Buses blocking the road
Anonymouse wrote:
Martin Underwood wrote:
"Anonymouse" wrote in message
...
Nick H (UK) wrote:
The cause of the filling in of bus stops is that car drivers don't let
buses pull out. If car drivers acquired some basic consideration for
other people (which it's questionable whether you can have if you choose
to drive in London anyway), this wouldn't be necessary.
Ah, the old punish-the-majority-for-the-sins-of-the-few ploy? The same
sort
of unthinking easy-way-out solution that a teacher might use - keeping
the
whole school in because someone has written a "naughty word" on the bog
wall!
From personal experience, I would put it as
punish-the-few-for-the-sins-of-the-majority. There is something quite
scary about the way normally rational people behave when behind the
wheel of a car. And let's not forget the six million bus passengers
every day in London who are currently inconvenienced by inconsiderate
drivers.
Well well, six million people ehh? every day? Would that be a rational
reasonable statistic? have they been counted? smells like spin to me.
But: When a bus driver can't pull in because the stop is full of cars,
or obstructed by cars then it is not down to the bus. If traffic wardens
spent their time targeting behaviour that actually obstructs traffic
everyone would be better off.
What is your solution to the problem? I have already written why I think
delaying car drivers for a short while is OK. Before, buses were unable
to pull out in traffic. Now, they can. If the solution inconveniences
those who are considerate, maybe they will increase peer pressure on
those who are not, and change their behaviour.
There are lots of dreadful drivers in London, behind the wheels of all
kinds of vehicles, public service included.
For the record, I nearly always let buses and taxis pull out ahead of me,
providing they indicate their intention sufficiently in advance that I
can
slow down slightly without needing to brake, creating a gap into which
they
can pull. I sometimes get hooted from vehicles behind and once a bicycle
decided to overtake me on the left, narrowly escaping being sandwiched
between the bus and my nearside front wing - some people just cannot read
the road ahead of them!
It's amazing, isn't it. If only all drivers were as good as those who
post to newsgroups! (Actually, why not brake to let buses pull out? I
don't understand that point.)
Why not indeed? When a bus is stopped on a busy road it isn't going to
get out (just as a car is not going to get out of a side road) unless
people use speed and lane discipline to facilitate each other. And a lot
of the time we do, or there would be vehicles full of skeletons all over
the roads.
I really am all for a higher standard of driving. How about the
professionals setting a good example?
A
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Nick H (UK)
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