Plymouth has had bikes in bus lanes for years and its an absolute pleasure as long as your careful!

Where I live you have to read the signs because there are a mix of bus lanes that can be used by motorbikes and ones that can't. This is within the same council area.

I haven't been into London in a year, because of you-know-what introduction: That fekker made me sell my beloved Mondeo Mk4 Tit X, just because it was a diesel (ran so clean even VW couldn't gas a room of monkeys with it)... loved that car. Anyhoo, I digress, I got a PCN a few years back due to London's almost instant normal-to-bus--lane random swaps. It's impossible to read every sign and watch the traffic. Not taking my vehicles into London.

I do most of that route, peel off up the A1M, at 6am. Coming back at school chuck out time is an "adventure" 🙂

TFL and Khan are ruining Londons transport network, they were one of the main reasons for wrapping my business up. ULEZ, Con Charge, parking fees, PCNs, the list goes on. He's even brining in a charge for the Blackwall tunnel which just shows it's a cash grab. For me Islington is the worst borough for stupid rules and hammering bikers/drivers for the most miniscule of reasons. Newham has some silly rules as well with the smallest of signs... Three times on the same stretch of road for me would be one offence, not three, might be worth seeking legal advice on this. Againn this is just a cash grab. Bikes in bus lanes should be rolled out nationally.

couldnt agree more about white range rovers, plus, they'll kill a pedestrian if hit at 30 mph unlike cars. Thats why a lot of places are lowering limit to 20.

Totally agree with your analysis!! It's bad enough living well outside London having to double check who's allowed in the bus lane and effective times (I really don't miss the London commute, having done it for too many years in the past by car, bike and public transport). At about 7.40, as you were describing not being allowed to stop on a red route, everything was stationary!!! 😂😂 Stay safe out there sir, cheers, Andy.

That is a totally sh$t situation. If you had enough money and motivation it would be good to fight it. When speed cameras first came in a driver got caught by 3 cameras in a short space of time meaning a ban. He fought it in court and it was deemed to be the same offence. We live in Reading and my son who is on a 125 on L plates wanted to go to the Bike Shed. I took my 125 Honda Cub so was having to ride with him in mind, navigate, look for bus lanes and try and guess the speed limit (20, 30 or something else?). We had a great day out but for 2 weeks was just waiting for the P.C.N's to come through the door. Somehow we managed to avoid them all.

Ahh Nat, you say it out loud that I always think in my head about some cars/tintops! Brilliant 👌 We can use bus lanes in Melbourne, Australia. Naturally, not when a bus is in that lane😉 Edit: I’m actually surprised your traffic shows me you have way more cars than we have SUV’s that are right at the height of mirror stalks👌

I'm fortunate that, although I live just outside the M25, I don't need to ride in London very often. When I do, I realised long ago how inconsistent the bus lane rules are, so I'm always looking out for the signs, which takes up part of the concentration I should be devoting to the traffic around me. It would make things so much easier and safer to have a consistent policy city-wide, if not nationwide.

@wiadroman

3 ай бұрын

From my experience of riding in London, it is easier to get away with speeding than with using the wrong bus lanes. Guess my eyes catch speed cam signs better than these silly bus lane signs.

🏍👍👍

Where I live, that little ride of yours would have cost you about £2000, if the bus lanes weren't open to all 2 wheelers. Luckily they are open to us, no need to worry about reading signs. That being said though, they are currently working on replacing the good old bus lanes with something they call "bus-way" which is a road for only public transport, with lanes in both directions. Once they are done, most main roads in our area will have them, and bikes have to queue with everyone else. The bus-way is basically two middle lanes for buses only, with hard barriers to the public road, one lane either side of the bus-way. It is a very efficient system for public transport, but no fun for us bikers. The hard barriers makes it very difficult to filter as well, as the lanes are quite narrow. More or less impossible to get past a car, unless you use the outside bicycle lane. If you get caught doing that though, they can fine you for two offenses, motorised vehicle in a bicycle lane, £1000+3 points on license, and passing on the wrong side of traffic, another £600+3 points on license. Best thing is just to follow the rules I suppose. :P

@fs5866

3 ай бұрын

Bike will never que, will just split lane with the opposite traffic

@Duckie313

3 ай бұрын

@@fs5866 Physically impossible in the bus-way system I described above. Physical barriers between the lanes. Actual railings.

I don’t get how it’s hard to read a sign. It’s not a new thing it’s been like it for years. Although I do agree the price of the fine is way too much.

@wibblywobblyidiotvision

3 ай бұрын

As Nat says, you're busy paying attention to what *everybody* around you is doing, plus the road surface, plus trying to navigate (OK, that last bit, mostly we know where we're going). But that's not all. The signs that indicate whether or not you are allowed to use a bus lane are neither easily distinguishable from one another, nor placed everywhere along a bus lane, they're only at the entry to the bus lane where other traffic mght inadvertantly take the lane. That's not where a motorcyclist will always enter the bus lane, though, so you absolutely need to have seen the *last* bus lane sign in order to be sure. And you might not have seen it, either due to situational inattention - busy dodging MIWV, for example - or it might have been hidden from your view by, again for example, a honking great red London bus.

@rickconstant6106

3 ай бұрын

The issue here is the totally unnecessary inconsistency. The rules for an apparently continuous bus lane can change as it passes a junction, meaning you are having to give more attention to every sign that you could be using to watch traffic around you.

Bloody awful. Everybody should support the MAG prompts for the Governments (almost secret) public consultation that is ongoing. I asked our mate Matt "the DIRTY GARAGE GUY" to support this issue and his reponse was this " I don't see the case here. Bus lanes are bus lanes, if a council wanna choose if bikes can use them or not, then they have their reasons. What's the argument? " Maybe you could get him to give some support or is he just a gobshite?

Edinburgh let you use the bus lanes, Glasgow doesn't (And we have £100 notes)

26 mins on a 5 minute subject? Less is more.

FIRST 😅

There are 33 London Boroughs not 8

You picked up the tickets because you are are riding without 'due care and attention' as the bus lanes are clearly marked with blue signs.

Could have been good/informative but too much rambling for me! gave up after 5 mins!