Neil_B

Scene, Rt 23 in Phoenixville. A fat cyclist is huffing and puffing up a hill towards Phoenixville Hospital, staying as far to the right as practicable. A SEPTA bus, Route 99, is next to him, having overtaken the cyclist on the hill climb. The bus begins to pull closer to the curb to pick up a passenger. The cyclist, sensing that it won't be pleasant for him if the bus pulls to the curb and opens its door to discharge passengers, kicks it into high gear and shoots ahead of the bus before it stops.

Was this an accident in the making, and if so, who is at fault? The bus driver? The cyclist? The passenger waiting to board the bus? Or no one in particular?

gear

Yes it was an accident in the making. The bus driver should have seen the cyclist and the waiting passenger anticipated the need to move into the cyclist's space to get the passenger and slowed the bus till he was behind the cyclist then pulled over to pick up the passenger. Drivers (cars, trucks and busses) seldom do this when pulling over or turning right, ocasionally they pass or partially pass the cyclist then stop and just sit frozen in the road (making the cyclist wonder if they should continue and pass on the right or stop) till the cyclist passes but more often they pass or partially pass a cyclist then just turn right in front of the cyclist as if the cyclist weren't moving forward.

Ornery

"The cyclist, sensing that it won't be pleasant for him if the bus pulls to the curb and opens its door to discharge passengers..."

God forbid, the cyclist passes on the left, or even worse... has to stop!

Bicyclists and buses can coexist well as long as the bus drivers act professionally and the bicyclists operate in the vehicular manner. Each must overtake the other with about 1.5 meters (5 feet) of lateral clearance, and avoiding getting on the wrong side of the other. - Bike and bus

What about bus stops, what happens to cyclists there?

Bikes and buses have to merge just like the buses do with motor vehicle traffic. When a bus is at the bus stop the cyclist should either wait behind the bus or pass on the left. The cyclist should not pass the bus on the right because they would run into people getting off the bus.

BUS-BIKE CONFLICTS AND DEFENSIVE DRIVING STRATEGIES

The bus driver still needs to be aware of whether he recently passed a bicyclist, to check his mirror to see if a bicyclist is behind him, signal his turn and finally merge to the right cautiously. The bicyclist needs to anticipate that the bus behind or ahead may pull over at the next bus stop and also to accept that the bike lane may be legitimately blocked at times by buses at bus stops just as they can be by rightturning vehicles at intersections.

JeffS

What a horrible thing if a cyclist broke free of their leach attaching them to the curb.

Bekologist

boy, I've had bus drivers cross a double yellow to pass me while i was in the middle of the lane, moving downhill at 30 MPH, just to get ahead and move to cut me off at a stop.

bus drivers can be inconsiderate of cyclists even if they AREN'T "attached to the curb"

Spreggy

I think the lesson here is that if a vehicle ahead of you looks like it's going to turn right, don't pass, just chill for a second.

Mr. Underbridge

Regardless of whether the bus driver was in the wrong, the cyclist may not have exercised good judgement. The question is, by hauling ass did he get out of a situation in which the bus was about to squish him, or could he have more easily slowed, let the bus get to the curb, and pass on the left? Without having been there, I can't say.

If he was in fact playing chicken with a bus, that is in fact dumb. You will almost always lose that one.

AEO

that's a pretty dangerous move...
Up here in Toronto, I've yet to experiance inconsiderate public transit bus drivers or street car operators.

And not hugging the curb doesn't matter to some people. Just this morning I was passed dangerously by a pickup at the middle of the long side of a T-intersection. I was definately not hugging the corner, I was dead center in the lane, it was 4-lanes wide, but construction reduced it to just 2-lanes that are safe to ride in.

Neil_B

If you haven't guessed, I was the cyclist in question. :-) The bus was going to squish me. I was parallel to the front half of the bus when he began to pull over. Hopping the curve isn't an option there, since the curb is high and has trees spaced along it. It was a split second decision to shoot out of there. It was my first time in that situation, so I posted about it here so I could learn what to do and not to do.

Perhaps the driver was startled by seeing a bicycle traveling with traffic on the street. In Phoenixville they usually ride against traffic, it seems. :-)

nightc1

I'm confused, was the bus fully past you and getting ready to pick up some peeps or was it beside you the whole time but you shot ahead to get past it before being squished?

I, personally, if the bus was ahead, would have looked back and merged more in with traffic to pass the bus on the left. If that seemed too dangerous I would have slowed and stopped and waited for a good moment to continue on. But I'm a lot more defensive than the average bicyclist. I'd rather the cars/buses/trucks/whatever go on ahead even if I have to slow down to create a comfortable gap for me to bike in.

Neil_B

I shot ahead to avoid being squished. The bus was next to me the entire time. I would never pass a moving vehicle on the right, least of all a bus or a truck.

nightc1

Ah, that adds to the situation quite a bit. The initial description made it seem like the bus had past you. So in this situation you had two options ... slow down or speed up. Often in a car I weigh this option when avoiding danger... sometimes it does make more sense to speed up. I think this could go either way and it's not as black or white as the cyclist passing on the left. You'd have to slow considerably to get back behind the bus which was itself slowing to move over and pick people up. I think you made the best decision possible for that situation.

Mr. Underbridge

Probably so, particularly given one important piece of information - you never know when the bus will *begin* pulling over to the right, but you do know about where he will *stop*. So in this case, I'd probably haul ass too, to get to the safe zone (ie, past the bus stop).

atbman

Right decision. If you had stopped you might still have been squished by the rear half of the bus

Spreggy

So basically you were getting right hooked, right? Since the goal is survive, and you survived, I'd say you did the right thing.

thelazywon

Good job on not getting squished. The only comment I have is that no matter how chunky you are, I'm pretty sure a bus is chunkier. So, if you 're near a bus, be wary of being squished. I've been in a similar situation with a Fed Ex truck though, and it scared me to death