Driving standards

[PhilJ W]

I suspect that if car drivers were more inclined to let a bus out when it's ready to go, bus drivers might be keener on pulling all the way into a layby to let traffic past.

 

 

Agreed, but they don't do themselves any favours by leaving their back end out and blocking the road... Give and take...

Locally they have to leave half the bus sticking out because of cars parked in the bus bay. Another thing is many car drivers do not seem to understand that buses stop frequently at bus stops. They often follow so close behind them that they have no room to pull out and pass. I even saw one that was so close to the bus that she had followed it into the bus layby before she had realised it, the bus was completely in the layby but her car was sticking out holding up the traffic.

[Coryton]

Agreed, but they don't do themselves any favours by leaving their back end out and blocking the road... Give and take...

 

But there isn't much give and take, is there? Car drivers are very happy to take advantage of a bus tucked neatly out of the way in a layby (of course), but it's a very rare driver who will stop to let a bus out in return for that.

 

If you were a bus driver and the only way you could keep to your schedule was to inconvenience traffic, what would you do?

 

Some time ago in Cardiff I saw in at least one place a bus layby in among car parking spaces replaced by an extension of the pavement towards the main part of the road so that the bus had no choice but to block traffic. Same effect as the bus leaving the rear end blocking the road but a bit more legitimate perhaps.

[Coryton]

Locally they have to leave half the bus sticking out because of cars parked in the bus bay. Another thing is many car drivers do not seem to understand that buses stop frequently at bus stops. They often follow so close behind them that they have no room to pull out and pass. I even saw one that was so close to the bus that she had followed it into the bus layby before she had realised it, the bus was completely in the layby but her car was sticking out holding up the traffic.

 

I once saw a car driver attempt to pull into a bus layby. There was a double decker bus right behind. The bus followed the car into the layby and just kept on going...the car driver had no choice but to do the same and go back into the road at the far end.

 

Another time I saw a car park in the same layby. The driver opened the door to get out...and had it taken off by a passing bus he hadn't noticed that wasn't stopping. Poetic justice, perhaps.

[kevinlms]

I suspect that if car drivers were more inclined to let a bus out when it's ready to go, bus drivers might be keener on pulling all the way into a layby to let traffic past.

There are some places in Melbourne where the bus bays were removed for this reason. So now buses just stop & other vehicles have to wait.

[Hobby]

but it's a very rare driver who will stop to let a bus out in return for that.

 

I was just pointing out that two wrongs don't make a right and both sets of bad behaviour in this case has led to the impasse we now see...

Edited December 12, 2018 by Hobby

[Guest]

I once saw a car driver attempt to pull into a bus layby. There was a double decker bus right behind. The bus followed the car into the layby and just kept on going...the car driver had no choice but to do the same and go back into the road at the far end.

My favourite layby incident was a driver going for an ill-judged overtake and being confronted with a traffic island. They panicked and swerved before stopping in a layby on the opposite side of the road where they waited until all the cars had gone past before rejoining many places further back.

I had it on dash cam but too distant to be more than blobs.

 

Here:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4283308,-1.9587879,3a,75y,88.12h,70.22t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sIWLuPnQTB16YsAdN1P2JwQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Edited December 12, 2018 by 30801

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I was just pointing out that two wrongs don't make a right and both sets of bad behaviour in this case has led to the impasse we now see...

The bus has to stop to pick up and set down, and the driver is also expected to maintain schedule: so the drivers do their best in the prevailing circumstances. This is not a case of bad behaviour on the part of the bus driver, just getting the job done.

 

What many road users forget is that the highway code privileges bus, coach, tram over other road users:

 

Rule 223. Buses, coaches and trams. Give priority to these vehicles when you can do so safely, especially when they signal to pull away from stops.

 

I would like to see this message in bold on the rear of all buses, as was once quite common.

[Coryton]

I was just pointing out that two wrongs don't make a right and both sets of bad behaviour in this case has led to the impasse we now see...

 

I know but I disagree.

 

I think the "bad behaviour" from car drivers would happen regardless of how bus drivers behaved, and they are taking the only option available to them to actually do their job.

[Coryton]

The bus has to stop to pick up and set down, and the driver is also expected to maintain schedule: so the drivers do their best in the prevailing circumstances. This is not a case of bad behaviour on the part of the bus driver, just getting the job done.

 

What many road users forget is that the highway code privileges bus, coach, tram over other road users:

 

Rule 223. Buses, coaches and trams. Give priority to these vehicles when you can do so safely, especially when they signal to pull away from stops.

 

I would like to see this message in bold on the rear of all buses, as was once quite common.

 

And, so far as I know, the bus companies actually have a legal obligation for buses to keep to time (-1 min/+5 minutes at timing points, I think), despite having to fit in with whatever other traffic sees fit to use the roads.

 

I imagine that the signs on the back of buses were abandoned because they had no effect whatsoever.

[royaloak]

I suspect that if car drivers were more inclined to let a bus out when it's ready to go, bus drivers might be keener on pulling all the way into a layby to let traffic past.

And if people who designed the bus bays made them long enough for the bus to fit in and manoeuvre so they are straight the back of the bus wouldnt be out in the road, but while they design the bays to minimum length and put the shelter in the middle of the bay instead of the far end what can the drivers actually do! 

[Hobby]

I know but I disagree.

 

I think the "bad behaviour" from car drivers would happen regardless of how bus drivers behaved, and they are taking the only option available to them to actually do their job.

 

Fair enough, but I still think most car drivers will help by letting them out if they can, but bad behaviour on both sides has made things worse, I've seen enough deliberate "back end out" when there's no need by bus drivers as well as stupidity by car drivers (if you are already in a queue it makes little difference if that bus gets in front of you or not as you ain't going anywhere!)....

 

All the Birmingham double deckers used to have that sign on them but not recently...

 

Perhaps it needs prosecutions on both sides to make people behave! But that applies to all the other things we chat about and there aren't the police to do it...

[PhilJ W]

There are some places in Melbourne where the bus bays were removed for this reason. So now buses just stop & other vehicles have to wait.

This has happened a lot in the UK as well.

 

My favourite layby incident was a driver going for an ill-judged overtake and being confronted with a traffic island. They panicked and swerved before stopping in a layby on the opposite side of the road where they waited until all the cars had gone past before rejoining many places further back.

I had it on dash cam but too distant to be more than blobs.

 

Here:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4283308,-1.9587879,3a,75y,88.12h,70.22t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sIWLuPnQTB16YsAdN1P2JwQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Appropiate place name too.

[Hobby]

When driving in Germany and Belgium I've found that I need to remember that at tram stops where the stop is in the middle of the road you must stop to let pedestrians cross from the pavement to the tram platform and back. I've never seen any car driver break that rule whilst I've been over there.

 

 

On a separate subject we've just had a fine through the post from Hillingdon CC from a recent trip my daughter and wife made to Windsor. Fair cop, she went down a restricted access road (I checked on Google Streetview) but to be fair it was dark at the time and the only sign was in dark blue and not very big! We've paid up but I do wish they'd make these things much clearer than they do, I was caught out in Cardiff a few years ago when a bus parked in a queue of busses waiting to get to get to the bus stop actually blocked my view of the relevant sign. I couldn't appeal because I had no proof (should have got a dashcam I hear you say and quite right in this case!! ).

[big jim]

Especially as once it's out on the web, that's it. If it could in any way be traceable back to the OP then potentially it could be used against them in any future incident (e.g. Prosecution: "look what this kn*b gets up to, and is even stupid enough to post it on the net - is this a sign of a careful, considerate driver"?)

Happened to me, I rear ended someone in what turned out to be a ‘crash for cash’ scam, I found him on line after a 5 minute basic google search the same evening on an owners forum, in a posting a couple of days before our crash he had been warned by the police about his driving after cutting someone up on a roundabout (it wasn’t his fault of course!) forcing the other driver to brake sharply to avoid a collision

 

I also found videos of him doing 130mph in a 60 limit and 90 in a 30 which just purely by chance happened to be past my old house in Buckley! All of which were used as character evidence against him

 

He also tried to sue me for a bad neck not knowing I had pics of him 2 days after the crash doing a cartwheel and climbing a steep hillside and waving from the top

 

I Even got so deep into his life I discovered he didn’t have a doctor despite him claiming his doctor had seen him regards his neck

 

Moral of the story, don’t put a 9 month pregnant woman and 5 year old in hospital and think its funny then state you will be getting a new car off them and brag about it on the internet

 

He got a 3 year ban, 120 hour community service, £1200 fine, rehabilitation order, lost his job, his house and girlfriend (who I found out was s####ing someone else anyway!)

[caradoc]

But there isn't much give and take, is there? Car drivers are very happy to take advantage of a bus tucked neatly out of the way in a layby (of course), but it's a very rare driver who will stop to let a bus out in return for that.

 

If you were a bus driver and the only way you could keep to your schedule was to inconvenience traffic, what would you do?

 

Some time ago in Cardiff I saw in at least one place a bus layby in among car parking spaces replaced by an extension of the pavement towards the main part of the road so that the bus had no choice but to block traffic. Same effect as the bus leaving the rear end blocking the road but a bit more legitimate perhaps.

 

In Oxford the City Council recently widened the pavement at the eastbound High Street bus stop to give more room for pedestrians. However the effect of buses stopping there, and nearby stops on the other side of the road, resulted in gridlock in the centre of Oxford. So, guess what; The pavement has now been narrowed again. Still, I'm sure the Council Tax payers don't mind.

[Tim Hall]

Here you go Phil .

 

 

I cycled up there once (a long time ago, and in good weather). It was going quite well until a drunk stepped out in front of me near the top, when snails were already overtaking me......

[peanuts]

new one for me in Manchester is the cycle lane recently installed on Stertford road in hulme .

this wonderfull new peace of engineering  is partioned off from traffic by bollards along its length narrowing the carriageway  but the best is yet to come where it comes to a residential area the cycle lane goes around the back off the parking bays between them and the curb .then you come to the bus stops that again the cycle lane goes around the back off between the curb and bus stop meaning the bus stop and shelter are on an island further narrowing the carriageway has to be seen to be believed 

[johnofwessex]

Happened to me, I rear ended someone in what turned out to be a ‘crash for cash’ scam, I found him on line after a 5 minute basic google search the same evening on an owners forum, in a posting a couple of days before our crash he had been warned by the police about his driving after cutting someone up on a roundabout (it wasn’t his fault of course!) forcing the other driver to brake sharply to avoid a collision

 

I also found videos of him doing 130mph in a 60 limit and 90 in a 30 which just purely by chance happened to be past my old house in Buckley! All of which were used as character evidence against him

 

He also tried to sue me for a bad neck not knowing I had pics of him 2 days after the crash doing a cartwheel and climbing a steep hillside and waving from the top

 

I Even got so deep into his life I discovered he didn’t have a doctor despite him claiming his doctor had seen him regards his neck

 

Moral of the story, don’t put a 9 month pregnant woman and 5 year old in hospital and think its funny then state you will be getting a new car off them and brag about it on the internet

 

He got a 3 year ban, 120 hour community service, £1200 fine, rehabilitation order, lost his job, his house and girlfriend (who I found out was s####ing someone else anyway!)

 

It is, in my view a great pity that you can only be disqualified from driving for specific offences rather than either not being a 'fir and proper' person to hold a licence or using an vehicle to commit an offence - it might make life just a bit harder for fly tippers, drug dealers etc 

[TheQ]

Just what is it about joining dual carriageways off a roundabout these days?

 

For the last week I've had Cockwombles joining into the fast lane no matter what direction they'd joined the roundabout from, with no one in the slow lane. They drive a hundred yards or so in the fast lane, then indicate and move into the slow lane...

[peanuts]

Just what is it about joining dual carriageways off a roundabout these days?

 

For the last week I've had Cockwombles joining into the fast lane no matter what direction they'd joined the roundabout from, with no one in the slow lane. They drive a hundred yards or so in the fast lane, then indicate and move into the slow lane...

can you tell me where the fast and slow lanes are please do you mean lanes 1 &2 ?

[bimble]

Surely it's fast and relief lanes...

[kevinlms]

The bus has to stop to pick up and set down, and the driver is also expected to maintain schedule: so the drivers do their best in the prevailing circumstances. This is not a case of bad behaviour on the part of the bus driver, just getting the job done.

 

What many road users forget is that the highway code privileges bus, coach, tram over other road users:

 

Rule 223. Buses, coaches and trams. Give priority to these vehicles when you can do so safely, especially when they signal to pull away from stops.

 

I would like to see this message in bold on the rear of all buses, as was once quite common.

All suburban type buses in Victoria (at least, don't know about other states) carry a give way sign on the back. It has the same legal obligations as other give way signs. At lot of drivers still ignore them, but an improvement.

[Happy Hippo]

I know but I disagree.

 

I think the "bad behaviour" from car drivers would happen regardless of how bus drivers behaved, and they are taking the only option available to them to actually do their job.

The problem with some drivers is that they have managed to peak their performance and driving skills in order to pass the driving test.

 

After that, their skills and memory on how to drive properly go into terminal decline.

[Tim Hall]

The problem with some drivers is that they have managed to peak their performance and driving skills in order to pass the driving test.

 

After that, their skills and memory on how to drive properly go into terminal decline

 

The arrogance that comes with owning certain makes of car doesn't help either. 

[62613]

Surely it's fast and relief lanes...

Stop it!