More cyclist hating from a bus driver

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

http://uk.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=lvGTsdvZ1_Q



My rather fiercly debated video has attracted a bus driver to the fray, with typically measured and sensible comments.

It does worry me how much "professional" drivers allow themselves to get wound up by the least invasive road users.

 

[HJ]

PSV licences come from cornflake packets...

 

[gavintc]

Cat D actually, issued by DVLA and tested by DSA - same routine as your Cat B licence.

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

Ho-lee Sheet

Prompted by a comment about sed bus driver, and his filming proclivities, I checked out his vids.



That is horrible creepy stuff - its actually made my skin crawl. He has filmed quite a lot of young women, leering with the camera rather than just his eyes.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Which one is it? I can't see a comment obviously from a bus driver.

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

From a slob called BristolRE - check out his profile, he is either a driver or a serious anorack, and is f**king perverted to boot.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Hmmmmm, I see what you mean.

 

[BusDriver]

Calm down everyone. I'm a bus driver from Nottingham. I don't mind cyclists at all. Although it does wind me up when i see them going through red lights. The other day i saw a cyclist pass between my bus and some cars, and hit a pram that was crossing the road. The pram turned over and the child was thrown out. The cyclist never said a word, got back on his bike and rode off.

The whole red light jumping thing gives cyclists a bad reputation. When it happens i can hear the passengers making comments in the back. So it's not just drivers that have a problem.

Another thing, the cat. D test for busses is the hardest driving test to pass as you are carrying public paying passengers. The test lasts between one and a half hours to two hours.

I can understand your comments about bus drivers. Most drivers i work with are OK, but some are ars*h**es.

I'm new to cycling. I decided to buy a bike for my commute to and from work, after the company doctor told me to get more excersise because of a family history of heart problems and diabetes.

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

Hi there BusDriver - as you're brand new to the site (unless you've been lurking of course!) there is a fair antipathy between this forum and a bus drivers forum, my comments weren't in direct relation to this, there is a general status quo of neither party going near the other, but it does play on some collective experience of the bad bus drivers out there.

Probably what makes bad bus driving quite so bad is the sheer size of the vehicle involved.

Anyway, I digress a little, I always try to keep in mind that the majority of other road users aren't homicidal maniacs, hell bent on bumping off cyclists willy nilly, there are alwyas the bad apples that spoil it for the rest - same with cyclists. The argumets that can spark up here about RLJing have to be seen to be believed!

As you are new to cycling, I'm going to jump in first and reccomend you read Cyclecraft - By John Franklin Despite the cheesy title, the book is just brilliant, and may help to explain a lot of things that you may have seen cyclists doing (not the naughty things though).

Someone will be along in a minute to tell you that you don't need to read Cyclecraft - it is treated with an almost religious feverence here by many members, myself included I must admit. But for £7 you can save yourself an awful lot of learning though experience, and increase you safety immidiately.

Enjoy your ride, and the forum.

 

[Terminator]

The whole red light jumping thing gives cyclists a bad reputation. When it happens i can hear the passengers making comments in the back. So it's not just drivers that have a problem.

Very few bus drivers are bad as with cab drivers.Rare that I have a problem with them.Cyclists wind me up as well though I must admit.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Hi Bus Driver, welcome aboard. I must stress that most of us don't have a problem with bus drivers as such, just the odd one. Hell, I have a problem with lorry drivers sometimes and I am one when I'm at work!
Welcome to the forum, hope to see more posts from you.

 

[fossyant]

Welcome along - can't say I've got a problem with bus drivers on my routes..

I regularly get the bus up and down the infamous Oxford Road in Manchester - Europe's busiest bus route....that coupled with brainless students on bikes...... the standard of cycling on that route is shocking, hence why I avoid the road all together on the bike.

I just hate fools on any form of transport - told a guy last week about jumping lights, only for him to ignore me and then jump the next set.....

 

[spindrift]

Calm down everyone. I'm a bus driver from Nottingham. I don't mind cyclists at all. Although it does wind me up when i see them going through red lights. The other day i saw a cyclist pass between my bus and some cars, and hit a pram that was crossing the road. The pram turned over and the child was thrown out. The cyclist never said a word, got back on his bike and rode off.

What road did this happen on? The police and media know nothing about this, where did it happen?

On red light jumping, I'm not going to take criticism from bus drivers:

A survey by the RAC found that, yes, a lot of cyclists run red lights. It also found that one in ten drivers in Manchester and London crossed traffic lights more than three seconds after the lights turned red, and one in five bus drivers ran red lights.

http://www.johnstone-wheelers.co.uk/bloody_cyclists.php

Bus drivers have killed three cyclists in London in the last year- one of the bus drivers was sent to prison for the Blackfriars Bridge fatality. So a member of one of the worst, lethal offenders on the roads pops up to defend an aggressive bus driver on You Tube with a history of extremely creepy behaviour toward women, ho hum.

 

[jmaccyd]

Bus drivers have killed three cyclists in London in the last year- one of the bus drivers was sent to prison for the Blackfriars Bridge fatality. So a member of one of the worst, lethal offenders on the roads pops up to defend an aggressive bus driver on You Tube with a history of extremely creepy behaviour toward women, ho hum.

So what are the collision figures for buses and cyclists then? Just as an aside what happened on Blackfriars Bridge (was this the death that was also blamed on poor cycle lane design?)

 

[jmaccyd]

Sorry answering my own post (the first sign of madness?)

The judge said: "I have no doubt that the layout on that bridge on that day was a contributory factor.
"It is not appropriate now for me to make comments about what I hope for the future of that layout of that bridge, save to say this: if there is anything positive that I can hope for that might emerge from this case in that respect, it is that those advisers get on with the job, cut through what may otherwise be superfluous bureaucracy to ensure, at least on that part of the roads in London, this never happens again."
Judge Simon Davies said that 22-year-old Michael Duncan, driver of the route 100 single-deck bus, was guilty of a “momentary lapse” of concentration.
St Thomas' Hospital physiotherapist Vicki McCreery, who had earlier expressed her concerns about the design to friends, was on her way from work when the crowded five ton single-decker rammed her from behind.
The Australian-born 37-year-old, married just a year earlier, "must have died almost instantly", Inner London Crown Court was told.
Andrew Espley, prosecuting, said that had the defendant been "looking where he was going", the accident on 10 May last year would never have happened.
Defence barrister Michelle Fawcett said just hours before the 26mph collision her client, who had only held a full licence for a year and a bus driver’s licence for 52 days, had spoken to one of his managers about his lack of confidence with the route.
But his line manager at the Stagecoach-owned East London Bus and Coach Company had showed little concern.
"Instead of receiving sympathy or being assigned to a different route he was more confident with, he was simply informed to take a map with him and do his best,” she said.
He was then warned that "if he did not comply his employment would be terminated".
It was against that background that the Monday afternoon collision took place, she added


Not defending the guy, but he only had a driving license for a year, limited experience of bus driving and on a route he expressed concerns about. He gets a year and his company walks away from there responsabilities.