24 July 2013

ACTION Bus sees only green

24 July 2013 | Barcham

We just got sent in some footage of a naughty bus driver from Rioter Chas:

The Bus Driver likes to entertain us with clips of car drivers and bike riders doing the wrong thing. Here’s one where the accelerator shoe is on the other foot.

The scene opens with traffic heading west out of Luxton St Belconnen, either proceeding down Southern Cross Drive or turning north into Coulter Drive. My vehicle (indicated) was waiting at the lights intending to continue north.

The traffic thins as (one assumes) the lights change on Luxton Street.

The lights for Coulter Drive go green.

And then an ACTION bus thunders through, presumably against a rock solid red light.

Lucky thing nobody planted the accelerator as soon as the light went green.

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Tulip10:20 am 12 Aug 13

Ha. I was intending to post about an Action bus that I observed on Friday. If your children catch the 608 (extra long or ‘bendy bus’ as we used to call them) school bus to/from Amaroo school you should be very concerned about the abilities of the driver. I saw it around 2:45pm in the distance along William Slim Drive outbound to Gunners and thought it was going a tad fast and realised that it was running late. Because of traffic at the WS/ Barton roundabout I caught up to it and was ‘lucky’ to see it pushing the speed limit (if asked I would say it was speeding) “straightening out” all the roundabouts until it had to stop at the traffic lights near the golf club. When the light turned green it took off as fast as it could and then made a display of getting it’s nose in front of the car beside it so that it could have right of way by putting it’s nose far enough in front so that the driver could see the indicator. This meant that the driver of the car had to come to a complete stop to let the bus in front of it. I think this is taking the “give way to buses” rule too far. I then continued to follow it all the way to the school where it would have been lucky if it slowed to 40 ks in the school zone. My gut tells me it was going through at around 45 – 50 ks. I was left with a really poor impression of this driver. I hate it when they drive with the belief that because they are bigger than anything else on the road they have the right of way. In fact, the opposite should happen for a variety of reasons i.e. poor visability and poor stopping time to name a couple.This thing was an accident waiting to happen. Not impressed. Should also say that it arrived with at least 2 minutes to spare…..so why drive so recklessly? Do they drive like this once the children are on board? Scary to even think about.

ChrisinTurner12:11 am 28 Jul 13

Adelaide Ave is a grade separated four lane freeway. 80 km/hr speed limit is ridiculous. Should be at least 90 km/hr.

magiccar99:51 pm 27 Jul 13

RB78 said :

Pretty sure that using two lanes of a roundabout is covered under the ‘do not overtake turning vehicle’ signage/rules – see page 58 http://www.rego.act.gov.au/assets/PDFs/ACT_Road_Rules_Handbook.pdf

If anything I would have thought the articulated buses were a bit more nimble with roundabouts thanks to their ability to bend, as opposed to the rigid models.

Sure it may be covered by the rule ( I’d be interested to see the definition of ‘turning’) but I’m more arguing that the drivers aren’t even making an effort. I’ve been on buses where the driver has slowed to a suitable speed and has been able to keep within the lane. Great! But then we have the drivers who try to maintain their speed, enter too fast and can’t can’t make it through without using the other lane too. All they need to do is pull their finger out and make an effort to be considerate and safe on the road.

RB7812:53 pm 27 Jul 13

magiccar9 said :

I’m going to raise another question while we’re on the topic of buses. What is with bus drivers thinking they can hog both lanes of a dual lane roundabout? All too often I see drivers make no attempt to stay in their left-hand lane. I’m sure they’d use the excuse that the bus is large and has ‘do not overtake turning vehicle’ rights, but its no excuse not to slow down and make an attempt to navigate a roundabout safely. Only this morning I saw a bus enter a roundabout with another already in it, and encroach into his lane to the point where he had to brake suddenly to avoid being cleaned up by the bus (for reference this was the 26 Chapman route @ about 7:15). I will make an exception in this argument for articulated buses as they are considerably longer and roundabouts are hardly designed with them in mind.

Pretty sure that using two lanes of a roundabout is covered under the ‘do not overtake turning vehicle’ signage/rules – see page 58 http://www.rego.act.gov.au/assets/PDFs/ACT_Road_Rules_Handbook.pdf

If anything I would have thought the articulated buses were a bit more nimble with roundabouts thanks to their ability to bend, as opposed to the rigid models.

Madam Cholet11:54 am 27 Jul 13

I saw almost a carbon copy of this but with a car as the offender. Interestingly it was at an intersection on Drakeford Drive that has a red light/speed camera. Unfortunately the car was coming out of the ‘burbs side and it’s very likely that there is no camera there. My light was green as he flashed across the intersection.

JC8:56 am 27 Jul 13

I saw BUS 889 run a red light in the city yesterday (Friday) morning. He was behind another bus that turned left into Bunda Street so had to slow down, then as soon as the turning bus had cleared the intersection he floored it and sailed through he intersection only to be stopped at the next set of lights where he turned left into the interchange. The issue of course was the lights were amber when he powered up and changed to red at about the same time as he entered the intersection. Just no need for it what so ever.

magiccar98:59 am 26 Jul 13

I’m going to raise another question while we’re on the topic of buses. What is with bus drivers thinking they can hog both lanes of a dual lane roundabout? All too often I see drivers make no attempt to stay in their left-hand lane. I’m sure they’d use the excuse that the bus is large and has ‘do not overtake turning vehicle’ rights, but its no excuse not to slow down and make an attempt to navigate a roundabout safely. Only this morning I saw a bus enter a roundabout with another already in it, and encroach into his lane to the point where he had to brake suddenly to avoid being cleaned up by the bus (for reference this was the 26 Chapman route @ about 7:15). I will make an exception in this argument for articulated buses as they are considerably longer and roundabouts are hardly designed with them in mind.

KB19717:17 am 26 Jul 13

gazket said :

Busses go that fast ? That’s definitely not the bus driver that drives the full length of William slim dr every morning at 40kph while making sure he hogs both lanes of the several roundabouts on this stretch just to make sure you can’t overtake.

Sounds like he RAWKS!

scorpio6310:59 pm 25 Jul 13

The right thing to do is take time out of your day, follow the bus driver and inform he/she of the offence (either at the front of the Depot, during the shift at a bus stop quietly and discreetly or phone the depot asking to speak to the Driver of that bus on that shift), giving the Driver the opportunity not to re-offend on that particular offence without getting the Driver into trouble.

After all……no-one is ‘perfect’ driving on the road……some more experienced, more sensible and taking more care…..however there is no such thing as a “perfect driver”.

Doc Dogg7:25 pm 25 Jul 13

miz said :

has there been an ‘economy drive’ this year ordering drivers not to put the heaters on

I was wondering this myself, I’ve just taken to wearing thermals so I’m not so cold. It is a bit of a pain when it is summer and they don’t turn on the cooling though.

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