Cars driving in bus lanes

[thedaddyman]

Keep an eye out for signs saying "bus lane not in use". For example, if you are going to or coming from Dundrum Shopping centre via the m50 there are 2 such lanes marked as "not in use" but most people don't realize it so it's very handy.

Some other bus lanes are not "full-time" bus lanes

 

[trasneoir]

Grrrr..........

That sensation is bad for your state of mind and your physical health. It's also easy to eliminate:

What we think of as our minds are (at least mostly) moist computers, with a bag of behavioral tricks that are (at least mostly) good enough to keep us alive and unharmed. We operate on learned patterns and heuristics much more than on active intelligent "decisions". This is never more apparent than in traffic. When you see an incompetent/inconsiderate driver, don't think of them as a bad moral agent but as a defective robot - just another class of road hazard.

Bip the horn to report the error. Peer pressure works if it's delivered consistently.
Breathe. Rejoice in your good karma.

 

[MrEarl]

A little rant to let off steam and to wonder if it is just me.

I hate people who drive in bus lanes where there is absolutely no valid reason for them to be there.

Has it ever occured to you that this may be people making the decision to use the roads that their taxes pay for, given there are no buses in those bus lanes for much of the time ?

If Dublin Bus put a bus in the bus lane every minute or two, then you will quickly convince me that it's good use of the limited road network. However, put a bus in the bus lane every 10-15 minutes (as is the case, even during peak hours on some northside routes) and I will continue to make use of the bus lane to help me get to where I want to go

Our city roads are a limited resource and at the moment, the private car remains the principal method of transport for most people. As such, we should make the best use of the resources we have and until the bus lanes are busy with lots more buses, then you can't expect motorists to simply leave those lanes unused while stuck in heavy traffic.

The bit I don't understand is how something as clear as this is allowed to continue.

This is a deliberate public skipping of the queue which disadvantages the vast majority of compliant drivers.

Why not just impose an instant one month ban on any driver doing it? It would be pretty much eliminated overnight and the 99% compliant drivers would win out.

If those badly behaved motorists were to be removed from their cars for a month, would you not be concerned that they might join the ranks of the cyclists and become even more badly behaved (given the old cyclists seems to go unchecked by the Gardai etc.) ?

There are some places such as turning left from clontarf road onto alfie byrne road, where if you don't get into the bus lane 100 metres back you won't be able to merge in at the proper transition zone as it is bumper to bumper... So I think there are some places where bus lanes have been jammed in and are unsuitable..

Good point.

Then add to that the frustration of seeing only one bus every 8-11 minutes using the bus lane during peak hours each morning (No. 130 Bus) and ask yourself, is that bus lane the best use of our limited road space on a majour artery into the city from the northside of Dublin ?

For those of you driving in bus lanes here's how not to do it.

https://youtu.be/TvlledB7hdI

Driving in bus lane - 1 point (Failure to comply with traffic lane markings)
Failure to yield at the yield marking at the end of the bus lane - 3 points (Failure to yield right of way at a yield sign/yield line)
Dirty number plate - 0 points (05-D-88161)
Using an indicator while driving a BMW - 0 points

ROFLMAO

 

[trasneoir]

the private car remains the principal method of transport for most people.

I'm not sure that this is true, in the parts of the country where bus lanes are prevalent.
Google suggests that dublin bus carries 350-400k people per day.

we should make the best use of the resources we have

The luas' cobbles must be brutal for the suspension

Our city roads are a limited resource

The limiting factor in our cities' traffic flow isn't road capacity, it's intersection capacity. Getting passengers through intersections is the game, and a full bus is phenomenally efficient at it. A busy 12m dublin bus is worth 250m of bumper-to-bumper commuter cars. If you want to make a city hum, you fill as many buses as you can, and you fire them through the network as fast as you can. Put cowcatchers on the front if you have to.

Even so, bus lanes stop short of busy intersections - flow is rarely restricted by leaving a "useful" stretch of lane empty. At such, empty bus lanes have little/no impact on flow, but they can return huge gains when they deliver buses to intersections more quickly.

only one bus every ten minutes

Are there no taxis/bikes at your end of town?

There's a chicken and egg situation - making buses/bikes faster takes commuter cars off the road. On the other hand, if my bus is going to be stuck behind cars all day, I might as well throw my own car into the fray and idle in a fancier seat.

 

[Purple]

Has it ever occured to you that this may be people making the decision to use the roads that their taxes pay for, given there are no buses in those bus lanes for much of the time ?

Are there any other laws you think you should be able to break because of the taxes you pay?
Do you elbow your way to the front of the queue in the A&E department?

You may not like the law but it is the law. Maybe you could get some washed out Trade Unionist looking for a spot back in the limelight and launch a national protest movement to get rid of bus lanes because using the road is a human right?

Only Buses, taxi's emergency vehicles and SUV's are allowed to use bus lanes (I presume SUV's are since they seem to use them all the time).

 

[peteb]

Maybe you could get some washed out Trade Unionist looking for a spot back in the limelight and launch a national protest movement to get rid of bus lanes because using the road is a human right?

Ouch!

 

[MrEarl]

Are there any other laws you think you should be able to break because of the taxes you pay? ....

Sure, others that I just think I will break because I don't agree with.. but feel it's best not to take the thread off topic

 

[Purple]

Sure, others that I just think I will break because I don't agree with.. but feel it's best not to take the thread off topic

Good answer.

 

[DirectDevil]

Has it ever occured to you that this may be people making the decision to use the roads that their taxes pay for, given there are no buses in those bus lanes for much of the time ? SNIP SNIP ROFLMAO

It has occurred to me and I do get your point as, at times, I look longingly at those blank road spaces to my left.

However, what also occurs to me is that I am also bound to obey the law as are they. The meritorious point would be lost entirely on the Garda who might ping me for being where I have no authority to be

 

[The Edge]

I read recently that cars with diesel engines are much worse for the environment than their petrol engined counterparts. And yet we have a situation in this country due to tax reasons/fashion/trends/'de environment' whereby 90% of new car sales in this country in recent years (and even in the UK, well over 50%) are the accursed daysuls (I understand buses also run on diesel, but in their defense are ferrying largish numbers of commuters per bus, compared to the motor cars).

Human beings are funny!

 

[Cervelo]

I read recently that cars with diesel engines are much worse for the environment than their petrol engined counterparts. And yet we have a situation in this country due to tax reasons/fashion/trends/'de environment' whereby 90% of new car sales in this country in recent years (and even in the UK, well over 50%) are the accursed daysuls (I understand buses also run on diesel, but in their defense are ferrying largish numbers of commuters per bus, compared to the motor cars).

Human beings are funny!

iirc Paris, Madrid, Athens and Mexico city are in the process of banning diesel cars from their cities by 2025 !!

 

[ixus]

I love driving down certain bus lanes between 10 am & 12 when they're open to all. Cruise by all the motorists who don't pay attention and think I'm in the wrong. Probably hoping I get pulled.

Work from home in the morning and drive in at this time. Much less stressful than the peak time commute.

 

[MrEarl]

I read recently that cars with diesel engines are much worse for the environment than their petrol engined counterparts. And yet we have a situation in this country due to tax reasons/fashion/trends/'de environment' whereby 90% of new car sales in this country in recent years (and even in the UK, well over 50%) are the accursed daysuls (I understand buses also run on diesel, but in their defense are ferrying largish numbers of commuters per bus, compared to the motor cars).

It seems to me that Ireland could have amended the road tax rates in respect of modern diesel engine cars in the last budget (to bring them back into line with petrol engines, if not raise them above petrol engine cars), but didn't.... despite being a country that apparently cares about the environment, is supposed to be trying to reach the 20-20-20 targets etc.

...Human beings are funny!

Not least, our politicans

 

[Leper]

Hey Guys! Try the bus lanes in Cork city. There are signs on nearly all of them indicating that the Bus Lines exist only Mon - Fri and between the times 7.30am - 9.30am and 4.30pm - 6.30pm. Guess What! Very few drivers know this and you got guys playing funfare dodgems outside of the times rising life and limb and of course getting out of their cars at the next traffic lights and lecturing the drivers who are driving perfectly.