shubonker

So i'm riding home today and i see a bus closing its doors in front of me about 20 yards away. He doesn't signal and starts going into the middle lane REALLY slow because its a red light (its a 3 lane st). As he's about half way pass the right lane i begin passing him at about 25mph and and hes starts honking away at me even after i've passed him. I counted maybe 10-15 honks. Mind you, this was in brooklyn, the buses in the city are much more courteous and always let me pass before they take off from their bus stop.

Yan 

I yield to buses when I drive a car.
I yield to buses when I ride a bike.

shubonker

Yea maybe in toronto

itsthewoo

Yeah... I think you'd be better off yielding next time. Bike vs. Car is bad enough.

cizzlak

Does this brand of response not shed light into your own quagmire? Maybe the bus driver suffered from a "I'm in NYC, therefore, I should be a dick" mentality just like you? Just sayin'

shubonker

Possibly, who knows. I prefer to weave in and out of traffic at a red light when cars don't want to leave me space on the right. Probably dangerous, but gosh is it fun!

Caaah

Ok, so I wasn't just imagining things. The dude who drives the bus on 3rd Ave (brooklyn) that passes me every day is trying pretty damn hard to cut it close. I always have to slam on the break as he cuts through the bike lane right in front of me to get to the bus stop. Its been scary enough that now, if I see that guy coming I slow down and let him pass faaaar ahead of me, or make sure I can get ahead of him by a couple lights.

And I ride 6th Ave (manhattan) from 17th to 49th every morning, so I don't scare easy.

shubonker

Cool, i ride on 3rd ave in brooklyn, too. I hate those bus drivers on 3rd, but this happened near flatbush ave where you get off of the brooklyn bridge. Those b37(i think its b37) drivers can be nasty tho. I usually go up AVE A after the manhattan bridge to 16th st, pretty good route.

Sirrus Rider

Yield to buses. Most of the drivers aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer. You might be right in your interpretation of the rules of the road, but 43,000 plus pounds of mass is not something to argue with.

apricissimus 

My personal experience is that the public transit buses are the most predictable and law-abiding vehicles on the road. Of course I'm sure it varies greatly from location to location. I've come to trust that the MBTA buses will always signal when they're done picking up passengers and are merging back in with the traffic. I feel pretty safe passing on the left because they are so consistent with this.

Of course I've probably just jinxed myself now and will get creamed by the next bus I try to pass.

Caaah

Do you take Jay or Adams when you get off the bridge?

I haven't tried going up Ave A yet, I'll have to give it a try

Grim

I'll give you predictable. I passed a bus (the 40 or 45 in Cobb County) that was stuck in traffic looked the driver in the eye. Traffic cleared he passed me and I again made eye contact with the driver as he came past me then he right hooked into KSU with no indicator.


I Predicted the idiot would attempt to run me over and he did. I was just behind the rear axle of the bus when he did it.


I don't trust ANYTHING/ANYBODY to do what they should do. I know they are all trying to kill me.

poopisnotfood

I didn't know there were ANY law abiding or courteous drives in Boston. (just kidding, but Boston drivers are up there on my list of worst drivers in the country.)

cizzlak

+1 . I was driving near BU and saw drivers making U-turns on the T tracks literally within 50 yards of oncoming trains. I came back home to Milwaukee and told everyone that if they think Chicago drivers are bad, they look like 80 yearold grandmas compared to Boston drivers. It seemed as though not only did they not pay any sort of predictable attention to signal lights, but the concept of turn signals, mirrors and braking were absent as well. I even saw a guy in the inside lane of a 4 lane (two each way) just stop, put on his blinkers, and run into a CVS!

Falkon 

Ooh, ooh! Can I take a guess? You ride a fixed gear, right?

shubonker

Ave A is after 1st Ave just in case. And i usually take Manhattan bridge and down Sand st to Navy.


Nope, too lazy for FG.

Indie

Around here the bus drivers are pretty smart, but they have to put up with an awful lot of really stupid pedestrians, so they can get impatient. We're here moaning to each other about the stupidity of other people on the road, right? I'll bet bus drivers do the same.

I will agree with you that it's far more important to not argue with physics, regardless of the driver's intelligence. A smart driver can't stop a bus any faster than a dumb one.

ItsJustMe

You want to talk about people who moan about how stupid people on the road are? Talk to train engineers. I think half of them retire early from mental health breakdowns after killing a family when the driver decided to run the gate. I saw a TV show once where they did a ride along and there were people running the gates constantly, and the guy was just saying "He's cutting it close - if he had any trouble at all, he'd be dead and we couldn't do a thing about it."

dobber

So you observed the bus pulling out and across the lanes and chose to continue rather than slow and perhaps take 30 seconds to let him clear?

And if you were going 25 mph you would have passed him and been long gone before he could start honking. Why do people always seem to embellish their speed?

slvoid

I can tell you from experience, city buses get up to 40mph pretty damn quickly. And sheer momentum means that when they hit you, they won't even feel it.

shubonker

I'm not embellishing anything, just sharing my experience if that is alright with you.

VeloBusDriver

I drive for King County Metro in Seattle. For what it's worth, he shouldn't have honked at you and he should have definitely signaled coming out of the zone. I don't know the law where you live, but in Washington State cars are required to yield to a bus coming out of a bus zone.

If I were in his position I would have signaled and waited for you to yield. You yield, I pull out and usually flash my 4-ways to thank you. No yield - fine, you're breaking the law, but I'm not going to force the issue and endanger your life.

Again - that's the law in Washington. I suspect it is similiar in many areas of the country.

VeloBusDriver

Funny, professional bus drivers say the same about motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. I suspect, like any profession, there are bad apples in any bunch. (And believe me, I know who the bad apples are where I work) However, I would suggest you rethink the use of the word "most" in the above sentence.

VeloBusDriver

RE: Moaning about stupidity: Of course we (bus drivers) do. It's human nature. I'm amazed at the number of people who see me coming, wait, and then pull out (or walk, or ride) right in front of me. Unbelievable.

RE: Smart driver not stopping faster: A smart driver can't stop any faster. However, we do generally have better mind reading skills. (Hmmm... That car looks like he wants to turn right in front of me) The thing that irritates me about people cutting things close, or cutting me off is that they are counting on me to either be perfect (I try - but my wife constantly reminds me that I'm not) or to slow down to allow for their illegal and dangerous maneuver.

Remember that the bus is carrying a lot of passengers and that the drivers need to worry about their safety as well as yours.

filtersweep

In most places, buses always have the right of way. The issue here is the bus didn't signal.