bus stupidity

daggeredge

I was heading into college and indicated to go into the lane for cars turning right across a junction, checked my mirror and saw a bus behind me driving on the stripes..twit I thought , so i waited till the stripes ended and turned in....the fool flashed me and beeped cos i "pulled in front of him" (using term loosely he was on the stripes! and I didn't see he had about an inch of bus front to the right of my car (he had obviously planned to overtake me even though i had right of way)anyway it turns out i know this bus driver and often use his bus (and planned to do so in the future) I think he might have recognised me (not 2 sure though) should i say it to him?I painted an image of the incident to clarify

seamus

Whatever he was doing, you still pulled in front of him, he had right of way.

Why would you bother saying it to him? He won't even remember by now.

daggeredge

how could he have right of way ??he wasn't in the lane when i was pulling into it?? (the inch of bus next to my car only happened cos he saw me pulling in and decided to try and bully his way in front of me)- surely any accident that would have been caused would be his fault because he was doing something that's illegal (by driving on the stripes)- by the way decided not gonna say anythin 2 him - won't help the situation

Snaga

Taking a driving lesson a while back I was told (by the instructor) to drive through the stripes if I _know_ Im turning right as it reduces congestion in the lane going straight and ensures I dont end up in the situation you describe above.

seamus

daggeredge wrote:

how could he have right of way ??he wasn't in the lane when i was pulling into it?? (the inch of bus next to my car only happened cos he saw me pulling in and decided to try and bully his way in front of me)- surely any accident that would have been caused would be his fault because he was doing something that's illegal (by driving on the stripes)

In theory he had right of way. You saw him, which means you acknowledged his prescence. Someone else driving illegally doesn't immediately make them at fault. For example, if you turn right at a junction, and are hit by an oncoming car, you are still at fault even if he was speeding.

Road markings and indicators don't confer a right-of-way. When changing traffic lanes, it is your obligation to ensure that there are no vehicles in the road space that you wish to occupy. You cannot pull out front of any vehicle under any circumstance. Similarly, if you turned right across the path of an overtaking vehicle, you would be at fault. If the other driver was overtaking on a solid white line, they would be charged with dangerous driving, but you'd also be charged with dangerous driving for failing to see him.

test999

@daggeredge, the bus driver was breaking the law by driving on the solid island. However, by intentionally pulling into the path of the bus driver you are not paying due car and attention. So, bus driver is 75% to blame, you are 25% to blame.

@snaga, get a driving instructor who isn't going to fill your head with bad information.

No vehicle can enter a solid island, if the boundary of the island is broken, you may over take a slower moving vehicle if necessary, i.e. a bunch of cyclists.

daggeredge

when you put it like that it makes sense Seamus (turning right and the guy speeding thing) I'll put my hands up and claim responsibility for my side of it!
test999 I was thinking alright the same thing about the driving instructor!I was sure that wasn't legal......
cheers lads

daggeredge

oh yeah congrats 2 test999 on his "99" posts (matches his name)

BrianD3

The bus driver is a ****ing moron. He would have been mostly in the wrong had there been a collision provided that there were independent witnesses to verfiy that he had been driving across the hatch markings and overtaking at a clearly marked junction. Unfortunately, you may also have gotten some of the blame for poor observation, but most of the blame would be his. If this ever happens again and you are involved in a crash don't tell the cops that you "saw him coming but pulled out anyway" tell them that you didn't see him.

He is at fault because in order to move from the road onto the hatch markings and back again he will have had to cross a continuous white line twice. You have right of way over him, when he reached the end of the hatch markings he should have stopped and let you go in front of him.

When he beeped you, you should have stopped your car in front of his bus, gotten out and bollocked the head off him in front of all his passengers

This sort of driving is commonplace in Dublin these days, you get it coming up to junctions where 24/7 bus lanes become left turn lanes. Invariably, if you wait till the end of the bus lane before pulling into the left turn lane you'll find several ****ing idiots in cars zooming up your inside because they moved into the bus lane 200 metres back. :mad: Drives me mental. The other scenario where this happens is when trying to merge onto a motorway, law abidng drivers wait till the hatch marking end. But there's always some idiot who can't be bothered to wait and zooms over the hatch markings overtaking the merging traffic in front of him and preventing it from merging.

BrianD3

ambro25

BrianD3 wrote:

The other scenario where this happens is when trying to merge onto a motorway, law abidng drivers wait till the hatch marking end. But there's always some idiot who can't be bothered to wait and zooms over the hatch markings overtaking the merging traffic in front of him and preventing it from merging.

Tremendously annoying it is, too. However, I confess to doing this (extremely rarely, but still...) when the moron in front intends to merge on the M'way at 40 mph or so, then accelerate.

Sorry, Brian D3, but I refuse to be the guy who's gonna get rear-ended/be driving on the hard shoulder because the tw*t out front doesn't know that a slip road is there to accelerate & match the speed of vehicles on the M'way.

Different if someone does it for the hell of it (or because they're just soft in the head), though, as I see it most week-ends around J/7-9 of the M50.

BrianD3

Tremendously annoying it is, too. However, I confess to doing this (extremely rarely, but still...) when the moron in front intends to merge on the M'way at 40 mph or so, then accelerate.

Sorry, Brian D3, but I refuse to be the guy who's gonna get rear-ended/be driving on the hard shoulder because the tw*t out front doesn't know that a slip road is there to accelerate & match the speed of vehicles on the M'way.

I agree that unnecessarily slow merging is also extremely annoying and dangerous. It's just another example of moronic driver behaviour in this country. But of course there are some vehicles (eg trucks and 1.4 litre Golfs ) that cannot merge quickly as they are physically incapable.

There was a good thread on this topic a few months back. The perils of incompetent merging and how to deal with it were discussed. IIRC the consensus was that it's better to break the law and arrive alive than obey the law and put yourself in a highly dangerous situation.

BrianD3

Victor

BrianD3 wrote:

But of course there are some vehicles (eg trucks and 1.4 litre Golfs ) that cannot merge quickly as they are physically incapable.

This is why many on-ramps are downhill.

mackerski

Victor wrote:

This is why many on-ramps are downhill.

It doesn't explain why the "you're now in a 120 zone" signs are often at the very foot of said ramps.

Dermot

stratos

There is only 2 things I know about buses. 1) They're bigger than my car and would sqaush it. 2) The guy driving it doesn't own it , so he don't care too much. So best to stay clear.

gary the great

was this in the rathgar area around 3.30? if so i was on the bus, he was calling you every name under the sun.

FX Meister

Snaga wrote:

Taking a driving lesson a while back I was told (by the instructor) to drive through the stripes if I _know_ Im turning right as it reduces congestion in the lane going straight and ensures I dont end up in the situation you describe above.

I take it you mean a ghost island? I've been told by two instructors in the past not to drive in them. And on teh Raheny test route their is one place where you often take a right turnm and they have failed people who have gone into the ghost island.

D!ve^Bomb!

BrianD3 wrote:

The bus driver is a ****ing moron. He would have been mostly in the wrong had there been a collision provided that there were independent witnesses to verfiy that he had been driving across the hatch markings and overtaking at a clearly marked junction. Unfortunately, you may also have gotten some of the blame for poor observation, but most of the blame would be his. If this ever happens again and you are involved in a crash don't tell the cops that you "saw him coming but pulled out anyway" tell them that you didn't see him.

I wish i could agree with you but this isn't a perfect world, just because there's an island marked on the road you can't assume that no one will drive into it, this is why you ALWAYS ALWAYS check you're mirrors/over the shoulder etc when turning, the gards won't care if you didn't see the bus, you should have..

BrianD3 wrote:

This sort of driving is commonplace in Dublin these days, you get it coming up to junctions where 24/7 bus lanes become left turn lanes. Invariably, if you wait till the end of the bus lane before pulling into the left turn lane you'll find several ****ing idiots in cars zooming up your inside because they moved into the bus lane 200 metres back. :mad: Drives me mental. .

Unfortunatley, i am guilty of this sometimes, but only because of the scenario you describe, it always happens to me and the last thing i want is to miss my turn so i sometimes drive into the bus lane to prevent this from hapenning, only in heavy traffic tho cos that's when it happens most..

ambro25 wrote:

Tremendously annoying it is, too. However, I confess to doing this (extremely rarely, but still...) when the moron in front intends to merge on the M'way at 40 mph or so, then accelerate.

I ****in HATE this, everday people are driving at 30mph onto the fúckin motorway!!!! do they not realize they have to match the speed of the moving traffic on the motorway :mad:

AMurphy

D!ve^Bomb! wrote:

I ****in HATE this, everday people are driving at 30mph onto the fúckin motorway!!!! do they not realize they have to match the speed of the moving traffic on the motorway :mad:

I've a sister does that, scares the living daylights out of me....
Accelerate on the shoulder if necessary AND one is provided. some entry points have no shoulder.... made worse when it also includes a STOP sign instead of a yield.

IANOC

yes bus 75% you 25% at fault
BUT at the end of the day after the tragedy on aston quay!! bus drivers need to be very carefull what they do and that TIT sounds like hes on a one way ticket to killing some innocent people.
i would have reported him to the law m8 as they wont go easy on wreckless bus drivers!!!

and as to motorway merging those thet merge too slowly most likely dont have the licence to drive on the motorway and they still do!!
unfortunately the motorway aint the place to learn how to merge!!