CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Questions/Support/Help

Advice needed on bus lanes

(8 posts)
  • Started 12 years ago by Zenfrozt
  • Latest reply from wingpig
  • This topic is resolved

  1. Zenfrozt
    Member

    Hi all,
    I have a wee question about bus lanes. I'm fairly new to riding on Edinburgh's roads and I thought I had bus lanes worked out but an incident today suggested otherwise.

    Basically today I was riding down past the meadows area when I spotted a bus behind me. Unfortunately I can't remember what number it was but I was pretty confident it would need to stop at the next bus stop. As such I made a decision to stay in the normal lane of traffic so that the bus could go down the bus lane to the stop.

    The bus driver however had other ideas and stayed in the right hand lane. He beeped at me and gestured that I should be in the bus lane. I moved over to let him past as I really didn't fancy arguing with someone who is at the wheel of a double decker bus.

    He then drove past and indicated left to pull into the stop just ahead... was I in the wrong place? Should I have been in the bus lane?

    Any advice would be much appreciated as my confidence is a little shaken.

    Thanks
    Zen

    Posted 12 years ago #

  2. druidh
    Member

    Unless you are overtaking another vehicle, or about to turn right or pulling out to pass a stationary vehicle, you should use the bus lane.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  3. chdot
    Admin

    Sounds like you were trying to be 'too considerate'.

    Bikes are allowed in bus lanes.

    Lothian Buses are very good at training their drivers, but occasionally it doesn't work.

    They recently made a public version of their video -

    http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=5703

    Posted 12 years ago #

  4. Zenfrozt
    Member

    Thank you very much to both of you for your swift responses :)

    @chdot thanks for the link to the video it looks really useful.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  5. kaputnik
    Moderator

    There's always one [bus] driver who "needs" to pass you just to pull in ahead of you... If you had stayed in the bus lane then you still would have got passed and cut up. Sometimes you just can't win.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  6. crowriver
    Member

    For that one bus driver, there are about 20 car drivers on the same road who will do the same thing as soon as the bus lane ends (or even if it doesn't, as long as there's a junction nearby).

    Posted 12 years ago #

  7. chdot
    Admin

    Another person asks -

    "

    Jennifer Mackenzie (@jenblether)

    4/5/12 12:43 PM

    @CyclingEdin Advice, please?! When cycling down Leith Walk should I be in v busy bus lane on left or v busy car lane on right?!

    "

    Should be in Bus Lane - but not always easy (especially when dealing with road surface there!)

    Posted 12 years ago #

  8. wingpig
    Member

    I tend to stick to the car lane when heading north along Leith Walk - keeping up is reasonably easy, it's easier to edge round a stopped-to-turn-right non-bus vehicle than it would be to get past a stationary bus, stopping for right-turning vehicles is required less frequently than stopping-for-stopping-omnibi would be in the bus lane and the opportunities for being right-hooked seem fewer than the areas of left-hook-risk in the bus lane, especially where other vehicles pretend that it's the left-turn filter lane, a delivery lane or an undertaking lane. And the non-bus-lane surface is better.

    Posted 12 years ago #

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