Buses

tatman69

Whats wrong with bus drivers?

Got completley cut up on way in this morning, bus pulling over into bus stop. Gave no reagrds I was there, so I had to break sharply and bump the pavement.

When I went past i obviously asked him (not very politely) what he was doing to which he replied" Now you know what its like".

Hold on I'm on a bike and your in a bus?????????

Just glad there were other cyclist who saw it and also gave the driver a volley of abuse!

Whats wrong with people!

Cafewanda

Here's a tip that might work in the future, depending on road conditions:

If you know a bus is behind you and the bus stop is ahead move further out to the right, that prevents (hopefully) the left-hook. Can't vouch for the driver being even-tempered but possible witnesses might reign in any 'bumping' temptation.

spen666

tatman69 wrote:

Whats wrong with bus drivers?

Got completley cut up on way in this morning, bus pulling over into bus stop. Gave no reagrds I was there, so I had to break sharply and bump the pavement.

When I went past i obviously asked him (not very politely) what he was doing to which he replied" Now you know what its like".

Hold on I'm on a bike and your in a bus?????????

Just glad there were other cyclist who saw it and also gave the driver a volley of abuse!

Whats wrong with people!

If you spoke to bus driver in the manner you suggest, then why are you suprised that he is not too concerned about your complaint.

You are not polite to him, but expect him to be nice to you?

tatman69

spen666 wrote:

tatman69 wrote:

Whats wrong with bus drivers?

Got completley cut up on way in this morning, bus pulling over into bus stop. Gave no reagrds I was there, so I had to break sharply and bump the pavement.

When I went past i obviously asked him (not very politely) what he was doing to which he replied" Now you know what its like".

Hold on I'm on a bike and your in a bus?????????

Just glad there were other cyclist who saw it and also gave the driver a volley of abuse!

Whats wrong with people!

If you spoke to bus driver in the manner you suggest, then why are you suprised that he is not too concerned about your complaint.

You are not polite to him, but expect him to be nice to you?

Im sorry but when you get carved up and pushed off the road being polite to the driver didnt really come in to consideration.

The bus driver wasnt talking about my language more the fact he was fed up with bikes on the road

mcj78

Had this happen a fair few times - this is good advice:

Cafewanda wrote:

If you know a bus is behind you and the bus stop is ahead move further out to the right, that prevents (hopefully) the left-hook.

On my commute it's mainly 2 lane main roads which usually have parked cars blocking half of the inside lane & i'm finding myself more & more drawn to the middle of the right hand lane to avoid flying doors & to deter stupid overtaking maneuvers like this - if there's a stretch of road that has double yellows along it, i'll move in to let traffic past but make sure to get back in before the next set of parked cars in plenty of time.

J

bigmat

Got wound up by a bus driver yesterday, at a red light he drove right through the ASL and a few feet further on. As we set off I shoulder checked and could see him trying to overtake, even though I was riding at the pace of the rest of the traffic. I'm ashamed to say I pulled right, into super primary, and slowed down to about 15mph, letting a nice big gap form in front of me - only kept that up for about 30 secs as I realised I was being a bit of a tawt, but I think he got the message.

soy_sauce

i think you should call the bus company and make a complain. if you remember the place, time and the bus number then they should be able to identify the driver.

Phate

Actually have to say the majority of bus drivers in Edinburgh are pretty good! We do have a lot of bus lanes and if a bus behind me is going to stop at a bus stop ahead of me I will move out and let him undertake me, I'd have to move out there to pass when it's stationary anyway! Always gets a thumbs up! Also they are pretty good at leaving room on their inside when traffic is slow!

wgwarburton

Phate wrote:

Actually have to say the majority of bus drivers in Edinburgh are pretty good! We do have a lot of bus lanes and if a bus behind me is going to stop at a bus stop ahead of me I will move out and let him undertake me, I'd have to move out there to pass when it's stationary anyway! Always gets a thumbs up! Also they are pretty good at leaving room on their inside when traffic is slow!

+1: Most Edinburgh bus drivers are aware of cyclists and generally considerate.

Coach drivers from out-of-town less so- they can get a bit territorial on the arterial roads.


Taxi drivers on the other hand.... (but that's OT: I won't get started)

Cheers,
W.

flyingbanana

WGWarburton wrote:

Phate wrote:

+1: Most Edinburgh bus drivers are aware of cyclists and generally considerate.

+1, for Lothian Buses at least. And whenever there's a problem there's great CCTV evidence provided by the bus itself and they have a good reputation for taking action against their drivers if they are at fault.

When I had a driver try and T-bone me on the Mound (when I had priority, going uphill and straight on, he was going down and turning across my lane of traffic), a swift letter resulted in an apologetic phonecall and letter from LB agreeing with my take on events and admiting error on their part. I was promised there would be "re-education" for the perpetrator, who was caught on his own CCTV winding down his window to shout and bawl at me after it had also caught him driving straight at me, making no attempt to stop or take avoiding action and running me off the road onto the pavement into a crowd of pedestrians

-1 for First Buses. They stop so irregularly that the drivers get pretentions of being Lewis Hamilton inbetween stops and really give it some gas - to have to slam on the brakes on the rare occasion that someone in actually hails one

MrBlond

Didn't realise you could go as slowly as 15mph, matt ;-)

spen666

tatman69 wrote:

[...

Im sorry but when you get carved up and pushed off the road being polite to the driver didnt really come in to consideration.

The bus driver wasnt talking about my language more the fact he was fed up with bikes on the road

As I said before, if you expect a sensible response from someone, it is more likely to come if you are not impolite to them.

If you (and I do not know if you did), speak to a person in an angry accusatory manner, then they are likely to immediately treat you as hostile and either be very defensive or verbally aggressive back.

I understand how you were feeling at the time, and I would/ have done the same, but it is counter productive

mcj78

On the flipside though - if i'd inadvertantly cut someone up & they went absolutely mental & threatned to murder me with a D-lock, i'd be more inclined to leave extra room next time.
You can't automatically assume most people are decent individuals & as such will only react in the same way when confronted by an angry cyclist. If people have no consideration whatsoever for the safety of cyclists on the road I don't imagine speaking in a slightly different tone will make any difference.
I've been deliberately blocked off by vans in queues of traffic where they use whetever few inches of space they have in front to jut out so you can't sqeeze past & any sort of protestations are generally met with a tirade of abuse.
On the other hand, recently i've had a couple of drivers accidentally pull out in front of me & mouth an sheepish apology as i'm lambasting them from the roadside (apology accepted btw).
I reckon the bus driver in question was simply a tw@ who couldn't care less - he obviously saw you & wouldn't have given a sh!t if you'd spoken politely to him or not.

mroli

MatHammond wrote:

Got wound up by a bus driver yesterday, at a red light he drove right through the ASL and a few feet further on.

Its alright MH - he used his judgement to call that it was perfectly acceptable to RLJ as it was safe to do so in this circumstance :twisted:

coopster_the_1st

tatman69 wrote:

spen666 wrote:

tatman69 wrote:

Whats wrong with bus drivers?

Got completley cut up on way in this morning, bus pulling over into bus stop. Gave no reagrds I was there, so I had to break sharply and bump the pavement.

When I went past i obviously asked him (not very politely) what he was doing to which he replied" Now you know what its like".

Hold on I'm on a bike and your in a bus?????????

Just glad there were other cyclist who saw it and also gave the driver a volley of abuse!

Whats wrong with people!

If you spoke to bus driver in the manner you suggest, then why are you suprised that he is not too concerned about your complaint.

You are not polite to him, but expect him to be nice to you?

Im sorry but when you get carved up and pushed off the road being polite to the driver didnt really come in to consideration.

The bus driver wasnt talking about my language more the fact he was fed up with bikes on the road

While I do not commute into London, is there anything to stop you taking you and your bike onto the bus and speaking to the driver???

You obviously have no intention of paying and the driver will not drive off without a passenger paying. This can then be discussed with the police (and the CCTV evidence used if needed) if you do not get a valid apology from the driver.

badwolf

Not that I'm a bus nerd or anything but on some of the newer buses round here if you press the emergency door opening button this also cuts off the engine. The driver then has to get off their (usually large) butt and reset something in the engine compartment to get it going again.

So dont get angry with the driver, just get button happy :P

redvee

I was cut up by a coach on a roundabout and hen I asked the driver what he was soing he said it was down to my lane discipline. Before we had our chat I was resting on the left rear corner of the coach with my finger twitching on the emergeny engine stop button but as we were at some TLs on the RBT I realised that the driver only had to turn ther ignition to reset the stop button.

shouldbeinbed

tatman69 wrote:

Whats wrong with bus drivers?

Got completley cut up on way in this morning, bus pulling over into bus stop. Gave no reagrds I was there, so I had to break sharply and bump the pavement.

When I went past i obviously asked him (not very politely) what he was doing to which he replied" Now you know what its like".

Hold on I'm on a bike and your in a bus?????????

Just glad there were other cyclist who saw it and also gave the driver a volley of abuse!

Whats wrong with people!

You get more with sugar than vinegar but when he said this I'd have been asking him for times and dates when you've done the same to him in the past to justify his bad driving against you rather than any other cyclist that he may have a grievance with

Unless of course you do cut up busses and karma has taken a look in your direction.


I quite like this response too

Butterd2 wrote:

<snip> when a cyclist is involved in an RTA with a bus the only way of contacting them is likely to be through a seance, and therein lies the difference. I'm in charge of 8kgs of carbon fibre whilst you are controlling 20tons of steel.

The day a cyclist kills a bus driver please feel free to come back on here and tell me you were right.

JackPozzi

Coopster the 1st wrote:

While I do not commute into London, is there anything to stop you taking you and your bike onto the bus and speaking to the driver???

You obviously have no intention of paying and the driver will not drive off without a passenger paying. This can then be discussed with the police (and the CCTV evidence used if needed) if you do not get a valid apology from the driver.

In all honesty if you did this the police are sadly more liikely to take the driver's side in an effort to get the bus moving and traffic flowing again as quickly as possible. Thest best thing to do is make a note of the driver's duty number which will be displayed on a card at the front somewhere and send in a complaint to the company

Initialised

badwolf wrote:

Not that I'm a bus nerd or anything but on some of the newer buses round here if you press the emergency door opening button this also cuts off the engine. The driver then has to get off their (usually large) butt and reset something in the engine compartment to get it going again.

So dont get angry with the driver, just get button happy :P

Sweet, will be trying that next time I get cut up by those too poor to drive and to lazy to ride.

The Rookie

tatman69 wrote:

so I had to break sharply and bump the pavement.

That sounds very painful, what did you break?

I finding braking less painful myself.

Simon