Originally Posted by
degnaw
Last summer, when I was commuting in the south Tacoma, WA area, I emailed the Franklin Pierce school district and the Clover Park school district (the two districts I rode through) with links to a few of my helmet cam videos. I'd had only minor complaints about Clover Park buses, but had several egregious close passes from Franklin Pierce buses (like this one):
Incidentally, only Clover Park responded. I suspect it's not a coincidence.
That wasn't a close pass. It wasn't a very considerate pass, but, given the road configuration at the time the bus started to overtake you I can see why he did what he did. Yep, probably a he, a she would have hung back, waited for oncoming traffic to clear and put at least one set of wheels over the center line as she went past. I noticed a couple of the earlier cars did not even put one set of wheels over the centerline as they passed. Probably because of that oncoming traffic. Of course, they were not school buses so it mattered less. Thing is... had any part of that bus whacked you... your camera would never have shown it. What it would show is you riding more to the left of the bike lane than in the center or to the right and... ... lawyers being what they are... ...
H