| Motoring Discussion > Bus Lane | Miscellaneous |
| Thread Author: SteelSpark | Replies: 62 |
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New Mon 23 Aug 10 21:23
Bus Lane - SteelSpark
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Picture the scene... You are driving north along a single carriageway, with a bus lane to your left. On the opposite side of the road, there is no bus lane, but there is a bus stop, which can accommodate perhaps three buses in single file. The bus stop is full and a further bus has stopped alongside the bus at the front of the bus stop, effectively blocking the traffic in the oncoming lane. As you are approaching the bus blocking the ongoing lane, a car behind the bus pulls out (into the lane you are in), they have "misjudged" the gap and even though you slow sharply, you have almost reached the front of the stopped bus. Worse still, the first car has been blindly followed by several others, so you are now faced with a line of oncoming cars in the same lane as you. You also have a line of cars behind you. Now, if you were to straddle the bus lane to your left, there is room for you and the oncoming cars to pass each other. Of course, you could instead, just stop there and wait for the stopped bus to move off, allowing the oncoming cars to move back over to their original lane, but in the meantime holding up the traffic in both directions. Do you straddle or not? If you do straddle, do you run the risk of being found to have "driven in a bus lane"? I'll leave it to the ladies and gentlemen of the jury to decide... |
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New Mon 23 Aug 10 21:26
Bus Lane - Old Navy
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I would stay put and let the drivers on the wrong side of the road solve their problem, I would not move into a "live" bus lane, too many cameras about. A different matter if the bus lane was not "live".
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 23 Aug 10 at 21:28
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New Mon 23 Aug 10 21:36
Bus Lane - Armel Coussine
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>> I would stay put and let the drivers on the wrong side of the road solve their problem. Cobblers ON. Queues of carphounds facing each other down in the middle of the road and holding up the public transport and everyone else. What utter carp. Anyone afraid to put a wheel in a bus lane ought to be bashed into a snotty, whining daze with little pink teddy bears. If the self-appointed authorities have the damn cheek to complain - they hardly ever do - you can demolish the idiots with a well-turned letter and they back down. What is it that makes you people think everyone has all the time in the world? Tchah! |
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New Mon 23 Aug 10 21:30
Bus Lane - Harleyman
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I suspect that in the above scenario, it would be a reasonable defence to claim that you moved into the bus lane to avoid oncoming traffic. I can understand this happening. Car behind bus is a stranger to the district and unaware that the vacant lane on your nearside is a bus lane. He therefore expects you to move over and allow him to overtake. Not good road manners, but predictable behaviour. Also highlights the lack of planning which seems to bedevil any scheme involving bus lanes. The one into Bath from the A46 is a classic case of this. |
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New Mon 23 Aug 10 21:36
Bus Lane - Old Navy
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>> I suspect that in the above scenario, it would be a reasonable defence to claim >> that you moved into the bus lane to avoid oncoming traffic. There is no such thing as a "reasonable" jobsworth who dishes out fines and has a photo to prove your guilt. Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 23 Aug 10 at 21:37
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New Mon 23 Aug 10 21:38
Bus Lane - Armel Coussine
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>> There is no such thing as a "reasonable" jobsworth So there's no reason to be scared of the twerps. They are just jobsworths. |
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New Mon 23 Aug 10 23:46
Bus Lane - Harleyman
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I'm with AC on this. Must admit I have visions of ON driving about looking for cameras behind every tree, apropos of Private Fraser in the closing credits of "Dad's Army"! |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 06:15
Bus Lane - swiss tony
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>> I'm with AC on this. >> >> Must admit I have visions of ON driving about looking for cameras behind every tree, >> apropos of Private Fraser in the closing credits of "Dad's Army"! >> Never been to Reading then? People there have been done for putting 1/2 a wheel in a bus lane, trying to allow an ambulance past, then failing to in the battle in court. I'm sorry, but these days I will not move, if it requires me to commit a traffic violation, I cannot afford the fine, and a day in court. I often do have a giggle though, driving through High Wycombe the amount of people avoiding the bus lane, when its not live is unbelievable - but there again maybe they are like me, and will avoid crossing that white line at all costs.......... |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 08:08
Bus Lane - jc2
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| A Police driving instructor talking about mini-roundabouts pointed out that traffic could legally come to a complete halt if drivers all approached the junction at the same time and all waited for the car on their right to move first. What you need is COMMON SENSE!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 08:34
Bus Lane - Old Navy
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>> What you need is COMMON SENSE!!!!!!!!!!!!! >> Unfortunately this is something the jobsworths are totally devoid of. My SiL was fined for stopping with her front wheel on the edge line of a box junction, not causing any obstruction, but caught on camera. Many of the busses around here have bus lane cameras fitted. |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 08:52
Bus Lane - Zero
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Stop, cause a jam, a biggun if possible. The dorks that put the bus lane there need to know the agro they cause, and they wont if we try and negate the effects of their stupidity. Hopefully one of the halfwit planners would be caught in the jam. |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 08:54
Bus Lane - Old Navy
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>> Stop, cause a jam, a biggun if possible. The dorks that put the bus lane >> there need to know the agro they cause, and they wont if we try and >> negate the effects of their stupidity. >> >> Hopefully one of the halfwit planners would be caught in the jam. >> For once I agree with Zero ! |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 09:25
Bus Lane - BiggerBadderDave
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Congratulations Warsaw on your recent introduction of bus lanes - in a city where you can already set your watches by the buses. You have succeeded in causing mayhem where there was none. There is one curly wurly on-ramp to a fast dual carriageway that I use every weekend. It used to join straight to the carriageway, it's own lane so that you could reach speed and then move over and join the flow. This lane has now become a bus lane so when you get to the top of the curly wurly, you now have to give way. The visibility is dire, you're looking backwards over your shoulder through the metal rear pillars, the vegetation is overgrown and it's on a curve so you have to hit the gas and hope you aren't t-boned by a bus - cross the bus lane and instantly be doing 90kph with the other traffic. Someone is going to get killed here soon. The tail-backs for this ramp are now two km long down the underpass below. Well thought through guys. Idiots. |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 14:06
Bus Lane - Bromptonaut
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Is the bus lane actually in operation? Lot of folks round here keep out of it irresective!! |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 14:14
Bus Lane - Mapmaker
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No way would I put a wheel into that bus lane. Many bus lane cameras are situated in the following position. A scene like OP's, but instead of oncoming traffic in his lane, the obstruction is a car trying to turn right over the oncoming traffic. Easy, thinks AC, just pop into the bus lane to pop round him. Thank you, AC, that's £60(?). A well-known money spinner. |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 14:23
Bus Lane - Bromptonaut
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>> Thank you, AC, that's £60(?). >> >> >> A well-known money spinner. £60 for a rapid confession, £120 if you go the distance (London rates). To some extent the money spins so well because even folks with a good case are reluctant to punt the further £60 on a trip to the adjudicator. |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 14:44
Bus Lane - Armel Coussine
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Garbaggio chaps. It's true it only happened to me once, but the markings were such a shambles, and so stupid, that my argument was accepted. It was a place where a bus stop was close to a traffic light, with several vehicles waiting to turn right. The photo accompanying the outrageous demand for money was cropped to hide the right turn queue. I pointed this out in my letter and said the cropping was perilously close to sharp practice or something of the sort. I pointed out that there were no buses nearby and I had obstructed no one. I also pointed out that having the bus lane there, even ambiguously marked as it was, would be certain to increase traffic congestion there at certain times of day, and wondered courteously whether this was what the council really wanted. Reading this thread though I can't help thinking Zero may have a point. Perhaps we should all cause obstructions whenever we can on the pretext that we are afraid of bus lanes, and force a more reasonable attitude on these idiotic local authority traffic wonks. But the thought of the actual moronic obstructions is so depressing I doubt if I could bring myself to do it. |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 15:08
Bus Lane - Armel Coussine
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If anyone is thinking of campaigning on this matter, the point to make is that bus lanes are there for the benefit of buses (and taxis and is it bicycles and motor bikes?), so straying into them should only attract censure if a bus or other authorised vehicle is actually obstructed. Obviously any car cynically driving down the bus lane, even empty, to get an advantage should be censured as well. Like others I have noticed that the vast majority of motorists stay out of bus lanes even when they aren't supposed to be active. I believe this is a result of stupidly harsh enforcement and pickpocketing by the authorities, which has got most people in the rabbit-style irrational funk so apparent in many of the posts here. Slightly offensive raspberry. :o} |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 15:50
Bus Lane - Bromptonaut
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>> Like others I have noticed that the vast majority of motorists stay out of bus >> lanes even when they aren't supposed to be active. I believe this is a result >> of stupidly harsh enforcement and pickpocketing by the authorities, which has got most people in >> the rabbit-style irrational funk so apparent in many of the posts here. If I'd only observed the behaviour in London I'd agree. However here in sunny Northants the police enforce (or rather fail to enforce) the lanes. More chance of being struck by an asteroid than a booking for infringing the lane on Weedon Road. I'm therefore forced to the conclusion that the avoiders are simply unobservant mimsers!! |
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 15:16
Bus Lane - Ted
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I agree with Zero and the Ancient Mariner 'cos I've done it. One of Rattle's favourite bus lanes, effectively a three lane road. Privale coach parked in the opposite lane, illegally. traffic pouring round it towards me in my lane. I just sat there until it stiopped, with a queue behind me, although a few overtook me on the inside, in the bus lane. But I, and possibly others who waited with me, know where the camera is ! Another section near me has a bus lane southbound. What they didn't cater for was the fact that the northbound lane is usually full of parked cars, forcing both north and south bound traffic to use the one lane left.......the southbound one ! Idiots ! Ted |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 15:27
Bus Lane - Perky Penguin
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Yes AC but Jobsworths with power - a terrifying concept! Give a man a peaked hat and two people to shout at and he will think he rules the world. Westminster traffic enforcement come to mind!
Last edited by: Perky Penguin on Tue 24 Aug 10 at 15:28
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 16:34
Bus Lane - madf
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The idiots in charge find you guilty if you are stopping an ambulance going through and you go through a red light 1 foot to make way for it. I'd sit tight and let someone else be fined.. If a Traffic Warden comes along and tries to sort it out, he/she will have to break their own rules. They won't.. or will lose their jobs. The system needs an obvious big snarl up to bring it into proper disrepute.. rather than risking a fine to work round its problems. "Make the problem someone else's .." is my motto. |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 16:39
Bus Lane - hobby
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I've always wondered when people enforcing the Law become Jobsworths... If you don't like it then campaign to get it changed, instead of moaning about it! In the meantime quit moaning about those who have to uphold the rules... they are not jobsworths, they are just doing their job, its you who should be looking in the mirror and asking yourself why you chose to break the rule!! (From a "jobsworth" who charged someone who got on my train with an advance ticket for a train 2 hours later... You paid your money, agreed to travel on that train... so your tickets not valid on this one... Simpless... and tough luck...) Personally I'm with ON on the course of action... though I'd say it was the bus who double parked that should get done... Though I do wonder just how long it would have stayed there... a matter of 30 seconds or so? People are so impatient these days! |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 17:05
Bus Lane - madf
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hobby The trouble is the way the rules are upheld is often devoid of any give or common sense. (and I mean ALL rules - eg see the police actions if a burglar has an injury on your premises). My response is simple: obey the rules Period. I will make no allowances if officialdom wants me to help them . I will not. It's called removing agreemnet. If people wnt to enforce rules in a stupid way, I can't stop them. But I will not support them in any way .... (and if we have elected police chiefs, some police forces are going to get a very large shock) Last edited by: madf on Tue 24 Aug 10 at 17:06
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 17:14
Bus Lane - Armel Coussine
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>> I've always wondered when people enforcing the Law become Jobsworths.. They do it when apparently rational citizens mistake petty local regulations for the Law with a capital L, and support fatuous jobsworths by claiming that they 'uphold the rules'. Some do of course, but a lot just spend their time using the 'rules' (hawk, spit) as a pretext to get up the noses of innocent passer-by. No one is moaning, hobbyhorse. People are quite rightly grumbling bitterly about something that is gratuitous and annoying. One of the purposes of the internet surely? |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 17:39
Bus Lane - hobby
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>> They do it when apparently rational citizens mistake petty local regulations for the Law with >> a capital L, and support fatuous jobsworths by claiming that they 'uphold the rules'. I'd disagree, they become jobsworths when someone gets caught doing something they shouldn't and needs a scapegoat... I agree there will be occassions when a little Common Sense is needed, the OP is one of them (and creeping past a red light to let an Ambulance or Police car past is another) and perhaps those in charge of those enforcing the rules perhaps need to step back and look at what is happenning, but most of the time its the person who breaks the rule who is doing it because they can't be bothered, lazy, or feels that they are entitled to "bend" the rules without comeback, and then get annoyed when someone punishes them for it... Even in the past, when there was some leeway, when people got caught they still called them "jobsworths"... If I decide to drive my car above the limit or park where I shouldn't, or drive in a bus lane it is my choice, but if I get caught, then I don't feel its fair to blame the person (or machine) which caught me, its my choice, and I'm to blame... Something people seem to have forgotten these days... What is needed is a little common sense from both sides... Last edited by: hobby on Tue 24 Aug 10 at 17:42
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 18:14
Bus Lane - madf
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I am pestered every year by people who steal fuit. If I put up a deterrence such as razor wire, it's my fault if anyone is injured. If I put non stick paint on the fence and do not have warning signs visible at night ,it's my fault if anyone damages their clothes. If I call the police about theft, they laugh at me.. Now you can see why some of us think the law and those who enforce it are not worthy of support. Last edited by: madf on Tue 24 Aug 10 at 18:15
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 18:39
Bus Lane - Iffy
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...Now you can see why some of us think the law and those who enforce it are not worthy of support... Two wrongs do not make a right. If you were to support those who enforce the law when you get the chance, you will make their job easier and give them more time which might enable them to get round to your stolen apples. |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 19:07
Bus Lane - Cliff Pope
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It's really quite simple: There are two kinds of people in life- those who want to do something, and those who want to stop other people doing something. The latter, especially when they take a maddeningly smug delight in their obstruction, shelter behind the mantra "It's more than my job's worth". |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 19:12
Bus Lane - hobby
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| You forgot the third type, Cliff, the "Rule Makers"... and they are the ones who should get the hate mail, not those who have the (unenviable) job of enforcing the rules... ;-) |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 19:48
Bus Lane - Perky Penguin
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Stopping with one wheel in a box junction should not result in a fine, in a sensible real-world. However, cameras do not have discretion, and the people who look at the pictures doubtless have instructions, from the Council or whoever, to raise cash to help the budget shortfall plus they probably have a "Performance Indicator" which say they MUST issue XX? penalty notices per 8 hour shift. |
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New Wed 25 Aug 10 08:26
Bus Lane - Cliff Pope
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No, I think the rule makers fall into category 2. And I don't think the jobsworths have unenviable jobs. They love it. They are typically little men low down the chain of command, jealously guarding a bit of power. |
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New Wed 25 Aug 10 21:38
Bus Lane - hobby
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>> And I don't think the jobsworths have unenviable jobs. They love it. It depends on the job... Personally I'd rather people just paid the correct fare and travel on the correct train... but the problem is that many people feel its their "right" to fiddle the system... The same is true of policing the roads... There are those that "enjoy" the job, just as there are those that "enjoy" putting one over the "system"... perhaps if we got rid of both the World would be a much nicer place... I wonder if those who try to buck the system realise that it's their actions that keep the jobsworths they hate so much in a job!! |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 21:27
Bus Lane - swiss tony
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>> ...Now you can see why some of us think the law and those who enforce >> it are not worthy of support... >> >> Two wrongs do not make a right. >> But 2 wrongs CAN make a right. I climb over a wire fence (1 wrong) to steal fruit (2nd wrong) I injure myself, and claim off the guy who put up the 'dangerous' fence, getting compensation (1 right (result!)) |
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New Tue 24 Aug 10 21:07
Bus Lane - Armel Coussine
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Speed limits aren't being discussed. What is being discussed is people harmlessly clipping a corner of bus lane for good reason. It is utterly damn pathetic to justify twerps trying to charge people for that or anything similar. It happens often and is a quiet outrage tolerated by people I won't attempt to describe in words for fear of causing offence - all too easy with such people. Yuck! And again, yuck! This country has become a damn toilet if you ask me. |
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New Wed 25 Aug 10 12:25
Bus Lane - Perky Penguin
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| A blocked toilet too! Overflowing with nauseating carp |
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New Wed 25 Aug 10 20:52
Bus Lane - SteelSpark
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Wait until Cameron's Big Society comes into play. Fewer central government policies that can be appealed as one, instead a move to multiple little kingdoms, all run by there own jobsworths, with their own rules. Has your king decided that parking charges are doubled every second Thursday, or that your kids can only go to the local school if they donate a kidney? Maybe you can appeal to your magistrate...once she's finished making the king's dinner. |
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New Wed 25 Aug 10 21:50
Bus Lane - CGNorwich
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I do sometimes wonder if I have been extremely lucky in my life of whether all the tales of minor rule enforcements by "jobsworths" are perhaps a tad exaggerated and not as common as sometimes made out. I've often dipped into bus lanes when the circumstances called for it and would not hesitate to creep over a white line if circumstances deemed it sensible. I've only had one parking fine in my life, a consequence of the rules changing and me not reading the signs. I've had a few speeding fines but own up to being significantly over the limits in all cases. In my few dealings with the police I have always found them to be polite. My local council is efficient and does not appear to be populated by power crazed automatons. Am I alone? |
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New Wed 25 Aug 10 22:06
Bus Lane - hobby
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| Nope, CG, my experience is exactly the same, on all counts (including the one parking ticket, obtained in the very early days of pay and display!). Hence my comments on this thread... It is, as usual, a mountain made from a molehill by those with a hidden agenda. |
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New Wed 25 Aug 10 22:30
Bus Lane - Old Navy
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>> a mountain made from a molehill by those with >> a hidden agenda. >> I think you need to get out into the big wide UK a bit more. My sister in law was fined for stopping with one front wheel on the edge line of a box junction, photographic evidence provided. Try straying into a live bus lane in many UK cities and see what happens. Don't the busses in your area have bus lane cameras, and camera monitored parking ? I stopped near a relatives house in London, (resident parking permit area), A scooter mounted parking enforcement jobsworth was stopped alongside my car before I had walked 20 yards to a pay and display machine. The council in Edinburgh don't clamp your car, they remove it to a pound. Thats just my molehill. Last edited by: Old Navy on Wed 25 Aug 10 at 22:30
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New Wed 25 Aug 10 22:33
Bus Lane - rtj70
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| A car near to where I live was parked on double yellows all day and every day recently. It was on a corner. The local enforcement officers passed it and did nothing. They did finally today. |
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New Wed 25 Aug 10 22:58
Bus Lane - Bromptonaut
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Like Hobby and CG my experience is overwhelmingly positive. To take on example I'm a daily long distance rail commuter. There are probably around 20 Revenue Protection staff who are rostered to cover stations at this end of the line. With one exception they're friendly, flexible in enforcing the rules and do what must at times be a thankless job. There's just one guy who goes out of his way to enforce every rule (and some non rules) in as confrontational a way as possible. I know him and he knows me and he now knows I'm not taking his nonsense - he leaves me alone. While I suspect he catches a few 'baddies' it's frightening to see him reduce innocent transgressors to tears. Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Wed 25 Aug 10 at 23:00
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New Wed 25 Aug 10 23:37
Bus Lane - Armel Coussine
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Seems to me these people who have only ever had one parking fine are very young, or hardly ever drive, or live and travel in places where there aren't any serious parking restrictions, or are quite simply touched by some divine wand and are simply perfect, or very nearly. I bet they mimse too. As ON sensibly points out, in the real world these things happen quite a lot. I've had dozens of parking penalties over the years and points for speeding and running a red light, and I regard myself as fairly cunning and canny. But it's very easy in a place like London - and it is said there are others - to fall foul of the Lovely Ritas and Horrible Herberts. Usually one is annoyed mostly with oneself when these things happen. But bus lane infractions are especially infuriating because the goddam road is the goddam road, and painting stripes on it, dyeing bits of it in lurid colours and writing all sorts of cheeky excrement all over it doesn't make a blind bit of difference: it's the goddam road or it wouldn't be on the same level separated by nothing more than a strip of paint and some coloured gravel. I don't drive down bus lanes or place my car dangerously or selfishly at traffic lights. Anyone who peers down a machine and sees my car making a technical infraction can send me a cheeky piece of bumf demanding money. I think these people are excrement, rubbish. Or their bosses are. Or both. Defending them is moronic and pathetic. So there. |
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 00:28
Bus Lane - CGNorwich
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Seems to me these people who have only ever had one parking fine are very young, or hardly ever drive, or live and travel in places where there aren't any serious parking restrictions, or are quite simply touched by some divine wand and are simply perfect, or very nearly. I bet they mimse too. AC I'm in my sixties, and drive around 15,000 miles each year. Norwich is not devoid of parking restrictions or bus lanes , the council raised £650,000 in parking fines last year. I frequently drive to Cambridge and London and other locations that are riddled with parking restrictions and bus lanes. Perhaps I'm lucky, I'm certainly not perfect but I just don't have these run-ins with the authorities that others here seem to frequently encounter. Perhaps I need to try harder. p.s. I don't mimse |
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 05:59
Bus Lane - Pat
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Me neither CG. That includes unloading the odd pallett on yellow lines and bus lanes in London too. It's been done quickly and efficiently and if accosted by 'excrement' I always try to be polite and not anti with them. The real world doesn't start at the North Circular, or any major towns ring road. The real world is the rest of the country where common sense prevails. Pat |
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 06:48
Bus Lane - hobby
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To add to CG's, I'm a little younger than he is, but also do 15k+ pa, including a daily commute into Brum... and I don't mimse either! ON, perhaps we are just lucky... Or... Perhaps we actually look at what we are doing and weigh up whether its worth taking the risk... As I said before most people who get caught and then moan about it either haven't bothered to look what the rules are, or choose to deliberately ignore than, and its the latter group who make the most noise when they get done... I do live in the Real World... But I try to be careful out there and not take unneccesary risks! Last edited by: hobby on Thu 26 Aug 10 at 06:48
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 08:42
Bus Lane - Pat
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How come you can say what I was trying to say so eloquently, Hobby? :) Pat |
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 11:33
Bus Lane - Armel Coussine
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You are all perfect, clearly. Or nearly so. If I could afford it I would bribe you all to run a 24-hour chauffeur service for me, 8-hour shifts, very little to do. That way I could avoid the penalties that seem to have descended on me once a year or so over the last 50 years. And I could keep my mind on higher things where it belongs, instead of having to think about this rabid carp. |
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 12:17
Bus Lane - Pat
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Just smile at them AC, with that beautiful smile instead of being grumpy, that should do it:) Pat |
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 13:10
Bus Lane - paulb
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>> You are all perfect, clearly. Or nearly so. >> Nope. Just lucky (& probably on borrowed time, also). I've only ever had one parking ticket, too - parked all day in a 2hr bay in Maindy Road, Cardiff sometime in early 1997. Bang to rights, really, and considering I'd done the same thing nearly every day for a whole year, it was nothing short of a miracle that that was the only time. I sent off my £20 to Pontypridd Magistrates Court without a murmur... |
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 08:52
Bus Lane - Old Navy
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>> I do live in the Real World... But I try to be careful out there >> and not take unnecessary risks! >> I must admit my relatives are a bit unlucky, (or careless), their motoring calamities include several minor bumps and 3 missfuels between them, along with the fines. I had a parking ticket (near home) in the 1980's, probably down to complacency, and a speeding fine about 8 years ago (camera van around a bend on a 30mph rural dual carriageway), I was at 38 mph. I have never been accused of holding up the traffic, but try to avoid donating my cash to the authorities but you need to be on the ball. Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 26 Aug 10 at 08:54
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New Thu 26 Aug 10 13:03
Bus Lane - paulb
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>> There's just one guy who goes out of his way to enforce every rule (and >> some non rules) in as confrontational a way as possible. I know him and he >> knows me and he now knows I'm not taking his nonsense - he leaves me >> alone. >> Don't know about you, but it's quite amusing to see the effect that a wave of an annual season has on people like that - the momentary look of disappointment when they realise you have a ticket meaning you can travel whenever you like, all year round, and therefore they can't touch you... Still doesn't make it worth >£4k a year, though. |
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New Fri 27 Aug 10 14:13
Bus Lane - SteelSpark
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A couple of days later I was driving along the same road, although this time outside of the bus lane operation hours (I think they run 4pm - 7pm, and it was about 2pm). I was in a long line of traffic, and nobody was using the bus lane. Then a comment that was made in thread above occurred to me, specifically about people being scared to drive in bus lanes even when outside of the clearly signposted hours. Anyway, I decided that I would drive in the bus lane, and made reasonable progress. The only problem was that parking is also allowed in certain stretches of the bus lane, outside of the hours of operation, and there is no enough room to pass the parked cars, without moving back into the other lane. People didn't seem very keen to let me back into the other lane to pass the cars, but I continued on with the in and out of the bus lane as best I could. I probably didn't make a huge amount more progress, but I made some, and it was more interesting that just sitting in the queue. However, on reflection, I wondered if I was just trying my best to make progress within the rules, or whether I was being a queue jumping DH (after all, it wasn't as if there was a completely free lane, if everybody had done what I had done, we would have all just being swaying back and forth, with nobody really getting any further). I wonder what you folks think... |
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New Fri 27 Aug 10 16:15
Bus Lane - smokie
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| I often do what you did. If everyone did the same, and zipped properly when needed then a lot of congestion would go away. |
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New Fri 27 Aug 10 16:26
Bus Lane - Old Navy
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| I frequently use "dead" bus lanes, It's nice having a lane to yourself. :-) |
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New Fri 27 Aug 10 16:22
Bus Lane - Mapmaker
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>>or whether I was being a queue jumping DH (after all, it wasn't as if there was a >>completely free lane, if everybody had done what I had done, we would have all just >>being swaying back and forth, with nobody really getting any further). But you didn't slow anybody down, therefore you weren't queue jumping. Occasionally they had to drop back 20', but went forward by that amount when you left their lane. If everybody were doing it, then the traffic would flow better. |
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New Fri 27 Aug 10 16:37
Bus Lane - rtj70
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| There are some bus lanes near us that are only operational in the morning and evening. Few people use them the rest of the time. So I always make use of them when allowed and make good progress. |
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New Fri 27 Aug 10 17:40
Bus Lane - Armel Coussine
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I use dead bus lanes too. But sometimes find myself following the waddling herd in the mingy lane left outside the completely empty and dead bus lane, conditioned like the rest by repeated undeserved electric shocks like a goddam rat in a maze. You have to be careful on some days when a Saturday morning may seem like a Sunday morning if you haven't quite woken up yet. But the fact of the matter is that bus lanes are hardly necessary at all in most places. London and its ghastly boroughs under baleful political influences have installed the things to get up our noses by slowing everything down and pick our pockets. Vulgar anti-car theorising has the floor. Unfortunately most of the politicians who want to defend the motorist are slightly ridiculous reactionaries. Perhaps motorists are too. Many think so. |
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New Fri 27 Aug 10 19:00
Bus Lane - Runfer D'Hills
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I have lived in London, but not for many years. I used to find it quite exciting but now I find it irritating mostly. I have to go there a couple of times a week but I'm rarely sorry to leave. I just feel abused by the place whenever I'm there. Con charges, stupidly expensive parking, even more stupidly expensive sandwiches, bad service, too many people........... Bah ! |
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New Fri 27 Aug 10 19:02
Bus Lane - Old Navy
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>> I have lived in London, but not for many years. >> >> Bah ! >> Me too, can't get out of the hell hole quick enough ! Last edited by: Old Navy on Fri 27 Aug 10 at 19:02
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New Fri 27 Aug 10 22:25
Bus Lane - Iffy
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...I have lived in London, but not for many years... Same here. I've always thought there are two things you don't want to be in London. Poor or in a hurry. Put another way, if you've got plenty of spare cash and plenty of spare time, there is much fun to be had. |
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New Sat 28 Aug 10 21:11
Bus Lane - BiggerBadderDave
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"Put another way, if you've got plenty of spare cash and plenty of spare time, there is much fun to be had." I moved straight to London after graduating and stayed for 14 years. For the first five years I hated it, everything about it. Then one day I woke up loving it. This coincided with me going self-employed and being paid rather well. I do miss the place but am always relieved to be leaving. I used to love driving in London, but I left just as they started the con-charge and when I drove down there earlier this year I was shocked at how clogged up it was. It took me an hour to get down Piccadilly in the early afternoon. Horrific. |
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New Sun 29 Aug 10 00:36
Bus Lane - Armel Coussine
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A whole hour BBD, even these days? Must have been something going on. It's quite a while since I did the whole of Piccadilly although I zigzag and slash across it from time to time still. I always was a back-doubles man. It's what made me able to earn a living as a minicab driver without robbing people. In recent times though roadworks, execrable temporary traffic lights, and of course the systematic narrowing and obstruction of the road system all over London, but especially in the centre, has made life much more difficult for drivers, quite unnecessarily. Vulgar anti-car ideology, deliberately confused with promotion of public transport, was foisted on London by the nasty ideologue Livingstone. Alas, the centre of gravity of all the political parties, confused and terrorised by economistic and ecological propagandas, is swept along by this mean obstructive rubbish. Yes, back-doubles: most of the good ones have been rumbled by the powers and filled with bumps, chicanes and silly wide bollards and empty wide pavements. Got a sporting single-decker bus all over the place to the Angel the other night, cornered on its door handles and bounded over the bumps rattling and juddering in every seam. Used a lot of my ruined back doubles but in a very roundabout way, being a bus. You are right to say London is expensive and inconvenient. But I am hating the process of tearing myself away from it after, er, 52 years. |
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