Giving way to buses

monument

Scortho wrote: »

I'm on about the bus lane on the chapelizod bypass. If a bus is going straight and there is a bus lane provided then they should be in the bus lane. End of.
Also if a cycle lane is provided when I'm cycling I cycle in it. If there's no cycle lane I cycle in the most safe part of the road for me to cycle on with as little inconvenience to drivers as possible.

Buses and cyclists are allowed to use all lanes.

That's the law.

Vic_08

Scortho wrote: »

Id buy this argument if it wasn't for the fact that I've sat on Dublin buses every weekday for the last 3 years. They've no problem driving in them.
In fact I've seen them overtake cyclists in them as well while traffic is at a standstill which is no easy task.
So they are wide enough.

The Chapelizod bypass except for the last 200m approaching the first set of lights before Islandbridge city bound and from the petrol station onwards westbound is too narrow by any standard. With the left wheels hard against the kerb (so the bus is overhanging the kerb and hitting the various vegetation) the right side of the bus is outside the bus lane marking on most of the road. It was a narrow hard shoulder that was converted without re-sizing the 3 lanes.

I NEVER drive in it when the traffic is moving freely. Only ever use it to pass stationary or near stationary traffic and even then if a car is close to the bus lane line it is difficult or impossible to pass.

I have seen the odd Dublin Bus driving (mostly) in it in light traffic but that would be the exception, the vast majority and all sane coach drivers avoid it except to pass the peak time tailbacks. When doing that I wouldn't be doing more than 30-40kph and would regularly be slowing to a crawl to pass badly positioned cars or trucks.


It is funny how this thread about giving way to buses has degenerated into how buses (and cyclists) should get out of the way of cars. :rolleyes:

LXFlyer

Scortho wrote: »

I'm on about the bus lane on the chapelizod bypass. If a bus is going straight and there is a bus lane provided then they should be in the bus lane. End of.
Also if a cycle lane is provided when I'm cycling I cycle in it. If there's no cycle lane I cycle in the most safe part of the road for me to cycle on with as little inconvenience to drivers as possible.

It makes no odds if the traffic is moving freely - frankly you are moaning about nothing.

BenShermin

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

The irony here is delicious !

bmaxi wrote: »

I can never understand why bicycles are allowed to share bus lanes, they should have a dedicated lane to themselves although, having said that, they probably wouldn't use them. Just the other day I came across three buses stuck behind a bicycle in the bus lane on Stillorgan Road, even though there is a perfectly good cycle lane on the footpath..

Typical Irish attitude here, did you ever stop to consider that cars (not cyclists) are the reason the bus is blocked? If lanes two and three were not full of cars the bus could have easily crossed into lane two to overtake the cyclists.

If all the drivers in lane two decided to cycle or take public transport instead there wouldn't be any problem, would there?

_Kaiser_

GreeBo wrote: »

Because there probably arent too many people doing the same route that you want, so what time should that bus run at?
also, going via the CC means that that bus can also be used by people in both blanch and sandyford to get to town.

The amount of commuter traffic on the M50 going north-south or vice versa in the morning/evening would suggest that there are in fact a lot of people who are doing these orbital commutes to work so there's definitely a demand for say an orbital LUAS or express bus... certainly more so than a LUAS extension that'll disrupt most of the city centre and which terminates in a no-go area and with no real requirement for it given the areas it will serve are well covered by bus routes.

Not everyone wants to, or needs to go via "An Lar". I know people living in these areas that very rarely venture into town for non-commuting reasons these days.

LXFlyer

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

The amount of commuter traffic on the M50 going north-south or vice versa in the morning/evening would suggest that there are in fact a lot of people who are doing these orbital commutes to work so there's definitely a demand for say an orbital LUAS or express bus... certainly more so than a LUAS extension that'll disrupt most of the city centre and which terminates in a no-go area and with no real requirement for it given the areas it will serve are well covered by bus routes.

Not everyone wants to, or needs to go via "An Lar". I know people living in these areas that very rarely venture into town for non-commuting reasons these days.

I think that you're missing the point.

There is a fundamental difference between radial and orbital journeys.

Most people on a radial route are going to a destination not far from the route, or within a reasonable connection. The problem with orbital journeys is that by and large no two person's journeys are identical. People are starting in totally different places and finishing in different places. They start and finish at different times.

Trying to match a bus service up with this is very difficult.

Not to mention the vast numbers of large business/industry parks which require long walks to/from their entrance to individual businesses which just make the option of using public transport very difficult.

paddyland

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Also you keep going on about ten tonne vehicles and hauling it into motion. You do realise modern buses with auto transmissions, ABS and what not aren't the same as a vehicle from the 60s/70s right? Also, a bus will generally be doing a maximum of 60 km/h in most instances, generally a lot less. It hardly needs a 0-60 time of 6 seconds but nor does it take 60 minutes to get up to speed either!

Did you ever consider how much fuel that wastes, accumulated over a day, a week, a year?

Did you ever try to get a ten tonne vehicle moving out from a standing start into a steady flow of traffic, none of whom will give way?

Is it not easier for everyone to give way to one heavy bus, than for that bus to give way to twenty or thirty cars?

On a typical Dublin bus route, a bus has to pull out into traffic maybe forty or fifty times per journey. Have you ANY idea of the accumulated waste of time and fuel that is? We aren't talking about just an odd instance here or there, you know.

Priority is all wrong.

Surveyor11

Anyway the debate has descended into the usual driver / cyclist nonsense

I leave out buses where there's no bus lane. It's common manners. When safe to so so, I will overtake. In a rush hour situation it's pointless overtaking a bus to join a queue of traffic.

ILikeFriday

This is the sort of thing that has to be clarified by a law one way or the other. Either motorists should have to give way or they should not have to and should not feel guilty. But hoping for them to do it out of courtesy is just a recipe for some people doing it all the time and others never. Everybodys idea of courtesy and manners is different, and quite frankly some people don't seem to have any at all.

monument

Cycling posts cut and moved, and this thread opened again -- please keep cycling to the new thread.