​Until now, collisions have been the only motor vehicle - cyclist incident data that law enforcement, traffic planners and government road safety funding agencies had to understand the threats cyclists face on the roads.  Unlike collisions, near-misses are orders of magnitude more frequent and, according to academic research, the top reason cyclists stop cycling and potential cyclists don't start.  Collisions are the worst possible lagging indicator that all cycling safety measures have failed.  Collisions represent severe trauma, injury and death.  Preventing collisions should be the focus rather than exclusively focusing on the catastrophic failure of all cycling safety measures.  Focusing on near-misses helps prevent collisions.
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​​Now, cyclists can provide the most accurate picture of the risks they face by cycling with a camera and submitting all of their near miss incident reports to our free Incident Management System (IMS). Cyclists' incident reports can be used to charge drivers for criminal near misses, send drivers non-punitive and educational 3 foot warning letters and generate near miss data for mapping all near miss incidents to prevent collisions!

Criminal Near Misses

​​Our groundbreaking work has defined what we call the Near Miss Spectrum. We previously defined the concept of a criminal near miss which represents one end of the spectrum. You always know a criminal near miss when you see one as documented by the first video compilation of our members’ criminal near miss incident videos below. Criminal near misses include assault, when the driver intentionally meant to threaten a cyclist with bodily injury, and reckless driving when the driver showed a disregard for cyclists' safety such as endangering cyclists due to distracted driving.

We have also secured legal precedents charging drivers for assault that all cyclists can leverage if their local law enforcement refuses to cite a driver.

Criminal near misses should always be submitted to law enforcement to charge the driver, and to our IMS so cyclists can track, map, update and analyze all of their near miss incidents, search for repeat offenders, establish potential patterns of dangerous driver behavior, and generate near miss data to map dangerous locations - before collisions occur!

Three Foot Violations

​​​In the middle of the spectrum is the hand signed 3 Foot Warning letter that we helped the California Highway Patrol (CHP) create. When a cyclist calls the Castro Valley CHP and tells them that a car came within 3 feet, i.e. they were “buzzed,” CHP will send the driver a hand signed copy of this letter. Drivers take notice when law enforcement demonstrates they take cycling safety seriously by sending one of these hand signed letters! This is the best non-punitive and educational tool to change drivers’ behavior - before collisions occur! Cyclists also submit these 3 foot violation incidents to our IMS so they can identify repeat offenders, establish potential patterns of dangerous driver behavior, and generate near miss data to map dangerous locations. You can view a copy of the letter below.

​​"Pre" Near Misses

At the other end of the near miss spectrum we have defined “imminent” or “pre” near misses. Once again, you always know one when you see one so please watch our video compilation below. Cyclists do not submit these careless / negligent incidents to law enforcement but they do enter them into our IMS to generate near miss data to map dangerous locations for local traffic planners and engineers.