subaqua
What’s the point
- Location
- Leytonstone
It is. But at the point of impact it's a normal road not GBW
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
What has that got to do with it? I reserve my right to trust no one when I'm cycling out there.
LCpl Boiled Egg
Three word soundbite
The cycle path, sorry, maintenance road runs alongside the busway tracks. According to the article the bus came off the tracks somehow.
I just wanted to know if you were trustworthy or not.
robjh
Legendary Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire - almost Essex
In the picture, the bus is definitely beside the GBW, but just after the start of it. It looks like it must have veered across both lanes of the busway before crossing the cycle path and hitting the building. That is some serious swerving off the route. It is just about conceivable that some cyclist(s) may have got seriously confused and found themselves riding on the busway tracks, but previous comments about the high speed of the bus at this point still apply.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
As I've mentioned before, it's really not any more and you'll fail your driving test for "not making progress" if you err on the side of caution. You might well even fail the hazard perception test for over-identifying hazards. Just keep your foot down and if you crash avoiding someone, blame them!
LCpl Boiled Egg
Three word soundbite
On the front page of the CEN today. "Close call on busway "Coach company hails driver who 'swerved to avoid cyclist'"
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
The driver has eyes, and should be using them. If there's anyone close the the bus way he should be prepared for them to do something stupid, and moderate his speed accordingly. If you or I are driving along and see a car waiting at a side junction, or children walking on the footpath, or other such hazards, we adjust our peed and vehicle positioning to account for the first rule of nature and motoring - other people do the bizarrest things.
Even on the guided section, which this was seemingly not, it isn't a railway with people physically segregated from the tracks, and he should moderate his speed when he sees people about, because they may obey the first rule of motoring and do something bizarre. He is driving a road vehiclenin a public environment, and live everyone else is supposed to he should benbehaving as such. Blithely keeping his right foot planted leaves him no option but to do something stupid and dangerous himself when it all goes wrong, which was demonstrated beautifully in this case.
People do not simply materialise out of thin air. They can appear suddenly, but the mechanism that hides then from view, the parked car, the gap in the hedge indicating a drive way etc, are all indicative of danger. The only person anyone should swerve to avoid, and thus endanger everykne else aeound, is the one that teleports in front of your vehicle.
He was a combination of TFF, and not maintaining his visual drills.
He's not a hero. He's a chump.
Last edited:
Globalti
Legendary Member
Most of the posters on here seem to be forgetting that there are plenty of idiots on bicycles; we see them every day and night swerving across the road, dressed in black, no lights. seeming almost to dare drivers to take issue with their behaviour. They are not people I would consider as "cyclists", they are simply idiots riding bikes.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
I forgot no such thing - first rule of using a public road is " people do the bizzarest things", and I said as much. All of us, most particularly professional drivers with the lives of paying customers in their care, should remember the first rule and be ready for it. Idiot kids on bikes, mopeds chancing their arm when no one is looking, or mentally Ill people wanting to top themselves under a bus are all covered by the first rule.
LCpl Boiled Egg
Three word soundbite
Why are people still claiming this wasn't on the busway?
Why ?
I cycled along the busway there yesterday after I was told to do so by an official looking person in a green fluorescent jacket, maybe that cyclist was as well ?
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Cycling is indeed permitted on most such bus ways. They are not physically or lawfully segregated form the rest of the world.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
The Cambridge ones are segregated by law (non-bus use of the bus tracks is prohibited and signed as such - I suspect by traffic order, which often allow police to direct traffic to ignore it as mentioned above) and as former railways, they are mostly physically segregated from the surrounding area. They also have car traps to discourage non-bus use of the bus tracks, but they are ineffective against two-wheelers.
Although the old railway-style fences have gone, there aren't many accesses to/from the tracks which weren't railway crossings and of course people can walk, cycle or ride horses on the track alongside, which is also used by maintenance vehicles.
So, you have a great combination of a high-speed low-visibility-at-crossings road (because it was designed for a railway with different rules and laws) with bus drivers with a very foot-to-the-floor "get orf moi track" attitude whizzing past with only a low kerb between them and non-motorised users
And despite that, it's still one of the best cycle tracks in this country 
Because it was on the edge of a bus-tracked section.
