Martin Underwood wrote:
If the cyclists were riding responsibly, they shouldn't even have been in a
position where the driver of the bus *needed* to check his left-hand mirror
before turning left. The rule is simple: never never even begin to overtake
a vehicle that is indicating to turn towards you. On the approach to a
junction, assume that any vehicle in front of you might be planning to turn
left or that you may not have seen his indicator, so don't overtake near
junctions.

If a driver is turning left and is crossing another lane in doing so
then it is the driver's responsibility to check that lanes (s)he
crosses are clear beforehand. Whatever sort of lane is being crossed,
it is a courtesy to slow down and let the person turning left do so,
but not a requirement. So a cyclist in a cycle lane can, but doesn't
have to, give way to a car waiting in another lane. The same for a car
in an ordinary road when there is an oncoming car waiting to turn right
- ideally you would slow down and let them cross but you don't have to.
As soon as you start thinking about cycle lanes as "real lanes" it all
makes sense.

Back to the point about bendy buses.. The bendis seem to need to pull
out away from the kerb when going around a corner (left or right). If
the driver does this when going left, a cyclist may see a much
increased gap to the left of the bus and cycle into it just as the bus
pulls back in. A pretty useful sign.