A frame from a video recorded by Luke Rae shows a car coming close to striking him at a St. John's intersection. (CBC)

A frustrated St. John's man taped a camera to his helmet for a year to capture proof of how dangerous the city's streets can be for cyclists.

"I decided to get a helmet cam because too many cars were running me off the road, and I never have a witness," said Luke Rae.

Using a tiny camera, which captured pretty much what Rae saw during his journeys around the city, Rae collected a series of close calls, including a harrowing moment when a car jumped into an intersection and nearly smashed into Rae and his bike.

On another occasion, a driver in a truck hit the gas and ran Rae off the road.

"You get drivers doing the most outrageous stuff," said Rae, adding that some errant drivers are not only unapologetic, but also arrogant with their views about the place of cyclists.

Cyclist Luke Rae affixed a tiny camera to his helmet for about a year to show what cyclists often encounter. (CBC)

"You get a driver run you off the road, and you catch back up to them, and they try to give you some kind of lecture about how you shouldn't be on the road."

The videos show Rae cycling during different types of weather, in different parts of the city, but often encountering drivers who require quick defences.

"At times it's like you're playing Frogger," he said.

"There's cars coming out left, right and centre, and even if you have the right-of-way, you're trying not to die defending it. You're braking and swerving … it gets pretty wild at times."

Rae encountered numerous incidents of drivers taking a left turn, even though Rae could be clearly seen cycling down the road.

"Lots of people take left turns when a cyclist is coming," he told CBC News.

"Maybe they see the bike and they're like, 'Well, it's a cyclist, so they'll stop for me. I'm a car, I'm bigger.' "

CBC News showed Rae's video to Jack Nickel, who works with Ordinary Spokes, a cycling lobby group in St. John's, which has been campaigning for safer streets.

Nickel said what he saw was far from surprising.

"It goes both ways," said Nickel.

"Because we're run off the roads often, because we don't feel safe on the roads, cyclists — they want to bike, but they're going to end up on the sidewalk."