Buses in ASLs: Are we getting there?

[Tinuts]

After repeated complaints to TFL and latterly, bus companies directly, I feel I may have had a result.

I recently received this from Stuart Currie at First:

Thank you for emailing First. I am sorry that you are still seeing examples of buses entering the ASL Box. I enclose a poster which will be displayed at all our depots reminding drivers of safety around cyclists. Safety is Firsts number one priority and this involves extensive training for bus drivers. I doubt if it will completely eliminate infringements of the ASL rules but I hope you will see an improvement from our drivers. Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention

I can only hope, especially after some of the rude and contemptible responses I've experienced from bus drivers whose behaviour I've confronted, that the other London (if not UK wide) bus companies follow suit.

 

[J-Lo]

Good to see you trying to do something about it - nice effort!

 

[SportMonkey]

Fair play to First for actually doing something, they could have fobbed you off.

 

[Beebo]

Good to see they are doing something about it. I find motorbikes and cars to be more of a problem in ASL boxes.

I tend to feel sorry for bus drivers when I see cyclists squeezing down the inside of a bus trying to get to the ASL. The lights often change with the cyclist still half way down the bus.

As the posters says not all cyclists are angels.

 

[gaz]

Good work for keeping the pressure on them and getting a result. A good result at that as well.

 

[benb]

Only displaying them until the end of July though.

We know that all cyclists are not angels

Urgh, I hate that. Surely they meant to say "We know that not all cyclists are angels"

 

[subaqua]

good work, but its only going to be up on boards for 2 weeks at most if you look at the date on the bottom . it should be a permanent fixture really.

 

[Ravenbait]

Urgh, I hate that. Surely they meant to say "We know that not all cyclists are angels"

It's funny. "Angel" comes from an old Greek word meaning messenger, and I'm guessing that messengers are the ones the bus companies think of as being less likely than most to be behave in perfect accordance with the rules of the road as envisioned by said bus companies.

Sam (well, it made me laugh)

 

[annedonnelly]

Good result - but at the bottom of the poster it says "Please remove from notice boards by end of July 2011". Does that mean drivers don't have to be careful in August and September?

 

[Tinuts]

Yes, it's not the most eloquently worded document but I hope it does at least draw bus drivers' collective attention to what the law actually is. It's really quite disturbing how many of them insist that they have every right to be in an ASL despite the contrary being the case in law.

It doesn't really help that there is zero enforcement of the ASL rule by plod. Strange (but not altogether unsurprising) that they seem to have the manpower to tackle cyclists rlj'ing (albeit only occasionally) but appear to have no interest in reigning in the far more prevalent occurrences of illegal ASL encroachment.

The majority of my complaints have been about a single junction:-

RoadSafe response: stock reply or "Complain to the bus companies directly"
TFL response: stock letter or "Complain to the Police"
Bus Companies' response: ranges from phone call from depot manager (First) and pdf (First) to no response (London United)

It would be very easy for the Police to send a traffic officer to that junction for a few hours to ticket the offending bus drivers (and other motorists) but will they do it?

Well, I'm not holding my breath.........

 

[gaz]

Ive heard on the grape vine that there are plans to do a crackdown on drivers stopping in asl's by the met.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

I had to laugh at this "Aim High in Steering" malarkey

Why do we have to have new ways of saying "read and analyse the road and conditions ahead; drive accordingly looking for and anticipating hazards as you approach them"

I understand my sentence, even if it is longer

I don't understand "Aim high in steering"

 

[PoliceMadAd]

To add a bit, when i was training to be a bus driver i was taught to infringe the ASL if it meant not running a late amber light, if not safe to stop at the 1st line. So that goes thru my head when i see buses do (albeit thats rare)

 

[Red Light]

Great result - will let you know if I see a difference but there was certainly none this evening. Next stop, that other branch of TfL, the Public Carriage Office, to see if you can get all the taxis to stay out of the ASLs as well

 

[gaz]

Good luck with getting the PCO to do anything but blame someone else.