Near Miss of the Day 617: Bus driver pulls in on cyclist at hard-to-spot stop on mandatory cycle lane

wtjs wrote:

Police Scotland wanted to prosecute but when they went to the bus company First wouldn't reveal the drivers name and cited GDPR [the General Data Protection Regulation]

...

GDPR is always being misused, and even the Information Commissioner has to be corrected by the Information Tribunal for getting it wrong- the default position is that everything should be refused! The Information Commissioner tried to refuse disclosure of the name of a medical consultant, and the Tribunal pointed out that this name was freely displayed on patients' beds

Not that I anticipate being questioned by the police on any matters, but I shall remember that when the detective asks me where I was on the night of 10th March 2001, rather than inventing some flimsy pretext of visiting pizza express in Woking I shall tell them I can't reveal that information due to GDPR. And the police will shuffle away muttering damn, we would have had him except for that pesky GDPR

There isn't a bus stop where the driver stopped. If you think a bus might randomly stop, then the best thing is to keep back.

The cycle lane is too narrow to use anyhow.

PRSboy wrote:

Hard to know what to do for the best in this situation... the lane is there for cyclists to use, but there is a bus stop there.  Same with the cycle lanes that cross junctions.  Whilst you can pass vehicles on the inside, there is a chance they may turn without looking properly, so self-preservation says you might want to hang back in such situations.  But then, in congested traffic you wouldn't get anywhere which would rather defeat the object... so do you go to the outside to pass?

use of cycle lanes for passing traffic is best kept for when the traffic is stationary

Surely when GDPR was drafted, the police and courts would have objected that the reasonable need to prevent crime was paramount and should trump the right to privacy of a citizen?

Our organisation's GDPR policy states that personal data may be released if failure to provide the data would prejudice the prevention or detection of a crime.

GDPR is in no way a hinderance to providing driver info to the Police, in fact it's written into the wording of GDPR rulings that law enforcement is a valid reason to share data.

That was a bus stop.. the driver overshot the stop a bit - it looked like the passenger left it a bit late to notify the driver he wanted to get off the bus; I'm not sure the courts would form the view that a bus driver stopping at or near a bus stop has committed a crime..

I wouldn't go up the inside there, because I don't trust bus drivers or crap infrastructure.

However, at the point the bus clearly pulls in (8 seconds into the video), the mandatory line is not broken. It isn't clear why there is a short broken section just before this, but it isn't for a bus stop. Driver is in the wrong here.

 'It isn't clear why there is a short broken section just before this, but it isn't for a bus stop. Driver is in the wrong here.'  Check the video at 0.07.. there is a bus stop sign, which makes it crystal clear the cycle lane line is broken for a bus stop. The only thing the driver did wrong was leave it late to indicate and pull in.

The bus stop is outside 244 Market Street Aberdeen if you check Google street view.

grOg wrote:

 'It isn't clear why there is a short broken section just before this, but it isn't for a bus stop. Driver is in the wrong here.'  Check the video at 0.07.. there is a bus stop sign, which makes it crystal clear the cycle lane line is broken for a bus stop. The only thing the driver did wrong was leave it late to indicate and pull in.

The bus stop is outside 244 Market Street Aberdeen if you check Google street view.

The driver had missed their chance to indicate and pull in - the highway code is very clear that you MUST NOT drive or park in a mandatory cycle lane (i.e. marked with a solid white line). Additionally, the driver pulled in to the side of the road when it was not safe to do so (due to the cyclist's use of the cycle lane) which I would consider careless driving by itself.

The bus driver, on getting a late passenger request should either have made the passenger wait (which would be safer, but not as nice to the passenger), or alternatively put their hazard lights on, come to a stop at the traffic light and let the passenger out into the bike lane (which is arguably less dangerous than trying to squeeze a cyclist under a bus).

You should watch the video more closely.

The driver did not not stop at a designated stop but stopped at a traffic light within the confines of zigs zags ie an illegal stop (and no doubt contrary to any internal  rules about not stopping other than a bus stop), so the cyclist had no immediate expectation of the driver stopping.

As it was , the cyclist was alert enough to stop.

Also, the bus was driven in/over/through a mandatory cycle lane which is covered by HWC rule 140: "You MUST NOT drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a solid white line during its times of operation."

The Govt. has since changed/confused the rules about parking in a cycle lane, so it may or may not be legal depending on when the lane was last painted or the colour of your skin or something, but driving in a MCL is a total no-no even if you're not actively trying to squish cyclists at the time.

You conflate a bus slightly overshooting a bus stop as driving or parking in a cycle lane.. really?

The driver did drive into a mandatory cycle lane and that wasn't the only offence - do you know anything about uk road laws?

Actually, if you watch it again there is a bus stop sign on the wall, exactly where the broken continuous white line is. The bus driver overshot the stop. Probably a good thing he did otherwise the undertaking cyclist would probably be under the wheels.

And if the driver had driven correctly, do you still claim the cyclist would have tried to undertake ? Or would even had an opportunity to do so ?

'the cyclist had no immediate expectation of the driver stopping'.. the brake lights came on at 0.02, with no traffic in front of the bus and a bus stop coming up; perhaps you should watch the video more closely - the driver overshot the bus stop a bit, likely due to the passenger leaving it late to notify the driver, which might explain the passenger waving an apology to the cyclist.

grOg wrote:

'the cyclist had no immediate expectation of the driver stopping'.. the brake lights came on at 0.02, with no traffic in front of the bus and a bus stop coming up; perhaps you should watch the video more closely - the driver overshot the bus stop a bit, likely due to the passenger leaving it late to notify the driver, which might explain the passenger waving an apology to the cyclist.

which is it? did the bus driver apply the brakes expecting to use the bus stop? or was he surprised by the late request from the passenger?

If he applied the brakes in anticipation of using the bus stops, why no indicator? use of indicators should be before the manouvre (including braking) not after.

If the passenger gave a late signal, then why did the driver apply the brakes with a clear road ahead?

Assuming the camera shows more-or-less what the cyclist could see, it is evident there is a queue of traffic up ahead. When the bus' brake lights first come on, it is travelling straight and not indicating. It is (IMHO) a reasonable assumption that the bus is just slowing down in order to join the back of the queue - in which case the cyclist would no doubt want to filter past using the cycle lane.

In fact, I would go one further and say that my reading of the video is that it is likely that, when the bus driver first started slowing, they were not planning to stop at the bus stop and were just slowing to join the queue. However, my guess would be a passenger asked to get off at the last minute (possibly deciding it would be faster to walk than sit in traffic) and so the bus driver made a sudden, unplanned stop.

So maybe not the most defensive of cycling, but I think totally understandable. 

I had a similar reply but forgot to press Save and then got distracted by work stuff. Anyway the video and the comments show the Passenger wave apologies at the cyclist and the fact the bus doesn't indicate any manouvre until after he is past the stop lends credence to the view the passenger waited to the last second to ask for the stop (or the as happened to me before, the driver is in a world of their own and doesn't notice the stop request light). 

Whilst I wouldn't have made the same move knowing a stop was coming up, I can see the reasoning once the driver seems to not show he is needing to stop by not moving over earlier / indicating.