Bus lanes and drivers who can’t read.

[Smiljan]

It sounds like a pretty good idea, whether it works or not I've not idea.

[bigandclever]

I won’t use them in London, which is a shame because that’s where they’d work best. But the frequency of changes on the same stretch of road, the chances of a sign being obscured by a bus or tree or somesuch, and the helpful taggers like below means the risk of inadvertently being wrong is high.

[FiF]

Agree, don't use bus lanes in London, or any other places where the rules change along the same stretch of road. Nothing more than self preservation.

Other places, where the signs are clear, then bus lanes and bus gates out of hours are fair game. However you do need to have observation and spidery senses up on full alert to deal with drivers and pedestrians who just think the bus lane will be empty.

Which last bit opens up the question, if the bus lane is normally empty, even during operational hours, yes Worcester looking at you, idiots, why have a bus lane in the first place because you're just compressing the rest of the traffic into smaller spaces, lengthening the queues, potentially increasing junctions and entrances being blocked, completely barking.

[drmike37]

A few years ago a bus lane near where I was working simply had the time signs taken off. I didn’t clock this and used the lane as I had for years. £90 later I went and checked. They could have put up new signs that said 24h, but didn’t. The only reason I can think of is to make the change subtle and catch more people
On the back of this I never use bus lanes, even when I think I could. bearing in mind I live near Nottingham where the council funding strategy is basically built on bus lane fines, It’s just not worth the hassle and worry. If you want to use the bus lane, be my guest.

[mickyh7]

How would an appeal go if the sign had been tagged?
It certainly hides the information.
Has it been highlighted before?
Who won?

[bigandclever]

Frank7 said:

I was driving one day and making use of the bus lane in Evelyn Street, Deptford S.E. London.

That’s actually a good example for me, I just took a virtual drive along Evelyn Street from the KFC, past the fire station towards Deptford.

The first bus lane stretch is Mon-Fri, Midday - 7pm
The next bus lane is Mon - Fri, 4pm - 7pm
The next bus lane is (no days) 7am - 7pm

And you’ve driven about a mile. Pain in the hoop keeping an eye on all that.

Not questioning Frank’s story

[markyb_lcy]

bigandclever said:

Frank7 said:

I was driving one day and making use of the bus lane in Evelyn Street, Deptford S.E. London.

That’s actually a good example for me, I just took a virtual drive along Evelyn Street from the KFC, past the fire station towards Deptford.

The first bus lane stretch is Mon-Fri, Midday - 7pm
The next bus lane is Mon - Fri, 4pm - 7pm
The next bus lane is (no days) 7am - 7pm

And you’ve driven about a mile. Pain in the hoop keeping an eye on all that.

Not questioning Frank’s story

My MO (and I live close to the aforementioned area) is to not use them by default, but to take advantage of them when an opportunity presents itself.

There’s a lot of dawdling drivers in this area. A lot of them seem to think they’re in a 20 limit when they’re actually in a 30 (you can tell that when they slow down to 20 on their speedo, 17-18 actual, when they come up against a speed camera, which in many cases tells you the damn limit on the warning sign. Doh!

Behind such drivers, I’ll glance up at the bus lane times of operation. If the sign is visible and it’s out of hours, I’ll use the lane to get past these bumbling fools before they put me to sleep.

[Frank7]

bigandclever said:

That’s actually a good example for me, I just took a virtual drive along Evelyn Street from the KFC, past the fire station towards Deptford.

The first bus lane stretch is Mon-Fri, Midday - 7pm
The next bus lane is Mon - Fri, 4pm - 7pm
The next bus lane is (no days) 7am - 7pm

And you’ve driven about a mile. Pain in the hoop keeping an eye on all that.

Not questioning Frank’s story

I could see that you weren’t, your post if perfectly accurate, but my trip was in the opposite direction, from Deptford Church Street, along Evelyn Street, to Surrey Quays, then Lower Road to Rotherhithe Tunnel.