meic wrote:I have not said anything about the cyclist's attempts to have words with the driver, i just am disagreeing with Kwacker's and XAP's saying that the bus driver was OK to try and push into the cyclists lane despite there being no safe place to go AND to continue to push into that lane despite the fact the cyclist was not yielding it.
I know that any enforcement will not happen but I dont see any problem in asserting your priority once in a while. I do it a lot when I am driving along a main road and people start to nudge out in front of me, it is their role to wait.
I disagree that he was "pushing in", when he moved over he was well ahead of the cyclist, and the cyclist had ample opportunity to avoid the situation - we all know that bus drivers have a set route to drive, I imagine that the cyclist knew the route for this bus (I know most of those routes which I cross, or at least know where each bus is going to go when I see it).
I have however just re-watched the video a number of times looking for various things specifically....
- The gap behind the cyclist is no larger than the gap in front (maybe a yard longer?)
- The road layout is counter-productive (see later in this post)
- There wasn't an obvious gap in the lane to the cyclists right (which is also a valid route for his chosen exit)
- The bus didn't brake
- The cyclist did not (that I could tell) pedal whilst on the roundabout, i.e. he was free wheeling
I still maintain that the bus driver behaved in a reasonable fashion,
assuming that this is the start of the incident*. The last of these observations is interesting - as it implies that the cyclist was actually taking reasonable action, but was going significantly faster than the vehicle ahead before the start of the clip, and was in/on a vehicle that could take the corners quicker than the traffic around him. But he would have been able to see the bus on the bus lane (and indicating) from a long way back.
I'd like to see CCTV from either the bus, the cycle or preferably the approach road.
What I'd like to see on this junction is that the bus lane should be signal controlled (priority given by bus detection, green provided both before and after each of the other two phases if needed).
* I can't recall, or find, where I read something about the cyclist claiming that he was undertaken onto the roundabout. If the bus had been close behind him, and then ducked into the bus lane then that puts a different complexion on the incident.