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Videos: Instructor tells trainee London bus driver to leave 1 inch passing space for every 1mph of speed

Also, cyclists see just how bad blind spots are on London buses - but one driver says mirrors are illegal

A driving instructor employed by a major bus operator in London has been shown on TV advising a learner driver to allow 1 inch of clearance for every 1 mile per hour when assessing the safe distance needed to negotiate traffic.

Meanwhile, police have been highlighting to cyclists the blind spots bus drivers are subject to – but one person who drives a bus in London for a living says that mirrors fitted to the vehicles are illegal under current laws.

The six-part ITV series Double Decker Driving School followed Arriva London would-be bus drivers and their instructors.

In 2014, the company received more than 8,000 applications from prospective bus drivers, of whom 371 went on to pass their test to drive the company’s buses.

In this clip, uploaded to YouTube by Tom Kearney, who has campaigned for pedestrian and cyclist safety around buses since he was struck by one on Oxford Street shortly before Christmas 2009, sending him into a coma, the instructor comes up with advice that isn’t found anywhere in the Highway Code.

After telling the trainee to slow down before passing a bus ahead of the vehicle he is driving, he says: “You’re going to hit this bus. The tighter the gap, the slower your speed. So if it’s about a foot, 12 inches, we do about 12 miles an hour. If it’s one inch each side, we do one mile an hour.”

The learner driver, Alvin, doesn’t quite seem to grasp the concept – to the general amusement of all.

While the footage relates to a specific situation - passing a stopped bus - the advice does seem general in nature, and could cause concern among many regarding what trainee bus drivers end up considering a safe passing distance.

The Highway Code reinforces throughout that all motorists need to take particular care around vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians, and also says that they should give cyclists as much space as they would when overtaking a car.

Ahead of the first episode of the TV series, which ran from March to late April, Arriva London training manager, Jayne Steer, said: “Many people who have never driven a bus think that it is easy, but it takes a certain kind of person with skill, ability, patience and a good understanding of customer service, to qualify.”

“What is interesting is that many people join the company as bus drivers, thinking they will just do it for a short time, but when they see the opportunities there are to progress within the business, they stay and make a career with us.”

The company operates two training centres in London, in Edmonton and Croydon, which have a combined fleet of 31 buses as well as classroom facilities and are staffed by 32 full-time driving instructors plus two full-time examiners on secondment from the DVLA.

But it’s not just passing distances that can put cyclists at risk around the capital’s buses.

As this video posted by Arriva London makes clear, the design of buses such as London’s current generation of Routemasters and the mirrors they use make it difficult – and at times impossible – for drivers to see people on bikes on the inside of the vehicle.

The video shows a cyclist being talked through what the driver can and cannot see by a Metropolitan Police officer as part of the force’s Exchanging Places scheme, run in partnership with Transport for London (TfL).

In a comment to that video, Mr Kearney said: “It is unacceptable for Arriva to foist that myth about mirrors having to be deficient because they would hit people.

“There are plenty of mirrors on the market that would allow a Bus Driver to see much better on the nearside and are ‘collapsible’ upon impact with pedestrians, but they would be more expensive than the obviously-deficient mirrors TfL and the Traffic Commissioner allow Arriva to get away with.”

A guest post by an anonymous bus driver published in February on Mr Kearney’s campaigning blog asserts that the mirrors currently fitted to London’s buses are illegal under EU law.

Contrasting the situation surrounding buses with the regulations enforced at times against lorry operators, he says: “It’s ludicrous that there are some 7,000 London Buses on the road this very day and not one Bus has been stopped, not one Bus has been fined and not one Bus has been taken off the road – why?

“I want TfL and the Driving and Vehicle Standard Agency and the Police to start stopping all London Buses from today, and fine them the £1,000 per Bus and the Bus taken off the road until the correct mirrors are fitted.

“Now even with the correct mirror fitted they are only satisfying the bare legal requirement.”

Early last month, Mr Kearney launched a campaign on Twitter, where he tweets as @comadad, called #LondonBusWatch in which he appealed for users of the social network to share examples of poor driving of buses in the city.

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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22 comments

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comadad | 8 years ago
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Here's a recent one sent to me by @Cyclegaz "LX54HAA - Go Ahead London - Close Pass" #LondonBusWatch http://youtu.be/k1vTH94q9io?a

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comadad | 8 years ago
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Mike the Bike - what you've written is very interesting and think the issue should get some more attention. Would you be willing to guest blog (anonymously is fine, I have 6 TfL bus drivers who do it reasonably often) about this issue on my www.saferoxfordstreet.blogspot.co.uk blog? My email is comadad1812 [at] gmail.com. Kind regards, Tom

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mike the bike | 8 years ago
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A couple of small points that have big implications .....

The article says the bus company employs two examiners "on secondment" from the DVLA. This gives the impression that the examiners are independent and able to exercise their judgement in an impartial way when testing bus candidates.

Unfortunately this is far from true. To the best of my (recent) knowledge no government examiners are seconded to commercial firms. They are in fact employees of the bus company, paid by that company and completely dependent on the company for their livelihood. They have, however, been trained at the DVSA (not DVLA) to conduct tests, but after qualifying their work is seldom checked by that agency and it must be difficult for them to remain completely unbiased.

These "delegated" examiners are held in very low esteem by the government examiners, who often mock their standards and professionalism. But in truth it is the cost-cutting system that encourages a high pass rate when one company worker is testing another company worker.

Something should be done.

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stealth | 8 years ago
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I'd just like to point out that if 1inch per mph was true they would never go anywhere other than London rush hour. 30mph would require a 30inch (2'6") gap, but when faced with oncoming traffic at 30mph too that would increase to 5' (60mph closing speed), which would result in them 'taking out' a lot of street furniture, shop frontage, pedestrians, parked cars, etc. They would never get to the point of overtaking a cyclist...

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JulesW | 8 years ago
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Now if my Ford has fine elements to keep my windscreen demisted could these not be fitted into standard flat glass panes used on buses? Good for passengers and good for other road users. The idea that the door allows almost no visibility is worrying to people trying to board a bus also.

Using cooled metal plates to dehumidify the bus should be simple enough as well with excess moisture allowed to vent onto the road. This would help improve visibility through all the glass.

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TheScotsman | 8 years ago
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Those blind spots must be behind the numerous occasions where lorries or buses overtake, then pull in again before they're half-way past me.

Most drivers seem to think we magically vanish once they get alongside - maybe for lorry & bus drivers it's a case of thinking that if they can't see us in the mirror we've somehow blinked out of existence during the partial overtake?  3

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Jem PT | 8 years ago
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I took part in that Exchanging Places at that very spot in the middle of Hyde Park Corner. While my bike was being security marked for free I sat in the cab of the Mercedes Truck Cab while the Police cyclist moved around the near-side and front of the cab. Even on a modern cab like that with multiple mirrors it was pretty frightening to see the amount of blind spots that exist. Cyclists passing the off-side of the vehicle are much more visible.

It was a perfect demonstration of why cyclists should avoid going up the inside of trucks (and buses) in heavy traffic if there is any chance of the vehicle turning left (whether or not they are indicating).

If anyone else here gets the chance to try it, I strongly recommend it.

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severs1966 replied to Jem PT | 8 years ago
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Jem PT wrote:

It was a perfect demonstration of why cyclists should avoid going up the inside of trucks (and buses)...

You mean, avoid going where the cycle path mandates you to go?

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Jem PT replied to severs1966 | 8 years ago
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Yes, if there is a chance of the vehicle turning left.

And is it "mandated" that cyclists should use cycle lanes?

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STATO replied to severs1966 | 8 years ago
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severs1966 wrote:
Jem PT wrote:

It was a perfect demonstration of why cyclists should avoid going up the inside of trucks (and buses)...

You mean, avoid going where the cycle path mandates you to go?

It doesn't mandate you to undertake a moving vehicle. Its there to ensure overtaking vehicles give you space.

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johndonnelly replied to STATO | 8 years ago
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STATO wrote:
severs1966 wrote:
Jem PT wrote:

It was a perfect demonstration of why cyclists should avoid going up the inside of trucks (and buses)...

You mean, avoid going where the cycle path mandates you to go?

It doesn't mandate you to undertake a moving vehicle. Its there to ensure overtaking vehicles give you space.

In which process they often find that they've reached the 2nd stop line (the one at the front of the ASL) and the light is mysteriously red. So they stop, putting me in their blind spot ...

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Andrewbanshee replied to Jem PT | 8 years ago
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Jem PT wrote:

I took part in that Exchanging Places at that very spot in the middle of Hyde Park Corner. While my bike was being security marked for free I sat in the cab of the Mercedes Truck Cab while the Police cyclist moved around the near-side and front of the cab. Even on a modern cab like that with multiple mirrors it was pretty frightening to see the amount of blind spots that exist. Cyclists passing the off-side of the vehicle are much more visible.

It was a perfect demonstration of why cyclists should avoid going up the inside of trucks (and buses) in heavy traffic if there is any chance of the vehicle turning left (whether or not they are indicating).

If anyone else here gets the chance to try it, I strongly recommend it.

I would say it is a perfect demonstration as to why they should not be on the roads. I can't believe there can be any other argument considering the improvements that have been made.

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paulrattew | 8 years ago
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The major issue is one of vehicle design - what has been allowed in the past should not form the basis of what is allowed now or in the future. Large vehicles should be designed with much better visibility - obviously not possible to be perfect but huge improvements can be made. If they were bits of industrial equipment in a factory, you can bet that they would not be allowed to have such obvious defects.
Designing in better visibility needs to go beyond just adding better mirrors. The problem that even the best lorry drivers have is that it takes time to fully check each mirror. The brain takes about half a second (if you are experienced) to properly register what you are seeing in each mirror. When you have a dozen mirrors to check, this means it takes at least 6 seconds to check them. In that time the situation can change dramatically

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Glasgow Cyclist | 8 years ago
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I think my question to the cop explaining the restricted view that any bus driver has would be: given the serious limitations of visibility afforded by the mirror(s), why the fuck is it allowed on the road?

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Ric_Stern_RST | 8 years ago
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And, if they're not overtaking you closely, they're just pulling out of minor roads without looking, or caring: http://road.cc/content/news/149993-eastbourne-cyclist-captures-moment-he...

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bdsl | 8 years ago
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The exchanging places video has been embedded twice. You don't have the 1-inch per mph video. That one's at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVR1pu613aU . The full ITV episode is at https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/double-decker-driving-school/series-1/epis...

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giff77 | 8 years ago
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Finally got word from the customer service of a local bus company after an incident where one of their drivers sat 2 feet off my back wheel and then attempted an overtake allowing possibly about 2 feet. I was informed that the driver was reminded about aspects of the Highway Code involving cyclists and that his driving would be monitored for a period of time. The lass also told me that during training the drivers are told to "allow cyclists wriggle room" I kid you not!!

Quote:
Arriva London training manager, Jayne Steer, said: “Many people who have never driven a bus think that it is easy, but it takes a certain kind of person with skill, ability, patience and a good understanding of customer service, to qualify.”

Really? Most bus drivers I encounter are surly, impatient psychopathic thugs with poor anger management. I would suggest psyc tests as well as driving skills tests. That should weed out abou 75 % of the candidates.

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Dnnnnnn replied to giff77 | 8 years ago
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giff77 wrote:

Most bus drivers I encounter are surly, impatient psychopathic thugs with poor anger management. I would suggest psyc tests as well as driving skills tests. That should weed out abou 75 % of the candidates.

In defence of London bus drivers, most are pretty good, despite (or possibly because) they have to deal with quite a lot of cyclists performing some pretty random manoeuvres. From comments on an earlier story about them, I know that I’m not alone in my view. They might be worse in other places because they’re less well trained (less regulated system) and less accustomed to cyclists.

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Bez | 8 years ago
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Ah, Arriva. Not sure what they're like in London but out here they are The Bus That Is Coming Through Whether You Like It Or Not Sunshine.

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paulfrank replied to Bez | 8 years ago
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Bez wrote:

Ah, Arriva. Not sure what they're like in London but out here they are The Bus That Is Coming Through Whether You Like It Or Not Sunshine.

Same in Telford! Thought it was just here, clearly not.  45

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HowardGees | 8 years ago
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I would be happy to get an inch clearance for every mile per hour, too often I get less than that!

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