I meant none bus lane yep. Outside lane if you like.
Being cut up is a problem but usualy when the traffic is light people suddenly pull in front but when the traffic is jammed they cannot move anyway.
I do think that the times should also be painted onto the lanes as well, then there really really is no excuse, and if people cannot read signs and control the car at the same time how are they supposed to avoid an accident?
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Rattle, the sheep will not be able to read messages on the road any better than signs.
Just take advantage of your good fortune and drive past the other punters.
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I sat in a row of traffic near major junction works the other day.
After a while I realised that the reason I hadn't moved for five minutes was that the cars belonged to people working on the junction and there was no one sitting in them.
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Yes Rattle, a lot of people are quite thick, and even the ones who aren't can be swept along by the tide.
They are also careless enough, on realising they can use the bus lane after all, to swerve into it without signalling or checking their nearside mirrors. So always pussyfoot and remain vigilant when undertaking a line of traffic by going down the bus lane.
Edited by Lud on 07/03/2009 at 15:22
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Thanks for that tip Lud :), its not happened to me yet but hopefully if it does I will be more than ready to slow down.
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often the plates with the times are too small
or the times change too frequently, one stretch of road has 25 yards with one set of times, next 25 yeards with another set of times and so on
information overload to the driver, where you can drive 10 yards down the road and have more than 10 signs you are supposed to read and understand and take account of
all conspire to make it a real prioritisation excercise, and for anyone not familiar with the area checking the time on the plates will be way down low on the list of prioritis what with the chavs throwing themselves in front of your car and so on
the rules should be simpler and more consistent
same as speed limits, some countries have much fewer limits maybe on 50 and 100 kph and make it obvious which is which, makes it much easier to figure out what speed you are supposed to be doing, the UK compares very badly with its poor incosistent rules and signs
etc etc
and no im not thick, and if you insist on pushing back into the traffic flow when it goes back into one lane i may well get cheesed off with you
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As retgwte says, bus lanes times seem to change randomly and are difficult to keep track of. With councils now using automated enforcement of bus lanes all it takes is for you to miss one sign and you've got a fine in the post. Is it no wonder that many people stay out of them altogether, just to be on the safe side?
As I've said previously, it's about time bus lane styles and times were made consistent and simple so just looking at the bus lane is enough to know its time of operation.
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push in... get cheesed off with you...
But surely, retgwte, when the bus lane is just another lane as it is outside the posted hours, and ends leaving only one lane, you cooperate in zip-merging like all the other drivers who aren't thick?
:o}
Edited by Lud on 07/03/2009 at 16:10
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This bus lane is quite long though and only has one time zone, as its a local road most the traffic will be local so even if the first few times people are unsure there is no excuse for not checking. I will take some pictures of it sometime but it is very clearly marked and the writing is quite big. I know some bus lanes are not clear and I can understand people keeping out of them but this one could not be more clearly marked.
I think its much more a case of sheep folliwng sheep rather than people keeping out as they are not sure what the times of operation is. I admit myself I always keep out of lanes until I know for sure I can go in them (and I do always check its safe to do so before moving in!).
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Rattle, you ought to be a driving instructor. It looks as if it is a good job, you would get a newish car. I once saw a film about driving instructors, Tony Blair's father in law was the owner of the driving school. They had some fun with some of the learners, better than my job lambing sheep at the moment.
What is a bus lane, we don't have them out in the country?
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a bus lane is where half the road that you have paid for (after all its the car drivers tax substantially payin for the roads) is given over to phantom buses
there are some classic bus lanes like the ones in Reading which hold the cars behind red lights to let buses through into and out of their lanes, adding to congestion, and operating at night and all day sunday WHEN THERE ARE NO BUSES RUNNING, thats right not only taking up half the road but holding cars up at red lights when there arnt even any buses running
they you get the bus lanes used as the private lane of police and VIPs, ask Prescott he was for ever being driven around london and the M4 in bus lanes in the back of his Jag, the same is similar for diplolats etc in London etc, I'm told its going to get even worse in the run up to and during the olympics when allsorts of weird and wonderful folk will suddendly become VIPs and allowed to use bus lanes
the you get the odd bus on the roads, often with one or two people in it, running heavily subsidised from the public purse and throwing out way more pollution per passenger than a car when they are running with so few customers
the system like much else in this country is a sham
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I get the buses a lot and if its not 3/4 full it seems empty. If you think all bus lanes are useless have a look down Stockport Road [A6] at 8:30 in the morning with all the 192s, all them pretty much full with people standing and all using the bus lane. I would imagine the at least 50,000 people are carried to work on this road in the morning, if they all drove cars into work it would be kaos.
This thread wasn't suspposed to be a debate about bus lanes, they exist my gripe was people not using them when they should. I am sure they are some pointless bus lanes, the one I am talking about in this thread is pretty pointless as there is a bus about every 10-15 mins down this bit of the road, further up where there is no real bus lanes the buses are every 2-3 minutes.
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>>This thread wasn't suspposed to be a debate about bus lanes
Like the English language, with spelling and grammar. Threads evolve. ;>)
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There is one in Birmingham that they withdrew 3 years ago. The sheep still ignor ethe empty lane
Please don't tell them, it will slow my journeys down.
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There is one in Birmingham that they withdrew 3 years ago.
Mmm, A38 I suspect!
BTW Alanovitch, I think that you are allowed to undertake in those circumstances, but with due care, I certainly wouldn't be going anywhere near ever 30mph if I was undertaking stationary traffic... as others have said it's far too easy for one of the sheep to change lanes, or even worse to try to "block" you!
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Thanks retwte, I don't think they will catch on. Seems a bit daft really, we don't even have buses out my way.
Then again, Princess Anne once went past my place on the way from East Midlands airport to JCB. I suppose if we had one of these bus lanes, she could have used it.
Sorry to be so thick.
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So always pussyfoot andremain vigilant when undertaking a line of traffic by going down the bus lane.
Undertaking? Only allowed if the traffic you are undertaking is turning right, I thought.
Could one be nicked for doing this in a bus lane?
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Well I did that in my test and I passed. It is probably one of them gray areas. Tehcnicaly it is undertaking but if all the other people are in the wrong lane they are in the wrong. It happens on the motorway too there may be a jam on the middle lane, you're in the left lane which is free what are you supposed to do?
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Bus lanes should have the same hours of operation , nationwide. This hotch potch of different times depending on the time of day or night, the day of the week, the area or town you are in is confusing if you miss a sign. I have a length of bus lane in my area that has different times along it's short route ! I should think a lot of people take the ' better safe than sorry " route and don't touch the bus lanes at any time in an attempt to keep clear of the automatic fines.
30 mph means 30mph all through the UK... it doesn't get changed from town to town.
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It is probably one of them gray areas.
Quite possibly, Rattle. Highway Code Rule 163 states:
"Only overtake on the left if the vehicle in front is signalling to turn right, and there is room to do so.
Stay in your lane if traffic is moving slowly in queues. If the queue on your right is moving more slowly than you are, you may pass on the left. "
This implies to me that it would be wrong to move into the bus lane (or any other come to that), but one would be safe from prosecution in the event of a collision if one had been in the bus lane all the time, i.e. from the start point of that lane.
This rule implies that those who do not move into the bus lane when already in an outer lane, are in fact following the Highway Code (even if they don't know it). Those who change lanes are leaving themselves open in the event of a problem.
Good job we've got lawyers to sort it all out, eh? ;-)
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The only bus lanes I see regularly are in Bristol. They are surfaced red and appear to be 24-hour, although they don't all say so. Hardly any cars drive in them and I'm not about to start doing so!
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