A CYCLIST who was involved in three incidents with cars in one day has asked drivers to be more careful.

Sascha von Rappard has been cycling for the past 12 years, five days a week, from Mudeford to Bournemouth and now from Ashley Cross to Bournemouth.

He has released a video to raise awareness of the experiences of cyclists in the area.

The incidents in the video took place on Lindsay Road near the Tesco store, Bourne Avenue by the Vodafone store and Bournemouth Road, on the way into Ashley Cross.

Speaking about the incidents, Mr von Rappard said: “Generally speaking people are going to misjudge space or, you know, maybe not see you because you're in a blind spot.

“But recently it's gone from bad to worse. I mean this week alone, I've only cycled three out of five days and I had three incidents on Monday alone. And then another one on Wednesday evening on the way home.”

Mr von Rappard said this experience is commonplace for cyclists in the BCP area.

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He said: “Speaking to other cyclists out there, it's not great. There are cycle lanes but people are not paying enough attention. I don't know whether it's the stress of life or what it is.

“The driver involved in the incident on Wednesday afternoon cut straight through the traffic, across the lanes and then decided to have a go and tell me how it's her right of way.

"I was going in a straight line and she was going across the lane. That's my right of way.”

Mr von Rappard is asking drivers to check for cyclists before they move.

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He said: “Generally, people could just take an extra second or two when they're driving or turning or approaching a roundabout or leaving a junction, just double check, especially in rush hour traffic.

“I appreciate that there can be a gap sometimes, I'm a car driver as much as I am a cyclist, so I can see both sides of it but I think people have forgotten to pay attention to the road and sort of how to use their indicators half of the time.”

The Highway Code was updated in January this year, to introduce a risk-based hierarchy of road users meaning that someone driving will have more responsibility to watch out for people cycling, walking or riding a horse, and cyclists will have more responsibility to be aware of pedestrians.

Speaking about the rule change, Mr von Rappard said: “The laws have changed drastically this year. but the driving doesn't seem to have changed and it's just about raising a bit more awareness about drivers being more careful on the road, because cyclists are a lot more vulnerable than cars and you have a bump in your car, fair enough, there's some cosmetic damage there but when a car hits a cyclist that can have a huge effect on someone's life.

“Whether that puts somebody out of work, so they can't earn money which means their family has to miss out or it causes them unnecessarily stress, I think we're going through enough with the way the world is going at the moment, without having to be hypervigilant when you're on a bike and not knowing whether you're going to get knocked off.”