Psychotic Bus Driver!!

008

Riding down Edgware Road, London, just past the A40 flyover towards Marble Arch... I was following a bus and was keeping pace, over 20 mph, with a suitable braking distance. Anyway, a second bus behind me tries to overtake even though a bus stop was not far off. The bus pulls alongside me, half the length of the bus, starts indicating left and edges me towards the kerb. He knew I was there and I decided not to give way, at which point he brakes and pulls in behind me as he probably realised he wasn't going to make it past me and stop behind the first bus at the said bus stop. He was in the middle of 2 lanes and a coach in the outside lane was even hooting him for blocking the road.

I was absolutely livid [:(!] but it all happened so quick and all I wanted to do was get out of the way of this psycho, I gave him a 'royal wave' and rode off. I realise now that it wasn't the best thing to do and it wasn't until I'd calmed down that I thought I should've stopped, taken his details and reported him [:(] Damn!

Times like this, a headcam would've also been really useful.

Why is it that so called 'professional drivers' who drive for a living do such idiotic things which could result in them losing their licences and thus livelihoods?? You'd think that they would drive safely and carefully in order to avoid incidents which could lose them their job!!

Rant over and now calm again.

domtyler

The reality is that these are just ruffians off the street that can just about drive and so they get the job. Let's face it, would you want to do that job?

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Porridge not Petrol
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Mary jane

dondare

They're on auto-pilot a lot of the time.

This sig is under construction.

snakehips

I remember from my days of commuting in London that the panels of buses are (or were) actually rather soft flexible sheets of metal.
A thump on one would give the driver something to explain when (s)he returned to the depot , and would be more difficult to shrug off than a written complaint from somebody considered to be a member of a subhuman species , i.e. cyclist.

Snake

008

My incident was very similar to Magnatoms -

http://www.cyclingplus.co.uk/forum/topi ... _ID=132882

Only difference was the bus was a lot further past me, half its length and the distance travelled, with bus beside me, was/seemed a lot further. Can't tell how fast Magnatom was traveeling but I was doing 20 mph+.

First time I felt a little (allright, quite a bit) concerned, not knowing whether the tw@t would actually pull in and take me out... deliberately!

njc97

I may have moaned on here about this before, but a couple of weeks ago I had a bendy bus pull alongside then pull in towards the stop with me halfway back. After hitting the brakes sharply, I'm about to cycle round the back and go and remonstrate with the driver, when another cyclist goes past me and undertakes the bus, despite the space left dimishing to the point when he has to stop pedaling and lean over the curve to get past the front of the bus. Remember, bus drives may be psychotic lunatics, but cyclists can be at least as bad.

magnatom

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by 008</i>

My incident was very similar to Magnatoms -

http://www.cyclingplus.co.uk/forum/topi ... _ID=132882

Only difference was the bus was a lot further past me, half its length and the distance travelled, with bus beside me, was/seemed a lot further. Can't tell how fast Magnatom was traveeling but I was doing 20 mph+.

First time I felt a little (allright, quite a bit) concerned, not knowing whether the tw@t would actually pull in and take me out... deliberately!

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I was going about 20mph at the point in the movie where the bus pulls in to me. I never really felt in any danger (I was cycling in the primary position and I knew I had room to my side) but to ensure I kept a safe distance I was forced into the bus stop.

008 I would still contact the bus depot and report the time and place of the incident. It is possible that would be enough to identify the driver and they may well have their own CCTV on the bus.

I wouldn't worry about the 'hand signal'. It's a time of high stress and your reaction was very understandable.

008

Cheers Magnatom.

Unfortunately, in my haste to just get out of this idiots way, I didn't even catch the number of the bus.[:(]

I'll put it down to experience and remember next time.