Near Miss of the Day 851: Transport for London launches investigation after “unacceptable” close passing bus driver squeezes cyclist into kerb

This is a new version of dimwit sad git trolling- opening up cases from long ago and writing stupid anti-cyclist things about them.

It is difficult to get the full picture of events from the video.  If there are no cyclists behind her then the bus should have waited. 

There was a bicycle three-quarters of a bus length in front of her.  What if there is a permanent series of riders distanced 8 metres apart for the whole length of the road, preventing the bus from pulling into the bus stop?  Then what does the bus driver do?  Just park in the middle of the road and wait five minutes for a gap in the cyclists?  Even with this scenario, the bus did wrong, but you can appreciate the difficulty that the bus experiences.

I wish we had a stunt man could ride these routes for a few days and take some spectacular falls (without actual harm). The YouTube comments justifying the driving would still be spectacularly wrong.

One of the problems is that most cyclists have a strong sense of self-preservation and unless impossible, will mitigate the problems, making serious incidents appear trivial. Of course, there are less able riders who don't grasp the tricks of the trade who are exposed to this driving.

A police test for driving without due care is causing another road user to slow or change direction. They don't use it enthusiastically enough in cycling incidents.

The twitter thread is a bit depressing... 

I've only ever had this happen to me once, a bus driver decided to cut us off to pull up to a none set back bus stop with a high rise curb.  'Luckily' I was on a BMX and managed hop up the curb and give the driver some adrenaline fuelled abuse.  Dread to think how it could have ended, me being on a road bike, clipped in.

Trams good buses bad

A 'full investigation' is fairly meaningless. As commentators below have noted an investigation should take 10 minutes - you know the bus, time and location therefore you know the driver. It is what happens next that is important.  Probably not a lot - perhaps a mild reprimand and some joshing about 'bloody cyclists' in the bus depot. Who knows?
Bus drivers should be under the same levels of scrutiny and responsibility as HGV and tipper drivers. 

I think after an awful pass like that I would be using the emergency stop switch to turn the engine off in the absence of any other method of disbling the deadly weapon I was being threatened with!

For a start, as part of Vision Zero, all bus drivers should spend time cycling around London. 
 

Perhaps if the driver of this one had endured a similarly thoughtless and dangerous bit of driving he/she might do better in future. 

It's very noticeable that few if any of TfL's buses stick to speed limits.

In my part of London the buses consistently do 25 to 35 in the 20 zones and regularly close pass cyclists.

I've complained about specific close passes to TfL (including one in which the driver told me I should have got out of the way because he had right of way over cyclists at all times) and have never received a proper response.

If Will Norman is serious about improving road safety one of the things he could do is have his team pull the telematics data from buses and then compare vehicle speed with the permitted speeds in the same areas.

a better take on what its like riding Londons roads and I bet wont get a fraction of the publicity, maybe Lauren should tag Vine in the tweet to get it rolling.

tbh though my instant reaction to it is, yeah its snafu, been there, done that, got the tshirt, dont like riding near buses much, next day and repeat.

Transport for London’s head of bus operations, Rosie Trew, has told road.cc that the government body and RATP, who operate the route on TfL’s behalf, are currently investigating the incident

The victim should expect no worthwhile outcome from this 'investigation'- what are the police doing? A real investigation would take 10 minutes- the driver is guilty. What takes the time is cutting and pasting 'the usual' into the response: we take this incident very seriously and will be taking it up with the driver - subtext: but we won't be telling you what we did. The only the thing that will make any difference is punishment. In this case, paradoxically, the generally worthless sanction of the 'driving course' (apart from the super-joke online ones) would be of some value, because it would be difficult for the police to 'happen to not notice' the course on a future occasion with a PSV driver.

We are working with RATP… to investigate this incident and ensure it doesn’t happen again

'Ensure' nothing!- it will happen again. It's even worse when it happens at speed, and all you can do is concentrate on staying on the bike and not under the wheels- and when the police can be relied upon to ignore the offence

https://upride.cc/incident/ua5013_kirkbylonsdalecoaches_closepass/

Woeful driving, yet all to familiar from supposedly professional drivers. I get at least one of these a week in my neck of the woods, where might is considered right. Many bus drivers are the worst versions of entitled drivers.

I think it's fair to say that, as O'Brien went 'No, no.......for f***'s sake,' each of us did so too. It's this same fear and anxiety I feel deeply when riding on urban roads, and needs to not happen.