Appalling bus driving

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I'm not having a great time of it on my way home at the moment.

Over the last couple of weeks I was getting more aggro than usual as I made my way home late at night or in the small hours - generally intimidation from cabbies. I was starting to feel a little vulnerable and so started using a camera again (I'd stopped as my new camera had stopped working and my old one needed new cables made up).

The last couple of nights though I have suffered two of the worst overtakes from buses that I can remember. I try to be more positive in the selection of which videos I post on CC. These two though have shaken me quite badly and I need to share for the sake of catharsis.

Yesterdays bus scare

Todays which I found to be even worse

I'm off to see if I can tag on to someone else's campaign for better bus driving.
 
Jeez. Scary stuff, especially the second one. Not sure how i ever coped riding around London without blowing my top......No wait, i did every day.
 

slugonabike

New Member
Location
Bournemouth
As a newbie, I actually found the first one more scary, but they are both pretty bad!

I trust you are going to send copies of the vids to the companies concerned?
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Both are terrible overtakes. Absolutely no need for them. Bus drivers need to learn they just can't do things like that around cyclists.
 
D

Deleted member 1258

Guest
Piss poor driving on both videos, on the first one I couldn't hear what the driver was saying. On both of them it looked like the drivers had misjudged your speed and they weren't checking their left hand mirrors, The first one didn't check if he had cleared you before pulling into the stop, the second one did the same before pulling left to go down the left side of the cab. Send the videos to the bus company with a covering E-Mail.
 

Jezston

Über Member
Location
London
And the first guy was having a go at YOU for it?!? What the hell was his excuse?!?

F***!

Sod going to TFL. Go to the POLICE. He very almost killed you!
 

moralcrusader

Active Member
Bloody awful driving there, very much worth reporting. That junction at Camberwell Green and the bus lane along Camberwell Road are one of the reasons why I changed my route not that long ago. I'd not had a close overtake like that, but there's nowhere safe to get across that junction without a high risk of stupid overtakes/right/left hooks etc, especially from cars that find themselves in the wrong lane, wanting to turn left toward Peckham.

I don't know where you're coming from and going to, but I'd consider using CS23 instead, cutting down Southapton Way/Benhill Road/Camberwell Grove instead - its MUCH quieter and arguably just as quick as using the main road.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
No sound here !
 

Origamist

Legendary Member
There is no sound on those clips.

Ben, what time were those vids shot - after bus lanes are deregulated, I'd hazard (given the lack of traffic).
 

benb

Evidence based cyclist
Location
Epsom
Awful. The first one seemed worse to me. He should be fired!

It seems as though they have the attitude that you shouldn't be in "their" bus lanes.

Definitely complain to both companies and TfL.



What was the driver arguing about in the first clip?
Why have you blanked the timestamps out?
 

Lizban

New Member
No sound. Some of the comments suggest that the 2nd driver aplogised. If so good on him, I'd still report it but acknowledge the drivers aplogogy at the scene.

What did the 1st driver say?
 
OP
OP
benborp

benborp

Guru
Thanks for the support everyone. I've taken some knocks over the years but I find close shaves far more unnerving. Once I'm knocked down I have something concrete to deal with, stuff like this I find harder to resolve and it just sticks in my consciousness unpleasantly.

A few things:

Both incidents have been reported to TfL. All the London bus companies appear to have their complaints processes overseen by TfL now.

There is no sound as I'm using an old camera without a mic.

The timestamps are blanked out as they are incorrect. I'm expecting the recorder to become a brick fairly soon as more and more bits of functionality drop off. As I'd posted the videos principally for reporting purposes I didn't want to cloud matters with erroneous information.

I generally travel back from the centre of town approaching midnight, sometimes later, which is probably why I encounter more lairy driving than most. The bus lanes here are 24/7.

Thanks for the route tip moralcrusader, but as I'm sure you'll understand, in the small hours the quiet back streets of Camberwell hold even less appeal than that awful junction. Or rather, that junction where people behave awfully.

The driver in the first clip was angry at me for riding up his inside. He was refusing to give any details or apologise (I would have dropped the whole thing there if he had done so, as I can understand how a bus driver might make that mistake initially. However, I think that would have been a mistake for me to do so as he continued to move in once he was aware that I was being pinched. I was making a lot of noise). I told him that I felt I had no option but to report him and he replied that he should report me and that he had cameras on the bus! At which point I told him I had a camera too and went off to get the registration.
 

Cubist

Still wavin'
Location
Ovver 'thill
Interesting point here Benborp,
A great majority of modern buses have outward facing CCTV, up to 9 cameras on some buses. I made a recent complaint about one that pulled out on me from a bus stop (the old "I had my indicators on so you should have stopped" red rag to a bull scenario
angry.gif
)



The complaints manager at First Bus gave me the old "corporate apology and we'll give the driver some one-to one management". He then appeared to be taking the driver's side of things a bit too much until I asked him whether he had watched the onboard CCTV footage, and mentioned that I was a police officer. He sounded like he was mopping up coffee at the other end of the phone line, and muttered something about hard drive faults making it hard to download the footage. Lying twat.
rolleyes.gif
 

maggie_0

New Member
Yep, cambridge buses have cameras on them too, and when I was pushed into the pavement by one and injured badly, the police tried to trace the driver who just drove off. Based on the time it was narrowed down to two buses, one of which the footage did not show me, and the other bus apparently had a "faulty" harddrive and the footage was lost... Based on this (lack of hard evidence despite a witness, but we did not take the reg number) the police were not prepared to prosecute. :sad:
 
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