Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine has taken to Twitter to highlight a ‘classic’ instance of a bus driver overtaking him before squeezing him to the kerb when pulling in at a stop.
In weary tones, Vine narrates, “cycling along, doing my best,” before attempting to recreate the sense of fear, frustration and disbelief he felt as a bus started to overtake him but then indicated to pull over as it was alongside him.
The classic bus-OPI – overtake, pull in. How do I deal with this? pic.twitter.com/Q6hukiWkeU
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) March 9, 2018
The replies are a predictably mixed bag. We’ll not include any here, suffice to say that at least one of them encouraged Vine to retweet the following nugget of information from Surrey Police.
There is no legal requirement to use a cycle lane.
Unfortunately, most cycle lanes are not fit for purpose due to debris, potholes and other dangers – all exaggerated if cycling on a road bike.— RPU – Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) March 9, 2018
Vine also went on to post a link to a change.org petition relating to bus drivers’ working conditions.
This gives you a worrying insight into the life of a bus driverhttps://t.co/1tJo6glTgK
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) March 10, 2018
17 thoughts on “Video: Jeremy Vine asks how to deal with bus overtake and pull-in”
I see this as the reverse of
I see this as the reverse of the highway code stating we should allow busses to pull out.
If you are behind the bus when they signal, if safe to so so, slow to allow the bus to come in/out the bus stop. I can sympathise to a degree with bus drivers, you have a 10m bus and cyclists a 5m intervals on parts of their routes.
Indicate in good time, and prepare to make the move, encroage on the lane, fine, but don’t squash people you hadn’t passed.
On a bike, is the bus actually ahead of you when he signals, stop pedalling, ease off a little and go around.
In this case the driver was not passed,should have simply signalled and positioned bus ready to stop, but not simply indicate and pull in regardless.
I read through the twitter
I read through the twitter feed following Jeremy Vine’s tweet. I also regularly read through comments and posts on various social media sites (including this one) following reports of all sorts of similar incidents.
I despair of the seemingly total ignorance of highway law and inability to share the road and respect others by all road users. A lot of highway law is black and white, a lot of the highway code can be open to interpretation but the totally skewed understanding shown by an awful lot of ‘good drivers’ and ‘experienced cyclists’ is just scarey!
Based on the above comment, I am loathe to post my opinion in this instance! (But it is very similar to StuinNorway’s!)
In general, I think buses
In general, I think buses should be given priority when it’s safe to do so and I’m usually on the lookout for buses indicating so that I can avoid overtaking etc.
In this instance, the bus pulls alongside and then begins to indicate and then starts to pull in, squeezing and possibly endangering Jeremy. I think the bus driver could have started indicating to signal their intention and then should have slowed to allow the cyclist (Jeremy) to get in front of the bus which would then have provided the room for the bus driver to safely pull in. Ideally, any cyclists behind Jeremy would be in position to see the bus indicating and thus know to not pass by the left, but instead overtake on the right.
I think the bus driver should get a warning for unsafe driving for this. Professional drivers should be more careful of vulnerable traffic.
If you did that to a police
If you did that to a police car and attempted to bully your way over you would get pulled up every single time and get more than just a little chat, so why is it seen as acceptable to do to a vulnerable road user.
If there’s no space then wait until there is a gap, indicating seems to be something most motorists including bus drivers don’t bother with or leave it to the last second, instead of overtaking and then pulling in why not just stay in the lane you were already in and that way the conflict is massively reduced and the amount of maneouvring is reduced significantly.
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
Asking a motorist to voluntarily slow down / hold back, just because of a cyclist?!? Are you quite mad?
(Just to be clear, because I know you have a problem with this, BTBS, that comment is intended to be read in a wide eyed and sarcastic tone
)
brooksby wrote:
I got the sarcasm… this time
It was a stupid overtake. The
It was a stupid overtake. The bus driver could easily have signalled and dropped behind. This sort of manoeuvre is not only dangerous but is of no benefit to the progress of the motor vehicle.
Some drivers seem to think if
Some drivers seem to think if they are indicating they can then go in that direction. They need to realise they can’t just indicate and go, they have to wait until it is clear
Daveyraveygravey wrote:
I agree totally, and this is training, but also that TFL vet drivers properly, some are obviously there for the game of it all, not caring. I have no sympathy for them. If it’s too stressful then don’t do the job, you’re not made for it.
Jeremy, how you deal with it
Jeremy, how you deal with it is demand that their training is better, and REALLY better, where they are made completely aware of what they do. I’ve dealt with this in not favourable ways, but I react ‘after’ they’ve done it. Personally I’d like to see them lynched at times, it’s truly sh*tty how many of them treat cyclists. If they weren’t behind their little ‘denial’ cocoon I’d pull some out of their cabs and…….
Annoying when that happens
Annoying when that happens but he could see it happening and I would have given way. I guess unlike Jeremy I don’t want to end up under a bus.
bikeman01 wrote:
Sounds like you’re blaming Jeremy Vine for this. Juding by the fact that he was unharmed, I’d suspect that he has better judgement than you.
bikeman01 wrote:
But I’m pretty sure that it’s the bus driver’s responsibility to not squash someone.
As far as I could see, the bus overtook him and then flung itself left, with the indicator an afterthought and with the cyclist having no time or space to do anything.
Nobody particularly wants to end up under a bus, but the only way out here would have been bailing out and hopping the kerb IMO.
Given the distance involved, the bus driver could see that they’d have to pull over so THEY should have waited, just eased off a bit.
As others have said, indicating doesn’t give you priority, it just shows your *intention* to move to other road users.
Strangely the police don’t
Strangely the police don’t have the resources to warn of the dangers if this ‘game’ played by far too many bus drivers or the left hooking ‘game’
Have found myself in that
Have found myself in that situation as a car driver before – sometimes simply due to changing traffic conditions between the two lanes and not reckless overtaking,
It happens sometimes. What you do is indicate, slow down, and hold your line and give way to anything already in lane 1 first. But you do NOT do what this twat did, and start moving in to cut up the cyclists. Jeremy did the right thing in carrying on and alerting the driver to his presence. Personally I’d have been a little more vocal and assertive but he did the right thing.
I always let buses through,
I always let buses through, when driving, as I understand they pay more road tax and therfore have greater rights.
I used to let buses through
I used to let buses through when driving, but having been cut up more than once like this by buses, I tend not to bother as much now