VIDEO: Bus in Reading nearly takes out cyclist

rnick wrote:

What a prat.  How about reversing the scenario - now you're freewheeling down the hill.  Would there be the same indignation & video showing how the driver had not "given way"?  All it takes is a little give & take and life is so much easier for everyone.

Exactly, and from The Highway Code: General rules, techniques and advice for all drivers and riders (103 to 158)

The rules in The Highway Code do not give you the right of way in any circumstance, but they advise you when you should give way to others. Always give way if it can help to avoid an incident.

Many/most people (including me & the road.cc author) assume they know the code, but actually don't.

Jacobi wrote:

The bus was already coming down the right hand lane when the cyclist turned into that road.

It's been a very long time since I passed my test so I don't know if the Highway Code has changed, but it used to be the case that you gave way to all traffic already on the road you're entering.

I think it's phrased as don't put yourself in another's way (so even if it ought to be your priority, all things being equal if the other vehicle was there first then you give way).

(edit) I've now had a chance to actually look at the video. So the cyclist is going uphill, turns right into a further uphill road with cars parked all along his right side. Ahead of him, he can see the bus headlights in his lane coming down the hill.  But he carries on huffing up the hill, playing chicken with the bus. I appreciate it is his priority as the bus has moved over and is in his lane, but the bus was there first. And, yes, there are gaps in the parked cars which the bus might probably have pulled into, but in my experience buses just don't do that (not even for cars, let alone bikes).  I would have waited at the bottom and let the bus through, I'm afraid.

brooksby wrote:

Jacobi wrote:

The bus was already coming down the right hand lane when the cyclist turned into that road.

It's been a very long time since I passed my test so I don't know if the Highway Code has changed, but it used to be the case that you gave way to all traffic already on the road you're entering.

I think it's phrased as don't put yourself in another's way (so even if it ought to be your priority, all things being equal if the other vehicle was there first then you give way).

(edit) I've now had a chance to actually look at the video. So the cyclist is going uphill, turns right into a further uphill road with cars parked all along his right side. Ahead of him, he can see the bus headlights in his lane coming down the hill.  But he carries on huffing up the hill, playing chicken with the bus. I appreciate it is his priority as the bus has moved over and is in his lane, but the bus was there first. And, yes, there are gaps in the parked cars which the bus might probably have pulled into, but in my experience buses just don't do that (not even for cars, let alone bikes).  I would have waited at the bottom and let the bus through, I'm afraid.

You're right about busses not stopping for cars, recently a bus scraped the side of my car while trying to force its way past parked cars.   I could not have avoided it unless I had mounted the pavement and hit a pedestrian.

The bus did not stop, I had to turn around and chase it until it halted to let a passenger off.    The driver denied having hit me despite the evidence of my car's paintwork on the side of his bus.

I was able to get statements off several passengers  to verify my version.

The bus company paid for my repairs, I don't know what happened to the driver.