Bus Lane Scamera - advice please

[alfaman]

I've just returned from holiday to find a nice letter from Transport for London with a photo of my car partly in a bus lane - with a £100 fine !

I had just merged from a small side road onto the Edgeware road and clipped the bus lane for about 3 car lengths as merging into very fast traffic heading down to the North Circ roundabout.

Could any of the following be used as mitigation in an appeal ? - do any Ph'ers have similar experiences ?


1 There was no "slip road" to allow safe acceleration - so it was either the bus lane for a few feet or potential pile-up.

2 It was a weekend - the bus lane sign did NOT state which days of the week restrictions apply (I assumed weekdays )

3 My car was photo'd 60 % in main lane / 40% in bus lane - clearly turning / merging into the lane of the d.c which wasn't marked as bus lane.

I'm really as I feel I've been stuffed for a £100 for driving safely .

Any advice would be welcome re. appeals on this.

[parrot of doom]

www.pepipoo.com - if it were me, I'd fight it all the way. They rely on people's apathy to generate income, the more people that take it to appeal, the more it will cost them.

[Globulators]

A victimless crime without intent - go to court and have it laughed out there.

Another example of poor road design 'fixed' by council sponsored theft.

[leosayer]

Say the bus lane wasn't there and there was fast traffic on the road directly in front of you. How would you have pulled out of the junction then?

[mechsympathy]

leosayer said:

Say the bus lane wasn't there and there was fast traffic on the road directly in front of you. How would you have pulled out of the junction then?

What's that got to do with anything?

[pdV6]

It really winds me up that this sort of thing happens all the time. Bus lane cams are usually human-operated and the ops could easily see what the circumstanes are and simply not take the pic.

It is sooo not about the money

[leosayer]

mechsympathy said:

leosayer said: Say the bus lane wasn't there and there was fast traffic on the road directly in front of you. How would you have pulled out of the junction then? What's that got to do with anything?

My point is, did Alfaman really need to use the bus lane?

[jesusbuiltmycar]

leosayer said:

mechsympathy said: leosayer said: Say the bus lane wasn't there and there was fast traffic on the road directly in front of you. How would you have pulled out of the junction then? What's that got to do with anything? My point is, did Alfaman really need to use the bus lane?

And I am sure Leo that you have never involuntarily clipped a bus lane, broken a speed limit or even farted in public in you life...

Your holier than thou attitude doesn't really help anyone does it?


>> Edited by jesusbuiltmycar on Friday 21st January 13:09

[alfaman]

leosayer said:

mechsympathy said: leosayer said: Say the bus lane wasn't there and there was fast traffic on the road directly in front of you. How would you have pulled out of the junction then? What's that got to do with anything? My point is, did Alfaman really need to use the bus lane?

I joined the A5 just after it forks off to the roundabout - there is a bit of a "brow" back to the main D.C (so visibility not brilliant ), and someone started to accelerate towards my rear rather than slowing for the roundabout - I just basically stayed left and slowed up a bit, then merged.

The road layout is poor .... cars are peeling off the main DC to the roundabout (some at well over the speed limit ), and visibility from the perpendicular side road isnt brilliant ,so not easy to judge speeds of vehicles.

Well ... I guess I'm not perfect, but do feel I've been robbed

[supraman2954]

jesusbuiltmycar said:

leosayer said: mechsympathy said: leosayer said: Say the bus lane wasn't there and there was fast traffic on the road directly in front of you. How would you have pulled out of the junction then? What's that got to do with anything? My point is, did Alfaman really need to use the bus lane? And I am sure Leo that you have never involuntarily clipped a bus lane, broken a speed limit or even farted in public in you life... Your holier than thou attitude doesn't really help anyone does it? >> Edited by jesusbuiltmycar on Friday 21st January 13:09

Playing Devil's advocate: what if the court asked that very question? He needs a good answer!
Could the pic disprove that fact that someone could have braked hard in front of him or child was running out into the road?

[gtr-gaz]

I got done by the same camera two days running, heading north on the south circular towards the M4!

Annoying thing was, I wanted to turn left at the roundabout, therefore driving in the bus lane before I should have.

Costs must have gone up a lot since then. I'm sure mine were about £40 and that was 2 years ago.

[Streetcop]

Just thought I'd throw in a library picture for those that haven't seen one before;

[pdV6]

Streetcop said:

Just thought I'd throw in a library picture for those that haven't seen one before;

I have a similar picture of myself, except that there was no traffic (early Saturday morning) and I was navigating through unfamiliar central London territory using AtoZ and street signage.

What the still pic doesn't show is that as soon as I realised I had inadvertently entered a bus lane I immediately pulled out of it (a matter of a few car lengths). Really winds me up as my pic was clearly taken by a human operator, who could clearly see I wasn't taking the p155 and trying to gain any kind of advantage by using the bus lane. But oh no, they have their nice incriminating snapshot, so that's £50 please. Kerching!

[number 46]

Its just another London 'racket'like the congestion charge, speed cameras and parking fines. The whole thing is about making money and stopping peolpe using their cars. Some bus lanes operate over the weekend as well, you have to check every sign as they often change as you go along the road!! There are many side streets that are impossible to exit without clipping the bus lane if there is alot of traffic, but of course the mafia don,t accept that as an excuse. I was even fined on my motorbike for crossing into the last foot of one at the bottom of Park Lane on Saturday !!! There where hardly any cars about at the time, I just moved into the 'turnleft' lane too early and got done. Welcome to Ken and Tony's fair society !!!

[sadako]

since the bus lane stops for the duration of the junction, if you pulled across it, obstructing the bus lane, then waited for a gap what would happen legally?

[turbobloke]

I think the actor Tom Conti is currently fighting Transport Fascists London for something like this in Court, currently awaiting bailiffs with a film crew on standby as his two £200 fines are getting bigger. IIRC.