What's with bus drivers?

[Drago]

Looks like a cyclist lost his rag with this bus.

 

[keithmac]

I had one last week, thundered past me (close pass) then immediately pulled into a bus stop.

WTF?, happened a few times now and for the sake of hanging back for 15 seconds tops..

Also get the in sync bus stop routine, bus overtakes you, you overtake it at bus stop and repeat 4 times but nowt you can do about that.

 

[Crankarm]

Stagecoach bus drivers are the worst.

 

[Bazzer]

Generally I find them courteous, although on one of my commutes home last week, I did come across some twonk who close passed twice and after the second time, ran a stop light.
Must admit i was hoping hoping plod was on one of the branches of the junction.

 

[Randombiker9]

Rarely have problems (two in six years here) but I've reported three incidents to two companies: one company was OK as far as I can recall; for the other, one incident (driver doing about 20mph reading a book on the steering wheel!) was dealt with OK, the other (bullying a cycling group to the kerb) denied they'd had a bus on that road at that time, so the next time, the video's being offered to the police first. Bad bus drivers can put a lot of innocent passengers at risk, so I have no qualms about doing that.

ETA: Oh and that second company also has still uses "Cyclists - fark off" type stickers on the back left cycleway side rather than train their drivers to check before turning across a cycleway (they're low-floor buses - it has big windows all down the left side, plus mirrors - no blind spot, so no excuse for that tone of stickers)

That seems rude with the stickers. i thought all buses have blind spots? do single deckers not have blind spots?. It's a mixture of single and double deckers here.

Buses around here are a mixed bag.

First (aka Worst) have a near monopoly on suburban services so by far the most common, and while most of their drivers are OK they employ enough numpties to make it essential to take care if you're anywhere near one of their buses. I have nearly been taken out several times by Worst bus drivers, only my superior bike handling skills / good luck (you decide) saved me.

Arriva: several bad experiences, last one (overtake, close enough to be within touching distance, uphill, on a blind bend) reported and didn't even get the courtesy of an acknowledgement email, let alone a promise to "have a word".

Transdev (Harrogate & District, Yorkshire Coastliner): almost without exception great drivers. Will happily hang back until safe for them to pass, then give plenty of room. I can only recall having one fairly close pass from one of their buses in the last 3 years and even that probably wouldn't have registered if it had been one of the other two companies.

Most of the buses in my area are one bus company. There are two other company that go into my area but i've never had any problems with those. It's not only cyclists. They also need to be more careful to pedestrians as a couple of times according to articles they've hit pedestrians. To be honest when i was on my local bus as a passenger last year. A bus driver nearly crashed into a parked car.

 

[Inertia]

[QUOTE 5129000, member: 10119"]I've only had a handful of negative interactions with bus drivers while cycling, and I reckon they are vastly outweighed by the number of positive ones. I wonder to what extent it is a reflection of how many cyclists are usually about - and the extent to which infrastructure puts them in conflict with buses. Both of those probably have quite a lot of geographical variation.[/QUOTE]
I have a similar experience, large trucks normally behave well, and even WVM is usually good.

Ironically, a lot of my close passes seem to be people on the school run.

 

[Randombiker9]

I had one last week, thundered past me (close pass) then immediately pulled into a bus stop.

WTF?, happened a few times now and for the sake of hanging back for 15 seconds tops..

Also get the in sync bus stop routine, bus overtakes you, you overtake it at bus stop and repeat 4 times but nowt you can do about that.

The two buses this week:
1. Yeah like what you said: a single decker bus and it overtook not bothering to change lanes (it was on a downhill), the road is narrow and then it just decided to pull into it's bus stop. Thursday afternoon. It's not just cyclists that could get in danger. Since i do my work experience at a stables. So i wonder what the bus drivers are like to horses.

So 2. Friday morning. There was this double decker school bus (but it's by the same company) that just pulled into it's stopped so i felt safe to overtake it but as i was overtaking it decided to switch it's indicators on and start pulling out whilst i was still overtaking. But whilst i was overtaking there was this weird noise (Not honking horn noise) and then when it heard that noise the driver decided to pull back in to it's stop it was orignially pulling out from. Anyone know what that noise is i'm wondering as i've never heard it before. So i'm wondering do some
buses having warning devices?.

Both these thing happend on the same road too as it's a long road.

 

[mjr]

That seems rude with the stickers. i thought all buses have blind spots? do single deckers not have blind spots?. It's a mixture of single and double deckers here.

Some single deckers have blind spots, but I don't think these low floor large window ones do. The stickers are just brainlessly applied to everything, even their little car-sized vans. I guess there's no penalty to the bus company for advertising their drivers' negligence.

(This image was originally posted to Flickr by Pimlico Badger at https://www.flickr.com/photos/9722099@N02/3962988765. It was reviewed on 22 March 2013 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0.)

 

[Randombiker9]

Some single deckers have blind spots, but I don't think these low floor large window ones do. The stickers are just brainlessly applied to everything, even their little car-sized vans. I guess there's no penalty to the bus company for advertising their drivers' negligence.
View attachment 393442
(This image was originally posted to Flickr by Pimlico Badger at https://www.flickr.com/photos/9722099@N02/3962988765. It was reviewed on 22 March 2013 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0.)

Obvisouly probably ever double decker bus has blindspots

ok interesting. The *four bus company's in my area i've seen with the main one being reading buses. I've also seen Arriva buses and Thames Travel buses and carousel buses. But only had problems with the main one. None of the others.

Most single deckers of reading buses look like this just different colours. Not the colour of ones i've had problems with just random picture from google. So would you say these have blind spots?

 

[keithmac]

The two buses this week:
1. Yeah like what you said: a single decker bus and it overtook not bothering to change lanes (it was on a downhill), the road is narrow and then it just decided to pull into it's bus stop. Thursday afternoon. It's not just cyclists that could get in danger. Since i do my work experience at a stables. So i wonder what the bus drivers are like to horses.

So 2. Friday morning. There was this double decker school bus (but it's by the same company) that just pulled into it's stopped so i felt safe to overtake it but as i was overtaking it decided to switch it's indicators on and start pulling out whilst i was still overtaking. But whilst i was overtaking there was this weird noise (Not honking horn noise) and then when it heard that noise the driver decided to pull back in to it's stop it was orignially pulling out from. Anyone know what that noise is i'm wondering as i've never heard it before. So i'm wondering do some
buses having warning devices?.

Both these thing happend on the same road too as it's a long road.

I've heard the "honk" as well a few times, I think it's to do with the air bakes (presume busses use air brakes?).

 

[Randombiker9]

I've heard the "honk" as well a few times, I think it's to do with the air bakes (presume busses use air brakes?).

i dunno what air brakes are.

 

[byegad]

I'll start by saying I would definitely not want to be a bus driver these days, there again I don't like driving and now only do it when I have to as there's far to many selfish beggars on the roads today who treat other users with contempt! There was once a time when I'd jump in the car and drive simply for the pleasure of driving, but that was a long time ago.

My experience as a cyclist and occasional passenger is that most bus drivers here in County Durham are excellent drivers. Of course there's always one or two who shouldn't be allowed near a kiddies pedal car, but as a percentage of them all, this is far smaller than the average percentage of idiot car, van and lorry drivers I meet.

 

[Randombiker9]

If you get a numpty bus driver and don't get a good response when you report them to the company, pass it on to the local Traffic Commissioner. They like getting reports form the public and it gives the bus company bosses a squeaky bum.

They actually do respond well.

(and i'm not the only person buses are being a pain to i've heard from my work expereince stables that they can be a bit stupid to horse riders too)
This is what i said back on saturday:
Hello (name of bus company) yesterday (friday when i was cycling from my work (experience) something. The (number bus). Overtook took too closley on (name of road) and then decided to pull into it's stop. Wouldn't it of just been safer for the bus not overtake as it stop was up soon? or at least when it was overtaking to overtake in the other lane (since it was a narrow lane) it doesn't alway seem like a couple of drivers are following the highway code with this rule:

" give motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car. "
When your drivers do something bad there putting other road users at risk.
Thanks for reading.



and they replied:
Hi (my name) yes, I agree, if this was the case, it would have been better to allow the cyclist to pass the stop and then pull in. Please accept my apologies for this. I will locate the driver and pass this through to their manager. They will request CCTV for this. Very sorry

(For other close calls i've had similar replies but here's a tip: if your going to report a close call to your bus company always get the route number and Bus number The bus number is either on side or back of the bus in my area it's always on the side and back of bus. ) . (Try to remember the time too) If you don't get this information don't bother reporting it as they won't know which driver or bus it was. )

ps anyway i don't know if they will actually be true to their word this time because i haven't cycled since monday (When i was cycling and there were no buses out) due to Friday, a horse stood on my foot doesn't really hurt but aches. Also i am planning on getting a bike/helmet camera soon when it's half term in febuary and other reasons. So that way if this keeps happening at least i can show them from my perspective because perhaps they just don't realise from a cyclists perspective. I'm also going to plan to get a camera for other reasons.

Like especially where i'm doing my work experience there endangering other road users including horses as the horses at the stables go on hacks and use the road even in town too as you see a lot of cyclists (Especially those Deliveroo etc.... cyclists) and there also endangering their passengers


ps Some of my local buses are changing there routes due to low passengers using them then they used to have. Which sometimes think relates to there driving because no one wants to be on a bus when they do silly things. There's has been a couple of times where some of these buses have crashed before but luckily never when i was around. At least close calls are better then crashing. But neither are good.

Buses need to be more aware of cyclists. Most of the HGV drivers around here seem to be aware of cyclists now. Haven't had any close calls with HGV's since last year. So if HGV's are aware of cyclists why aren't buses always?

 

[NorthernDave]

They actually do respond well.

(and i'm not the only person buses are being a pain to i've heard from my work expereince stables that they can be a bit stupid to horse riders too)
This is what i said back on saturday:
Hello (name of bus company) yesterday (friday when i was cycling from my work (experience) something. The (number bus). Overtook took too closley on (name of road) and then decided to pull into it's stop. Wouldn't it of just been safer for the bus not overtake as it stop was up soon? or at least when it was overtaking to overtake in the other lane (since it was a narrow lane) it doesn't alway seem like a couple of drivers are following the highway code with this rule:

" give motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car. "
When your drivers do something bad there putting other road users at risk.
Thanks for reading.

and they replied:
Hi (my name) yes, I agree, if this was the case, it would have been better to allow the cyclist to pass the stop and then pull in. Please accept my apologies for this. I will locate the driver and pass this through to their manager. They will request CCTV for this. Very sorry

(For other close calls i've had similar replies but here's a tip: if your going to report a close call to your bus company always get the route number and Bus number The bus number is either on side or back of the bus in my area it's always on the side and back of bus. ) . (Try to remember the time too) If you don't get this information don't bother reporting it as they won't know which driver or bus it was. )

ps anyway i don't know if they will actually be true to their word this time because i haven't cycled since monday (When i was cycling and there were no buses out) due to Friday, a horse stood on my foot doesn't really hurt but aches. Also i am planning on getting a bike/helmet camera soon when it's half term in febuary and other reasons. So that way if this keeps happening at least i can show them from my perspective because perhaps they just don't realise from a cyclists perspective. I'm also going to plan to get a camera for other reasons.

Like especially where i'm doing my work experience there endangering other road users including horses as the horses at the stables go on hacks and use the road even in town too as you see a lot of cyclists (Especially those Deliveroo etc.... cyclists)

Sadly not my experience (the bus drivers bit, not the horse / foot interface bit )

It's either:
1. A letter via snail mail a couple of weeks after the event that advises that they "haven't been able to trace the specific bus and / or driver" so can take no further action, but thanks for telling them and rest assured that they expect the highest standards of their drivers, blah, blah, blah...

Or

2.

 

[Randombiker9]

Sadly not my experience (the bus drivers bit, not the horse / foot interface bit )

It's either:
1. A letter via snail mail a couple of weeks after the event that advises that they "haven't been able to trace the specific bus and / or driver" so can take no further action, but thanks for telling them and rest assured that they expect the highest standards of their drivers, blah, blah, blah...

Or

2.

Ok but if they haven't been able to trace the bus or driver? did you 1. Know the route number. 2. bus number 3. time? 4. Name of road it happened on. When i've messaged company i always include those 4 things.
2. How do you contact them? 1. Email 2. Social media etc... Since im also a passenger on there bus i message them on facebook and ussually get a response in ussually 2 days. So if you've contacted your bus company only one way have you tried a different way?