In a previous post I included a section from the Highway Code about letting buses pull away from bus stops. Some one has asked a question concerning the road out to Brixham at Quaywest. This junction is one of those mad situations where there is one lane approaching the traffic lights but 50 metres from the lights it widens to two lanes. Then 50 metres after the traffic lights it reduces to one lane. What happens at this junction is all the 'must get in front of the bus' drivers move out into the 2nd lane and try and get in front of the bus, and any cars that have stayed in the left lane. Part of the problem is the road goes through a bit of a dog leg here and try as we might it is not possible to stay in the left hand lane as we go through the lights. It is not our fault, there just isn't enough room. Anyway once we are through this bit there is now space for cars to accelerate like mad and get past us. OK if there isn't much traffic on the road but when it is busy the only way the cars can move back into the left as the two lanes narrow down to one is by forcing themselves in front of the bus forcing us to brake hard. Not nice to our passengers. So some bus drivers sometimes adopt the tactic of moving out and using both lanes so the cars can not overtake and force us to put our passengers at risk by having to brake hard just so they can get in front of the bus. If a car does overtake a bus here all the driver is doing is shortening the time it takes to get from these lights to the YMCA (400 metres up the road) by a second. If the car can not overtake all that happens if it is following the bus along the road at 30 mph until the bus pulls in at the Waterside Stop. Then the car behind goes past and is now following the car he would have been following if he had managed to overtake. Journey time in either case; exactly the same! The difference is I will not have had to slam on my ******* brakes to avoid on accident.
Actually I did have an accident here not too long ago when a car pulled across as the road began to narrow. I was stationary but the car driver didn't take in to account the fact that he was towing a trailer. Click for details.
If you think hard enough about letting the bus out you will see that in most cases it will not make the slightest difference to the length of your journey. Suppose you are 5th vehicle in a group of 10 following a red car. Let the bus out, now here is the problem, to do so you must slow down. Now you are 6th vehicle in a group of 11. The bus pulls over at the next stop. You go past it. You are now following the red car again and you are once again 5th vehicle in a group of 10. Exactly where you were before you let the bus out. But the problem is you had to slow down for a short while to let the bus out. This makes you feel your journey time has got longer. Even if it did by a few seconds what would you have done with those few seconds? Re-write War and Peace?
4 comments:
We have a somewhat similar late night situation when a lane is closed on the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. Give the fact that it's late, and a high percentage of car drivers are drunk, I split the lane and block them from passing. Less than a hundred yards later the road widens out to four lanes and they can pass me, pass each other, veer into oncoming traffic, hit the guard rail or stop traffic to admire The Bridge. For some reason limousine drivers are the ones who are driven into a rage when I block the lane. After being forced to follow me, sometimes for as long as five seconds, they drive past me, leaning on their horns and swerving around. Remind me not to charter a limo for any occasion.
A bit of courtesy towards the bus in London at traffic light junctions can actually speed everyones journeys up, as by the time you've slowed down for one or two inconsiderate cars the lights are back to red and the cars behind that would have normally got through have to wait for the next sequence.
Coming from an ex Torbay bus driver, now working in Leamington Spa (still bus driving!):How refreshing it is to hear our thoughts out in the open!
Mainly doing a University route, we have many stories of how unbelieveably stupid the students can be and quite often are.
The buses can get to the same speed as the cars in town traffic anyway, so their not really holding anyone up. We have a hellhole road known as the A1307, my local main road, very badly designed, as there is a roundabout that is not circular so everyone gets stuck behind slow lorries, and now the council are building two more new roundabouts that will cause chaos as they are two lane and people will try to overtake the buses even though the exit is one lane wide, and then they thought "lets remove most of the dual carriageway down this hill to slow people down, did not work people just go on the crossed out areas that was previously another lane!
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