View Single Post
Old 09-29-15, 07:01 AM
  #21  
fthomas
Fred E Fenders
 
fthomas's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Again! Philippines & S. California
Posts: 1,453

Bikes: Jamis Aurora Elite

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 1 Time in 1 Post
Originally Posted by mr_bill
I hope that isn't a problem in your city. If you feel it is so bad that you have to wait behind buses, take some PREEMPTIVE action.

*YOU* *CAN* *FIX* *THIS*. Several cities have training programs for bus operators that have made *HUGE* differences, such as this effort. These days, when I use Write to the Top it's for a commendation of fantastic behavior. I can't remember the last time I had trouble with a public transit bus.

Until then, transit buses are among the most predictable vehicles on the road. They have a finite number of places where they stop. They have a fixed route. Learn both of those and make yourself visible to them. Stay out of their no zone. And if an operator puts *you* into their no zone and pulls to the curb, it's a teachable moment. Report the incident.


During heavy automobile traffic, I'll usually pass several buses - but each one only *ONCE.* Bicycles are often the fastest vehicles during heavy automobile traffic, transit buses with their frequent stops often the slowest.


-mr. bill
Thanks for an excellent suggestion. I am car free and reluctantly use the OCTA buses to augment my bike. Most of the stops are random when no riders are waiting and someone requests a stop to disembark. That is when I have encountered the bus making a closer pass than comfortable to make the stop. Approaching a stopped bus I have always acted as if it is going to make a rapid move into traffic.

I'll contact OCTA
__________________
F Thomas

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
fthomas is offline