Motorbikes and the bus lane

Mr. Fancypants

Thats the reasoning the Director of Traffic guy gave on Newstalk 106 a couple of weeks ago anyhow.

Sleipnir

Originally posted by Victor
(a)I've been hit by 20+ cars (all but one not my fault), so I have a reaosn to complain.

now this is plainly ridiculous. You've been hit by 20 cars and you haven't even considered the possibility that more than one was your fault?

Would a survey of cyclists show that most had been hit my more than 20 cars? I don't think so. I would imagine that i would show that 95% have never been hit by a car.

With that in mind, you're doing something wrong. You're cycling recklessly and without due care and attention (the law applies to road users, not just motorists)

I would imagine that you're one of those cyclists that flit in and out of traffic and expect drivers to be sitting in the boot watching every move you make.

You obviously have problems anticipating what other road users are doing and if you can't, you do not err on the side of caution.

Statistically, you're going to die on your bike and you won't be able to say
"It wasn't my fault"

Silent Bob

Of course I firmly believe that in traffic which is slow moving and a bus lane is present then motorbikes should be allowed use it.

They take up less road space, wear the roads less (because they weigh a lot less than a car), use less petrol and take less time to get where they're going. In stopped traffic you can fit four powered two wheelers in the same road space as a car.

If we could get more people taking powered two wheelers to work we could significantly reduce rush hour traffic but you need incentives to get people to move to PTWs, incentives such as being allowed to use bus lanes in rush hour style traffic (and the insurance needs to be waaaay reduced, but that's another story...)

spockety

What does it matter if a car can't see a motorcyclist coming up along side him in a bus lane?
It's not like the car is going to have cause to pull into the bus lane anyway, now is it?

There was a court case last year where a motorcyclist was run over by a car that pulled into the buslane. The car driver's lawyer argued that the motorcycle wasn't allowed in the bus lane in the first place. The judge said he didn't care, the car driver should have been more aware, and awarded compensation to the biker!

Nice precedent

seamus

Originally posted by spockety
Nice precedent

Whether another driver is breaking the law or not is irrelevant. Most cases boil down to the rule of right-of-way. If a car is doing 150mph on a country back road, and an oncoming car crosses the road (to go into a driveway for example), causing a collision, the oncoming car (crossing the road) is at fault. The other driver may be prosecuted, but the fault still stands with whomever did not have right-of-way.

That said, yes it is nice to have a precedent, just in case

(And there's no need to point out that two vehicles colliding at 150mph would leave all the occupants in tiny little pieces. The point still stands)

Sleipnir

Originally posted by seamus
but the fault still stands with whomever did not have right-of-way.

The guy on the bike did not, under law, have right of way. I'm not saying that the driver had the right to pull out, but the biker was travelling in the bus lane illegally.
True, the driver probably didn't check his left-hand mirror but the biker shouldn't have been there anyway.

The crash would not have occured if the biker had not been doing something illegal.

Once again, you can't argue you're 'right of way' if you're dead.

What does it matter if a car can't see a motorcyclist coming up along side him in a bus lane? It's not like the car is going to have cause to pull into the bus lane anyway, now is it?

Most bus lanes do not operate 24x7. Many, including those on the quays can be used by all after hours and on Sundays. So, drivers often do have cause and the right to pull into the buslane.
The biker endangered himself and others by driving in the buslane illegally, the driver did the same by not checking his mirrors.