Emma Foa's death-verdict announced

[Cab]

No i can assure you this is not sour grapes.

Isn't it? So you spend longer complaining on motorist forums about motorists breaking speeding laws (more do than cyclists who break the rules), or who cause injury to others on the road (more do than there are cyclists), or who use the road uninsured (there are more uninsured motorists on our roads than there are cyclists - fact)? Do you complain about bus drivers who go through red lights on bus driver forums? Do you complain about motorbikes overtaking dangerously on motorbiking forums?

Or is it, as I suspect, a particular gripe about cyclists?

Go on, admit it, its sour grapes. If you can't admit it to us, you'll never be able to get over it.

 

[Cab]

But hold on a minute i also moan about tractors being in my way hell even buses but i still would like to see a safer cyclist on the road than a dead one

Then stop moaning about cyclists being in your way.

Do you really not see why thats a scary, scary thing for a bus driver to admit to? Do you not understand why that makes the whole claim that you're interested in cyclists putting their safety first (i.e. that you're moaning when they do so) quite unbelievable?

 

[col]

This seems to have turned into a , have a go at anyone who drives a bus.Lets try and get something a little more clear than it seems.My self and Random it seems to me,is all for safety of cyclists,and yes we all have had a moan at being held up by anything,but it doesnt mean we drive like the idiots you have seen or come across.Lets keep it from becoming personal shall we?I can assure you,especailly Cab,you dont seem to believe what i say,but everytime i come across a cyclist,i give as much as possible.I have a feeling Random does too.This subject has a lot of problems that need addressing,but getting heated with someone who obviously agrees with you about safety for cyclists doesnt help.Do i get heated with you ,and paint you the same colour as the wheely idiots,?So possibly we could change from argueing at, to debating with?

 

[Cab]

So possibly we could change from argueing at, to debating with?

To debate you chaps will have to start answering more of the points put to you than you've been doing. Do you see that happening?

 

[col]

Fire away,im more than happy to try to.

 

[col]

Actually Cab,iv just had an idea.How about i start a new thread,called...bus driver questions?or something else if you like,but it can basically be somewhere for any questions that anyone would like a straight and honest answer too.Ill do my best to do that,what do you think?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

if a cab has the mirrors fitted it has no blind spot.

This is codswallop. My artic cab has three mirrors on the passenger side and two on the driver's side and there's still a blind spot big enough to swallow a car on a roundabout if the conditions are "right" (if you see what I mean). It's not a problem usually because I watch the mirrors constantly when I'm manovering, but if a cyclist were to creep along the inside of my trailer while I was retuning the radio, checking my A-Z or looking at my notes while stopped at traffic lights, I might well find it difficult to spot them. And because I'm a cyclist too, I look for cyclists in the mirrors and so far they've always positioned themselves where I can see them. But it's unlikely I'd see a cyclist just behind the passenger door on the left of the cab, or creeping up the side of the trailer when the cab is at an angle to it (on the approach to or exit from a roundabout, for instance - all the mirrors in the world won't help here as they won't enable me to see through the corner of the trailer). I'm not offering this as an excuse for squashing cyclists, simply to counter the "no-blind-spot" fiction put about by people who don't seem to know what a lorry actually is.

 

[col]

Am i right to believe RT,that fixed vehicles can be sorted with mirrors,but i did think artics are a differnt problem,because of the bend that can occur?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Point proved. You can pressure for cyclists to be trained all you like, it'll just lead to you moaning more about us being in your way. Because thats where we're meant to be.

Come on Cab, we've all moaned about slower vehicles in front of us from time to time, whether in the car, on the bike or driving a sodding great lorry. It doesn't mean we want to see cyclists off the roads or riding in the gutter; I know I don't. In fact, I'm more likely to mutter dark thoughts about cyclists who wobble about in the gutter rather than dominating their road space and preventing me from overtaking dangerously. (Not that I ever would.)

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Am i right to believe RT,that fixed vehicles can be sorted with mirrors,but i did think artics are a differnt problem,because of the bend that can occur?

Pretty much. But some of the modern big sleeper cabs have a big blind spot down the passenger side and immediately in front of the cab even without a trailer on, purely because of the height of the things. We've just got four new Renault tractor units where I work and they're all fitted with mirrors above the middle of the windscreen, looking down the radiator grille: maybe these will help prevent some incidents involving pedestrians or cyclists.
But however many mirrors a lorry has, and whatever size it is, between it and the kerb is not a good place to be. End of story.

 

[Cab]

Come on Cab, we've all moaned about slower vehicles in front of us from time to time, whether in the car, on the bike or driving a sodding great lorry.

Very few of us, I suspect, have gone and registered on a website covering road user groups to which we don't belong specifically to moan about those road users. Frankly, thats borderline obsessive.

 

[Cab]

Fire away,im more than happy to try to.

Then don't request that I repeat myself for your benefit, its crap form.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Very few of us, I suspect, have gone and registered on a website covering road user groups to which we don't belong specifically to moan about those road users. Frankly, thats borderline obsessive.

What about Magnaton and his registration on that bus drivers' site?

 

[gambatte]

What about Magnaton and his registration on that bus drivers' site?

I believe that was to answer daisy dirts comments about him.

 

[Cab]

I'd leave them to it. I've just had a quick look. Even though Daisy has posted some useful and proper comments now to try to balance things out, the thread is still populated by those too opinionated to see the wood.

Remember, the same Daisydirt posted this:

Along a busy road they'd put in a cycle/ footpath to keep the buggers off the road. Still had twats who insisted on riding in the road and making like difficult for bus drivers. Due to the number of bends in that road, and the fact it wasn't very wide, it was hard getting round them.

Sorry, he can say anything likes about cycling/cyclists from now on, he's clearly got no concept of how to behave towards fellow road users.

And he's one of the more moderate contributors to that discussion!

I've known plenty of bus drivers, they're just folks like anyone else. I accept that a few bad 'uns get them all a bad name, which is unfortunate. But you'd have thought that they would therefore be aware of that, and conscious that there is no point treating other road users the same way.