cars, squeezed past me and a white car parked on his right, with a clearance of only 18 to 24 inches. Once past, he slowed and, through an open window shouted something like: "what do you think you're doing?" Then he sped away.
I submitted the footage, from both front and rear cameras, to West Yorkshire Police. They sent me this:
"West Yorkshire Safer Roads Digital Submission - YT14ZWY
Many thanks for your recent submission via the West Yorkshire Police Safer Roads Submission Portal. As a result, enquiries are ongoing to trace the driver involved so we can process them for the offence(s) identified. This may either be by way of an educational course, Conditional Offer of Fixed Penalty, or by a Court hearing."
I asked, but WYP refused to provide any updates, citing "exponential volume of submissions".
However, the incident does seem to appear in their Operation Snap Jan-March 2026 quarterly report: the driver was charged with Driving without reasonable consideration to others and given an Educational Course.
I say "seem to appear" because WYP have listed the wrong car - they think it was a BMW 320D, not a Ford Focus.

Incident location

1 Hawthorne Street, Silsden, Keighley, BD20 0AU, United Kingdom

Incident details

Date of incident: 11/02/2026 03:15AM
Reported outcome: warned
Incident type: Close pass/Bad driving
Location of incident: Hawthorne Street, Silsden, Keighley, BD20 0AU, United Kingdom