Ennis road bus lane.. Only a small issue

frozenfrozen

Is it something I'm doing or is this piece of road badly designed (This road: https://www.google.ie/maps/@52.6739059,-8.6728479,3a,41.1y,112.19h,84.57t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sqxLM8_KZ-RC5gEQIzpF5vw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en )

The pictures are outdated on google maps unfortunately but the bus lane starts back here just off coonagh roundabout, you move to the right lane and the left becomes bus lane. this happened at around about 20 past 3 today so it was seemingly out of bus lane hours (according to google maps, it may have changed since 2009, I actually didn't take any notice in person today of the operation times) but I can't see myself ever using the bus lane here.


I stayed right.

Here there is now a set of traffic lights, the bus lane 'ends' for a moment and becomes a left turn only lane, then goes back to being a bus lane after the left turn.


I had an empty hearse pull up beside me at the red light with a couple cars behind him, he was in the bus lane. I pull away 45 times faster than him (:D) because I can tell he was going straight. I put a massive gap between us (just in the time it takes me to get up to the speed limit) because I'm turning left up ahead and don't want to get caught beside them as I want to turn left



As I'm at this point he has since caught up with me by doing well over the posted limit (no issue with that but that's just what happened) and is driving in tandem with me so I have to brake and pull in behind him and then turn left.



Because so many people 1. use that bus lane regardless of time and 2. the bus lane is not 24/7 anyway, pulling out from that previous left turn into here is ridiculous. The bus lane to the right in this picture is a left turn only lane yet people stay in it to turn left at the next set of lights, and it means even if there's a queue of cars stopped at the lights to the left, and miraculously someone hasn't blocked the yellow box, you can't pull out because of the stream of people using the bus lane/going straight through the left turn only lane.

Now it was no bother at all with the hearse fella but if there had been a string of people closely behind him using it I'd have had to come to a dead stop (ha) in the right hand lane and wait to move to the left lane and then turn.


So what's the story with the use of this bus lane? It would be mad for me to use it the entire way as I would be going straight through the left turn only lane at the traffic lights, and it would be mad to change lanes into it just after the traffic lights, and it's a continuous white line the whole way up until just before that left turn for the shops etc.

So really my question is should I be using that bus lane (outside hours of operation) for turning in here, and if so where/when should I move into the bus lane? I feel it would be dangerous / make other people on the road angry to do it from the beginning of the bus lane back at the roundabout and continue on straight through the left turn only at the lights etc...

It just seems like one or another rule has to be broken for me to use this lane but likewise not using it results in me then ending up with someone undertaking me (ha.. again) when I want to be moving into the left lane to turn left.

And for turning right to leave after going in.. it's just a nightmare especially on a bike because when it gets backed up people barely leave a gap in the yellow box and you can still have people coming up the bus lane, and people from the other direction wanting to turn through the small gap in the box without checking.. it's a scary spot when that happens