Incident with a bus

ozzy jr

I had a close call with a bus today.

I was cycling along Wolfe Tone Quay,

http://maps.google.ie/?ll=53.347115,-6.286991&spn=0.000009,0.005284&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=53.347107,-6.286571&panoid=C-W8qL3UoCAOQxMtFOSuHg&cbp=12,72.65,,0,13.69

(That not me in the pic )

A Dublin Bus (Route 747) came behind me and then beside me in the bus lane. As he passed me he started to inch into the cycle lane. He kept getting closer till the bus was easily covering one third of the cycle lane. I had no choice but to stop as the road was coming to a slight bend. If I'd have continued on I would have been bumped into the kerb and who knows where I'd have ended up.

He continued on and went through a green light, when I got to the light it changed so I has to stop. I caught up with him as he was stopped waiting to turn right over Church Street bridge. I went to his window and the conversation went as follows,

Me: You nearly knocked me off my bike back there.

Him: As I was coming along there a car started moving towards the bus lane so I had no choice but to move over.

Me: That's no consolation to me if you hit me.

Him: What did you want me to do?

Me: Stop

Him: :rolleyes: It's a broken white line so I've every right to go into that cycle lane.

Me: But I was in it.

Him: What did you want me to do, the other car was inching into me.

Me: Stop.

Him: I think you're making too big a deal out of it. (He drove off)

Me: (as he was driving away) We'll see about that (He didn't hear me)

There was no swearing or anything like that, which makes a change when approaching people. It was very civil on both our parts. Anyway I was shocked to think that he's driving around the city thinking it's perfectly ok to drive into a cycle lane in a bus while occupied by a cyclist.

Should I contact Dublin Bus or just let it go?

I took a photo of the reg plate of the bus.

SomeFool

Worth reporting because next time he thinks it's not worth stopping somebody might really get hurt.

smacl

I'd contact Dublin Bus, it's only by getting feedback that they might get their drivers to behave differently.

Idleater

Report.
It goes like this :
Go into head office on O'Connel street and fill in the form.
They type out the forms on imaginary typewriters and you get a generic pfo we'll be looking into the event.
Some time when someone is seriously injured or someone of note is involved a public enquiry will sit whereby you, me and everyone else show up with our pfo letter and then something will be done.

JRant

Wouldn't bother going to Dublin bus. Report him to the Garda traffic watch, it's really easy to do and is pretty effective. Dangerous driving by anyone is unacceptable, just because its a bus driver doesn't mean they are exempt from the law.
A stern talking to from the traffic corp and the possibility of losing their license will see a sharp improvement in attitude toward other road users.

Dermot Illogical

^^ +1, but I would also report to Dublin Bus and tell them it's been reported to Gardai.

ozzy jr

RT66 wrote: »

^^ +1, but I would also report to Dublin Bus and tell them it's been reported to Gardai.

I think that's what I'll do. Is it just a matter of ringing the Traffic Watch number or would I be better off going to a Garda Station?

JRant

ozzy jr wrote: »

RT66 wrote: »

^^ +1, but I would also report to Dublin Bus and tell them it's been reported to Gardai.

I think that's what I'll do. Is it just a matter of ringing the Traffic Watch number or would I be better off going to a Garda Station?

There is a Garda hotline 1890 205 805, when you get through it's a civilian on the other end. They'll take all the details and pass it on to the relevant Garda station.

Dogwatch

Route 747 is based in Summerhill Depot. Ring them directly and make a complaint and ask for the incident report reference number.
Get the name and rank of the person on the phone as well so you have a follow up

It takes about 2 days for them to talk to the driver, so follow it up then.

He made a bad judgement call in moving in on you. He should have held his ground with the car and not moved over.

robertxxx

I seen something like that last week, a guy got squeezed into a footpath as bus passed at the junction beside the 4 courts, he banged on the side of the bus then when the bus stop further down he went up and smashed the mirror with a punch, think it was a air coach.

miller50841

How do you report dangerous cyclists? Its mad reading all this everyone wants to report everyone else. Honestly if I was in that situation I would have kept bus straight and let car hit. Cyclists are mad shooting up the inside of large vehicles the roads are nowhere near wide enough. You should try spend your time more wisely putting complaints into TD's or council about improving cycle lanes I for 1 would never cycle through town...

miller50841

robertxxx wrote: »

I seen something like that last week, a guy got squeezed into a footpath as bus passed at the junction beside the 4 courts, he banged on the side of the bus then when the bus stop further down he went up and smashed the mirror with a punch, think it was a air coach.

Was he right to do criminal damage?

buffalo

miller50841 wrote: »

How do you report dangerous cyclists? Its mad reading all this everyone wants to report everyone else. Honestly if I was in that situation I would have kept bus straight and let car hit. Cyclists are mad shooting up the inside of large vehicles the roads are nowhere near wide enough. You should try spend your time more wisely putting complaints into TD's or council about improving cycle lanes I for 1 would never cycle through town...

He didn't shoot up the inside - the bus overtook him. And he did the sensible thing by stopping. And then had a civil conversation with the driver about what he did wrong. Ozzy did exactly the right thing imo.

miller50841

buffalo wrote: »

He didn't shoot up the inside - the bus overtook him. And he did the sensible thing by stopping. And then had a civil conversation with the driver about what he did wrong. Ozzy did exactly the right thing imo.

No got that just cyclists do tend to do so even when have been overtaken safely with plenty of room sorry shouls have worded that better

Borderfox

I had many an incident with buses over the years training, as said above report to Gardai and then directly to Summerhill. Mine were usually a bus not understanding that a bicycle can go at over 10mph and they lash on the brakes for a bus stop very nearly killing me in the process.

Cookie_Monster

DB don't care in the slightest about stuff like this, I've contacted them before with exact details, number of bus, reg time etc and requested they get footage before it expires. Got an email back asking for my phone number so they could discuss, never heard from them again :mad:
similar incident to yours OP except bus driving far more agressivly and overtaking dangerously.

BostonB

Maybe check if theres any premises or shops with a CCTV you can access to that was pointing at the road.

Indricotherium

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

DB don't care in the slightest about stuff like this, I've contacted them before with exact details, number of bus, reg time etc and requested they get footage before it expires. Got an email back asking for my phone number so they could discuss, never heard from them again :mad:
similar incident to yours OP except bus driving far more agressivly and overtaking dangerously.

In all fairness to Dublin bus, I find them to be, in general, one of the best for cycle awareness.

No where near as dangerous as private bus companies or the dreaded early noughties German luxury car driver.

Cookie_Monster

Indricotherium wrote: »

In all fairness to Dublin bus, I find them to be, in general, one of the best for cycle awareness.

no argument there, at least as far as most drivers go. this guy was just a prick though and cust service were less than useless (as usual)

fenris

The job of the DB complaints office is damage limitation to protect DB, the easiest way to do that is to make you go away and not take things any further with the Gardai, it is a bit like complaining to a bishop about a priest.

If you are serious talk to the Gardai, if you just want a bit of a rant talk to the complaint office.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Go into DB and report it and tell them you are also reporting it to the gardai and if you dont get a satisfactory response from them (Dublin Bus) within a few days you are making a formal statement of dangerous driving against the bus driver. That will get their attention...possibly!

ozzy jr

I rang the Garda Traffic watch and reported the incident. It's not about trying to get the driver into trouble, it's more to do with the lay out of the road. There shouldn't be a designated cycle lane/bus lane as there's not enough room for a bus to pass you safely (I'm sure there's a minimum safe distance for motorists when passing cyclists).

They should remove the broken white line and just have a joint cycle/bus lane. Here's a photo of the road as I think I made a mess of the link in the opening post,


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Hermy

This...

Idleater wrote: »

Go into head office on O'Connel street and fill in the form.

and this...

JRant wrote: »

Report him to the Garda traffic watch...

Make sure you mention when filling out the form that the matter has also been brought to the attention of the Gardaí.

Indricotherium wrote: »

In all fairness to Dublin bus, I find them to be, in general, one of the best for cycle awareness.

As both a cyclist and a frequent user of Dublin Bus throughout 2011 I couldn't disagree with this more. I found the attitude of Dublin Bus drivers towards cyclists to be quite shocking.

miller50841

When cyclists start obeying road rules and obey lights and that peoples attitude towards them may change because there are a lot of dangerous cyclists out there. By the way Dublin Bus drivers have more training then any other bus company out there. Yes there are a few bad apples in every walks of live so just try and keep a cool head stay visible and cyclists please start watching the road and keep to the rules as best you all can. Just wondering who do you complain to about dangerous cyclists ???

Hmmzis

miller50841 wrote: »

When cyclists start obeying road rules and obey lights and that peoples attitude towards them may change because there are a lot of dangerous cyclists out there. By the way Dublin Bus drivers have more training then any other bus company out there. Yes there are a few bad apples in every walks of live so just try and keep a cool head stay visible and cyclists please start watching the road and keep to the rules as best you all can. Just wondering who do you complain to about dangerous cyclists ???

As with any dangerous road user - report it to the guards. Give a description to them and since a lot of cyclists use the same route every day the guards should have no issues catching him/her.

As for your othrer remarks - same applies to all road users and if we look at some data then it would be a good portion of motorists that would have a thing or two to learn about safety on roads.

Kurtosis

miller50841 wrote: »

When cyclists start obeying road rules and obey lights and that peoples attitude towards them may change because there are a lot of dangerous cyclists out there. By the way Dublin Bus drivers have more training then any other bus company out there. Yes there are a few bad apples in every walks of live so just try and keep a cool head stay visible and cyclists please start watching the road and keep to the rules as best you all can. Just wondering who do you complain to about dangerous cyclists ???

If you have a complaint relating to a specific incident of dangerous cycling, I would probably suggest reporting it to the Gardai. If you want to continue complaining in a general way about cyclists' behaviour, I would probably suggest doing it in a different thread to this one.

Twoonebee

Wear a helmet cam They're a lot more affordable now. Great for catching people in the act. The media loves action shots of people getting into scrapes or arguments on the road, so you could get it into the news.

Dawn Rider

Twoonebee wrote: »

Wear a helmet cam They're a lot more affordable now. Great for catching people in the act. The media loves action shots of people getting into scrapes or arguments on the road, so you could get it into the news.

Forget about getting on the news. I've noticed fewer pi$$ taking drivers, and more apologetic drivers when wearing my head cam.

The more riders (and drivers) with cams the better I think.

CramCycle

miller50841 wrote: »

No got that just cyclists do tend to do so even when have been overtaken safely with plenty of room sorry shouls have worded that better

If they were overtaken safely but were then able to undertake very quickly then they were not overtaken safely, they were overtaken pointlessly.

miller50841 wrote: »

When cyclists start obeying road rules and obey lights and that peoples attitude towards them may change because there are a lot of dangerous cyclists out there.

MOD VOICE: This is not the thread for it, referring to cyclists as if we are all the same is neither helpful nor is it related to this thread. Cut it out. If you have an issue PM me, derailing a thread is not appreciated.

monument

miller50841 wrote: »

When cyclists start obeying road rules and obey lights and that peoples attitude towards them may change because there are a lot of dangerous cyclists out there. By the way Dublin Bus drivers have more training then any other bus company out there. Yes there are a few bad apples in every walks of live so just try and keep a cool head stay visible and cyclists please start watching the road and keep to the rules as best you all can. Just wondering who do you complain to about dangerous cyclists ???

Maybe complain to Dublin Bus about cyclists? ...because it will do just as much as when people complain about their drivers to them!

If you accept that there's a few bad apples in every walk of live, then you don't need to go on the defensive of DB drivers, do you?

Also keep in mind that there's good reason DB drivers are trained so much given that when things with buses or driving them goes wrong the chance of many people dieing is rather high. The same can't be said about cycling.

jimmycrackcorm

Op, next time take a photo of the bus squeezing you in the cycle lane instead of just the reg plate and make a complaint of dangerous driving to the Gardai

coolbeans

Dawn Rider wrote: »

Twoonebee wrote: »

Wear a helmet cam They're a lot more affordable now. Great for catching people in the act. The media loves action shots of people getting into scrapes or arguments on the road, so you could get it into the news.

Forget about getting on the news. I've noticed fewer pi$$ taking drivers, and more apologetic drivers when wearing my head cam.

The more riders (and drivers) with cams the better I think.

If there was a mass uptake of cameras of any sort it could change things for the better with out all this tit for tat that gets us no where. I don't want to have to wear a helmet to use one though

JRant

miller50841 wrote: »

When cyclists start obeying road rules and obey lights and that peoples attitude towards them may change because there are a lot of dangerous cyclists out there. By the way Dublin Bus drivers have more training then any other bus company out there. Yes there are a few bad apples in every walks of live so just try and keep a cool head stay visible and cyclists please start watching the road and keep to the rules as best you all can. Just wondering who do you complain to about dangerous cyclists ???

I cycle in and out of town every day ( round trip of 18km), wear a hi-viz, hand signal and still have frequent near misses with DB's finest. The two most common occurances are encroaching into the cycle lane and pulling out from a stop regardless of whether your passing them.

Regarding dangerous cyclists, well they're more likely to harm themselves but by all means report away, I've no time for anyone acting the maggot on the road.

i71jskz5xu42pb

Indricotherium wrote: »

In all fairness to Dublin bus, I find them to be, in general, one of the best for cycle awareness.

I'd be of the same view, on my route at least they really look out.

I think this is because they are the only people on the road who aren't in a rush. Not like they have to be anywhere at a specific time.

dewsbury

An aquaintance of mine was cycling in Dublin.

A bus behaved improperly and caused grief for my aquaintance.
He complained to Dublin Bus.

They were very professional.
They checked video cameras (that apparently were on the BUS).
DB then confirmed that the driver had behaved badly and apologised for this.

The most interesting point is that some (many?) Dublin buses appear to have their own video cameras to capture incidents.

Flandria

miller50841 wrote: »

When cyclists start obeying road rules and obey lights and that peoples attitude towards them may change because there are a lot of dangerous cyclists out there. By the way Dublin Bus drivers have more training then any other bus company out there. Yes there are a few bad apples in every walks of live so just try and keep a cool head stay visible and cyclists please start watching the road and keep to the rules as best you all can. Just wondering who do you complain to about dangerous cyclists ???

I don't really know but you could try the Angry Taxi Drivers Association or maybe the League Of Disillusioned Vandrivers?

tomasrojo

Flandria wrote: »

I don't really know but you could try the Angry Taxi Drivers Association or maybe the League Of Disillusioned Vandrivers?

I believe George Hook might also lend a sympathetic ear.

Hermy

Anne Flabby Tuner wrote: »

I think this is because they are the only people on the road who aren't in a rush.

Which begs the question why do so many of them accelerate when approaching a red light.

Qualitymark

From your account the bus driver used bad judgment, and may have been inexperienced and made a bad call.

Maybe you might write to the traffic bureau and cc it to Dublin Bus, pointing out that you were much more vulnerable than the car, and the driver should have stopped rather than taking evasive action when a car tried to carve him up.

You might also point out that if he hit a car, his company's insurance *might* pay for the damage (probably not from the sound of the car driver's behaviour), but if he hit you, you'd be badly injured and they'd be paying big, big amounts.

Some drivers are a bit dim and don't realise just how soft-shelled and unprotected cyclists are.

doriansmith

I had a similar experience to you yesterday OP. Was coming home from work in a cycle lane in Stillorgan when next thing a Dublin Bus pulls right into the cycle lane beside me. Gave me a serious fright as I thought he was going to hit me.

Glad to hear you reported the incident anyway. Unfortunately I didn't get the reg of my bus & don't know what route number it was either.

Darkglasses

coolbeans wrote: »

If there was a mass uptake of cameras of any sort it could change things for the better with out all this tit for tat that gets us no where. I don't want to have to wear a helmet to use one though

You can use a handle-bar camera - Not as good a view as a helmet cam, but much less conspicuous, easier to mount, less annoying for some - or a chest-mounted camera.

monkeypants

Flandria wrote: »

the League Of Disillusioned Vandrivers

Possibly the best thing I've read this week.

miller50841

Some angry people on this just using my right of free speach never intended to derail any thread sorry if I ofended you. Was an honest question oh and to person about defending db drivers if I didnt doesnt look like any1 else is. Bothered:eek::eek::eek: eh no

miller50841

As said before you cyclists should be getting onto the council about designer safer and better cycle lanes. They are doing up a lot of lanes along stillorgan dual and from what I can see they are worse and leaving cyclists more out towards and in the middle of the traffic for longer seen a few close ones where cars leaving late to turn partly down to the direction arrows to change lanes...

Hermy

But this thread is about the conduct of a bus driver.

buffalo

Hermy wrote: »

But this thread is about the conduct of a bus driver.

Hey, leave the conductors out of it!

Hermy

buffalo wrote: »

Hey, leave the conductors out of it!

That's not fare.

Cookie_Monster

Hermy wrote: »

That's not fare.

you should have evaded him better

Biker68

Get a Helmet Cam.. At least if this happens again not only can you report it to Dublin Bus but you can also use report it to the Garda for Driving without due care and/or attention or Dangerous driving.

Motorists tend to take a different attitude to cyclist if they see a camera on their head.

Don't get cocky with the bus its bigger than you and its probably better to just put on the breaks regardless and let it go rather than get injured or killed...pain in the ass and frustrating.. trunks, buses, cars they just have no consideration for other road users.

From my experience its your word against the driver in the absence of witnesses. You will get the pleasure of reporting him but nothing will happen. Most likely to be told just be careful.

Happy cycling.