You filmed a close pass. Now what?
A short, opinionated guide to actually using your incident report when you talk to police or the driver's insurer.
Recording the pass is the easy part. Getting anyone to do something about it is harder. Here's the workflow that works most often, in rough order of effort.
1. File a police report the same day
Departments routinely take cyclist close-pass complaints by phone or by visiting a precinct. Bring (or attach to your phone call) the incident PDF Rydiq generates: it has the date, time, GPS coordinates, vehicle make and model, color, and a plate read where one was visible. Officers do not want to scrub footage. They want a single page with the facts on it.
2. Be specific about what you want
Most departments can do one of three things: log it (no action), make contact with the driver (a courtesy call), or mail a citation. Ask explicitly. "I'd like a citation mailed to the registered owner under [your state's passing law]" is a different request from "I'd like this reported." Both are legitimate. They will not happen interchangeably.
3. Know the law in your state
The minimum lateral distance varies by state. Some states have a flat three feet. Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia have a four-foot rule. South Dakota requires six feet at speeds above 35 mph. Look up your state's code before the conversation and reference it by number. Officers respect riders who arrive prepared.
4. If it's a fleet vehicle, contact the fleet
Commercial vehicles (delivery trucks, contractor pickups, utility vans) usually have a logo or phone number. A polite email to the company with the incident PDF attached often results in driver coaching, sometimes in policy changes. We have seen this work even when the police report goes nowhere.
5. Save everything, even the cases that go nowhere
A pattern of incidents at the same intersection or against the same registered plate is much more persuasive than any individual one. The dashboard keeps every ride and every incident indefinitely; we recommend tagging the ones you escalate so you can find them later.
None of this is a substitute for safer infrastructure. It is one of the only individual-level things a rider can actually do today.