I can relate to getting in the same groove as a bus on a city street. It happened to me for the first time several weeks ago. This transit bus didn’t have stop signs like school buses, but when it’s at the side of the road in the bike lane (which doubles as a legal bus stop); there is no space between it and the other traffic going by.

I ride 5.5 miles on the road with cars in a bike lane to and from a bike only riverbed trail I ride about every other day. It’s by far the worst part of my ride. Several weeks ago I happened to sync up with a city transit bus after it passed me just as I entered an intersection, and then pulled in front of me on the other side of the intersection to stop at the bus stop. He didn’t cut me off, but I did have to stop behind the bus, because there isn’t enough room to pass it on the left side with the other auto traffic. I hit the brakes hard while searching for an escape or work around. None existed, so I stopped behind the bus.

When traffic cleared I went around on its’ left side and continued on. Every time I came to a red light I ended up back in front of the bus, then it would pass me and pull over to stop again. The second time I hit the sidewalk using a driveway with my eMTB with 2.8 Schwalbe Super Moto-X tires; so I can handle the bumps, cracks, driveway curbs, etc… with ease. I went zipping by the bus on the right side via sidewalk before the bus even got its’ door open.

We played this game for the full 5.5 miles! The bus driver never did anything wrong, but it was a big PITA to react and look for escape routes and work arounds. Sometimes there was no traffic or a large gap, so I could pass it on the left side. Other times I had to use the sidewalk when no people where there waiting, other times I had to stop and wait for traffic to clear or the bus to start moving again. It was very frustrating, but again the bus driver did nothing wrong and never cut me off to the point of being a problem. He was just doing his job, and quite well I might add.

I agree with the other posters who said the best thing to do is take a side street to get away from the bus or simply stop and take a water or phone break to let the bus get out of sync with you. It’s the fact that you are synced up with the buses route that causes the frustration.

Then there are the blissful days like today. I exited the bike only trail for my street trek back home on the with traffic bike lane. I only hit one street light in the entire 5.5 miles with about a 22mph pace. I think I traveled those 5.5 miles as fast as the cars on the same street. They’d be sitting at the light as I approached and it would turn green just in time for me to keep pedaling right past all the cars that passed me. I even had one truck pace me. I think he wanted to see how fast I was riding. I had another passenger in a car yell something out the window at me. I have no idea what it was. The whole street light sync ride was uplifting and fun!

It sure made up for the nasty bus sync ride from weeks before. Buses and wide load construction equipment scare the heck out of me when they pass too close and I don’t see or hear them coming.

Today’s only scary moment was when I was watching my display a little too long and got hit in the head by tree branch fern type leaves, only to look up startled and get hit right in the face by other one. Clearly both my fault for not keeping me eyes ahead of me…