Cyclist confronts motorist in supermarket after he 'cut him up' in road

Safety campaigner Grahame Cooper was cycling in Blackburn Road to Aldi in Higher Bridge Street, when he says he was overtaken by a Honda car in an unsafe manner.

He caught the moment on camera, and when he arrived at the supermarket he realised the driver of the car was also going shopping.

Mr Cooper, a retired computing lecturer at the University of Salford, left his camera running and decided to challenge the motorist.

In the video, the pair become involved in a debate about the Highway Code and Mr Cooper labels the motorist as a "dangerous driver".

However the motorist rejects the accusations and says: ‘Do you know what a bike lane is for?’ and ‘The bike lane is specifically for you, isn’t it?’.

Mr Cooper said: "I just wanted to tell him that what he did was dangerous, but then he tried to lecture me about cycle lanes.

"I don't commute anymore because I am retired, but when I did 100 miles a week I would quite regularly get into disputes with people, it would happen about twice a week."

Mr Cooper runs a cycling safety blog and regularly posts videos of his experiences on two wheels, and wears a video camera on his helmet to capture them on camera.

He believes the motorist was engaging in a "punishment pass" in frustration at being stuck behind a bicycle.

He said: "You can't read minds so I don't really know, but I think it was a punishment pass, which means a driver comes very close to a cyclist because they are annoyed at the cyclist being on the road."

Mr Cooper says Blackburn Road is a particularly bad area for cyclists, especially given the tanker crash at the Mercedes Benz garage before Christmas.

He said: "It is a really dangerous junction, with a cycle lane which is at best useless, and at worst very dangerous.

"There is still some rubbish and mud on the cycle lane because of the tanker crash before Christmas, which does not help."