Bendy Buses and the old kent road

[markharry66]

Cycling down the old kent road. Next time might take a helmet and a pickaxe and a length of rope there were that many potholes.
Bendy bus overtakes pushing me and another cyclist into the kerb both of us had to get off as we would have been crushed is this common practice with bendy buses. I know they are dangerous but I dont cycle the old kent road often

 

[albion]

The Jury is probably out whether the half billion or whatever is well spent. Bad driving is bad driving.

 

[dellzeqq]

Cycling down the old kent road. Next time might take a helmet and a pickaxe and a length of rope there were that many potholes.
Bendy bus overtakes pushing me and another cyclist into the kerb both of us had to get off as we would have been crushed is this common practice with bendy buses. I know they are dangerous but I dont cycle the old kent road often

strange - they've never caused me the slightest anxiety

 

[growingvegetables]

I know they are dangerous

They don't need to be dangerous; First Yorkshire's FTR fleet running the #4 route in Leeds are stunningly and consistently brilliant.


Shows what a bit of high quality training and pride can do in a company --- yet to see First apply the same standards across the rest of their drivers.

 

[Bicycle]

I loved Routemsters (and could catch a tow from them, skateboarding on Lwr Richmond Road in the 70s*).

I also love Bendy buses. They have been used elsewhere in Europe for many years.

I hear a lot of cycling horror stories about them, but I've never had a problem.

It's a bit like sailing a dinghy near large ferries. You need to be aware of them and appreciate that they are there.

In my experience they don't change lanes without indicating, don't pull out without looking and don't draft cyclists.

They are articulated, so they behave differently in corners.

I think they are a wonderful addition to London's transport network.


*If the conductor was up near the driver clicking out tickets, you could hang on for quite a while. I'd go mad if my kids did something like that today...

 

[BentMikey]

strange - they've never caused me the slightest anxiety

I've only had one incident that upset me, a long time ago, and otherwise I'm with dellzeqq. Bendy buses are no more problem than other buses. That's to say their drivers are amongst the very best of road users in my experience.

 

[jds_1981]

Two places where bendy buses regularly annoyed me.

Crossing at st pauls, when I used to walk that way at least once a week a bendy bus would stop across the pedestrian crossing & stay there for a full crossing cycle

Islington - I always used to notice bendy buses causing a lot of traffic disruption pulling out of White lion street, meaning a heck of a lot of filtering.

 

[jonny jeez]

strange - they've never caused me the slightest anxiety

+1. I ride the old kent road (almost every day now!) and have never had any issue with bendy busses. I do appreciate that they are considered to be unfit for purpose (in the tight twisting roads of some parts of london) but a little foresight and awareness will negate this for a cyclist.

I would ask how you came to be beside a bendy bus at it rounded a corner, from my experience bus driver wouldn't overtake a cyclist (knowing their vehicles horrific turning circle), as Mikey says they are some of the most well trained drivers in town.

That said, mistakes do happen but for you to describe this as common place is at odds with my experience.

 

[jonesy]

+1. I ride the old kent road (almost every day now!) and have never had any issue with bendy busses. I do appreciate that they are considered to be unfit for purpose (in the tight twisting roads of some parts of london) but a little foresight and awareness will negate this for a cyclist.

I would ask how you came to be beside a bendy bus at it rounded a corner, from my experience bus driver wouldn't overtake a cyclist (knowing their vehicles horrific turning circle), as Mikey says they are some of the most well trained drivers in town.

That said, mistakes do happen but for you to describe this as common place is at odds with my experience.

By Boris and the Evening Standard maybe. But that is not the general opinion amongst transport professionals. You will search in vain on the TfL website for any objective evidence to support, or evaluation of, the decision to withdraw the bendy buses. Apart from anything else, bear in mind that one bendy bus has to be replaced with two standard buses, so unless a bendy bus creates more than twice the risk (and there is no evidence at all to suggest this is the case) then overall risk has got worse.

 

[steve52]

a device fitted to the cab that as the bus comes close to a cyclist causes some sort of blade to come closer to the drivers ribs should sort it

 

[TwickenhamCyclist]

I loved Routemsters (and could catch a tow from them, skateboarding on Lwr Richmond Road in the 70s*).

....

*If the conductor was up near the driver clicking out tickets, you could hang on for quite a while. I'd go mad if my kids did something like that today...

Fond memories of getting on the 65 or 71 in Richmond to go to school – jumping on and off routmasters while they slowed to go round corners etc was always fun and in the most part didn’t result in injury, except for the day we all jumped off on the corner of our school only to land on the teacher who had been positioned on the pavement… to stop children jumping off the bus as it slowed to take the corner by the school… I also remember (legally) smoking on the top deck… how times change

 

[TwickenhamCyclist]

Cycling down the old kent road. Next time might take a helmet and a pickaxe and a length of rope there were that many potholes.

Reminds me of that Python sketch -

Climbing the North Face of the Uxbridge Road
LINK

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U0tDU37q2M

 

[dawesome]

Fond memories of getting on the 65 or 71 in Richmond to go to school – jumping on and off routmasters while they slowed to go round corners etc was always fun and in the most part didn’t result in injury, except for the day we all jumped off on the corner of our school only to land on the teacher who had been positioned on the pavement… to stop children jumping off the bus as it slowed to take the corner by the school… I also remember (legally) smoking on the top deck… how times change

The Number 8 trundled through the city and down Bethnal Green/Roman Roads. A couple of times I'd give up waiting and start walking, see the bus coming behind me, walk to the zebra and start to cross then pretend to notice the bus number and run to the back to jump on. The driver would realise what I was doing and gun it, I'd have to sprint to jump on and always felt a bit like James Bond when I managed it!

 

[martint235]

+1. I ride the old kent road (almost every day now!) and have never had any issue with bendy busses. I do appreciate that they are considered to be unfit for purpose (in the tight twisting roads of some parts of london) but a little foresight and awareness will negate this for a cyclist.

I would ask how you came to be beside a bendy bus at it rounded a corner, from my experience bus driver wouldn't overtake a cyclist (knowing their vehicles horrific turning circle), as Mikey says they are some of the most well trained drivers in town.

That said, mistakes do happen but for you to describe this as common place is at odds with my experience.

I also ride the OKR daily and haven't had any problems with the bendy buses (except further up when they sometimes block the road to let all their mates out of New Cross Garage but that's not really a safety issue). As jonny says it's a question of planning and awareness so I appreciate that the OP says they don't cycle the OKR often. The buses are big and they do stop frequently, be prepared to be on the right hand side of one in the bus lane.

As an aside, one thing that seems to really irritate cabbies: if you have bus (bendy or otherwise) then a cab in front of you, when you are about 50 yards off a bus stop, pull out (safely obviously) onto the left hand edge of the traffic. The cabbie will stubbornly follow the bus right to the bus stop and start indicating but he can't pull out cos you're in that space. Don't know why but it really gets them.

 

[Fnaar]

I'd love it if bendy buses made a concertina noise as they went round corners...