Driving in the bus lane (At Peak Times)

Volvoboy

Some mornings i drive in the bus lane if the traffic is bad or i'm running late for fas (I know it unfair on other drivers) I leave my house at
7am when the lanes come into effect, So from Artane through to Amiens St i would be driving straight through in all the bus lanes, i checked on penaltypoint.ie
and its not a penaltypoint offence to do so. So what is the law on this?

Thanks



-VB-






*hides from the moral police*

Volvoboy

oops, just seen the other theread mods lock.




-VB-

Wishbone Ash

Volvoboy wrote:

Some mornings i drive in the bus lane if the traffic is bad or i'm running late for fas (I know it unfair on other drivers) I leave my house at
7am when the lanes come into effect, So from Artane through to Amiens St i would be driving straight through in all the bus lanes, i checked on penaltypoint.ie
and its not a penaltypoint offence to do so. So what is the law on this?

Thanks



-VB-






*hides from the moral police*

€60 Fixed Penalty (€90 after 28 days - Court after 56 days)

SonOfPerdition

oh .. i can't wait to see how this thread progresses.

where's me popcorn?

fletch

SonOfPerdition wrote:

oh .. i can't wait to see how this thread progresses.

where's me popcorn?

I'm looking forward to it too!

Volvoboy wrote:

oops, just seen the other theread mods lock.]

I think its an entirely different topic to Q re: bus only green light

fletch

Wishbone Ash wrote:

€60 Fixed Penalty (€90 after 28 days - Court after 56 days)

Is that all the charge is?! No penalty points....at that rate its nearly worth the risk considering the time saving that you could achieve from using the bus lane....never dreamt of using the bus lane ...would be quite tempted if what you say is correct.

Wishbone Ash

fletch wrote:

Is that all the charge is?! No penalty points...

Presumably because (Wishbone Ash dons hard-hat :eek:) driving in an operating bus lane causes inconvience rather than a danger. Most of the PP offences are dangerous. (I'm not, for one minute, supporting this practise)

Stark

Seems to be happening more and more in Finglas these days. Probably because a few people started doing it, gardaí typically drive past ignoring them and now everyone does it.

neacy69

i got done for driving in bus lane....and believe me its not worth it pulled me over with 6 other cars with me at the back of the queue waiting for about half and hour and the garda was *pig* ignorant didnt even tell me if it was a fine or points or anything....turned out was €60 fine

cant complain i deserved it wont be driving in a bus lane any time soon :rolleyes:

cormie

Volvoboy, considering you do this daily, and I got caught in the buslane when I was in it for about a minute by mistake (Dublin city one way system), do you want to pay my fine? Seems fair to me...;)

ballooba

I do it every day. If i get caught then €60 is good value imo for the time I save every day.

Cormie, spread the fixed costs, start using it more.

fletch

Is there any extra charge for repeat offenders even?

mikemac

Volvoboy wrote:

So from Artane through to Amiens St i would be driving straight through in all the bus lanes
QUOTE]

I also do this every morning and the time to be saved is huge.
But then I don't have a car, I've a scooter and the gardai never stop me. I suppose it's because I don't cause a queue at junctions so I don't delay buses

Lord Nikon

If you can afford it, go for it. You see alot of this in the City Centre with expensive cars cruising along them.

Stark

fletch wrote:

Is there any extra charge for repeat offenders even?

Don't think so. It's similar to when speeding was a fixed charge/no points and people just thought "Well, if I get caught once every hundred times I speed, then it's well worth the time I save".

cormie

ballooba wrote:

Cormie, spread the fixed costs, start using it more.

Haha, if I get caught again, suppose I'll just have to keep on using it, even if the other lanes are empty, just to get my value:D

3ps

i'd be more worried about somebody having road rage and beating the crap out of me

ballooba

I almost got caught once. There was a truck pulled in at the lights just before the hotel in Stillorgan so I pulled back into the driving lane to go round it.

When I got past the truck I saw that the it had actually been pulled in by a motorbike cop.

Needless to say I promptly pulled back into the bus lane and kept going safe in the knowledge that the only traffic guard for miles was dealing with the truck .

dubstub

I did it last Friday. Had to get to the airport and traffic was mental. A truck had jack-knifed on the M1 and traffic was backed all the way up the M1 and into town. I was seriously late. Took the turn for Santry and flew up the bus lanes all the way to the airport. Reckoned €60 was cheaper than missing my flight.
Have to admit it annoys me when I'm sitting in traffic and see other people do it though.:o

d-redser

neacy69 wrote:

its not worth it pulled me over with 6 other cars with me at the back of the queue waiting for about half and hour and the garda was *pig* ignorant didnt even tell me if it was a fine or points or anything....turned out was €60 fine

This happened my on the way into santry from the airport. Everyone drives in the bus lane towards the end and the other lane is used for turning right. I got caught in the bus lane with about 20 other people. I got pulled over at 7.05am and I didnt get to leave until nearly 8am...

I was really peeeeved :mad: at the end. That taught me a lesson!

dubstub

d-redser wrote:

I got pulled over at 7.05am and I didnt get to leave until nearly 8am...

:eek: What did she/he spend nearly an hour doing? Was it just one big long lecture or did she/he pour over your car trying to find something else to do you for?

d-redser

dubstub wrote:

:eek: What did she/he spend nearly an hour doing? Was it just one big long lecture or did she/he pour over your car trying to find something else to do you for?

The "pig" (sorry, but he really pissed me off) had pulled over around 20 cars at once and was going from the end and working his way up the line taking all the details. Some ejits had no tax/insurance/licence/NCT etc so he wrote them an extra ticket.

A few of us got out of our cars to have a smoke and a chat in the mean-time - it was a right bitch-fest!!

Yakuza

As far as I can remember, it was on the original list of 68 or so proposed penalty points offences, so don't be suprised if it gets added to the 35 or so that are there at the moment.

I do drive in bus lanes, when it's allowed to do so (post 7pm mostly) but it's amazing to see the number of people that don't use them at all, no matter what time of day it is.

Question: There are two lanes in the road you're travelling on, a bus lane and a car lane. Up ahead, there's a car turning right (and quite a bit of oncoming traffic, so it will be a while before the car gets to make its turn). Is it ok to nip in and out of the bus lane for the 5 seconds it takes to go around that car, or do you have to sit there like a knob until it's made its turn?

Personally, I would "use" the bus lane for those few seconds - surely no garda would take you to task over that?

Lastly: What is the point of 24-hour bus lanes, with no 24 hour bus service?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

HA! Can't believe I finally find myself agreeing with a GArda!! Magnificently done, that man or woman!

Seriously, it appears that the inconvenience is more of a deterrant than a fine (in which case, fair play gards again)

But then why do drivers moan about the public transport ineffiency when you're the ones making in ineffiecent...?

Ok, fair enough, if it's an airport run or an emergency, but getting into work? God love yiz! And if twenty of you are doing at 7 in the morning, you can't say it's only a causing a little bit of a delay or there were no busses around...

Excuses, excsues...

ballooba

In fairness, whenever I'm in the bus alne there is never a bus to be seen. If there was I wouldn't go near the bus lane because the DB drivers have craft ways of dealing with people. Such as driving so far up your ass as to cause constant terror.

As for it being a penaly point offence. Never happen, penalty points are for road safety. Driving in the Bus Lane is not dangerous.

I see Olivia Mitchell has proposed year round "Operation Freeflow" type traffic policing. That might convince me to stop using the bus lanes. It's usually people breaking the ROTR that are causing the delays in the driving lanes anyway. Such as blocking yellow boxes. The N11 outbound is a nightmare for that.

Mojito

Yakuza wrote:

What is the point of 24-hour bus lanes, with no 24 hour bus service?

I've often wonder about this when I'm stuck in traffic?

I'm sure they have soon stupid reason that would probably make you laugh and then make you want to punch him.

Yakuza

ballooba wrote:

As for it being a penaly point offence. Never happen, penalty points are for road safety. Driving in the Bus Lane is not dangerous.

Driving without insurance is not "dangerous" either, but that's a penalty point offence too, so your logic doesn't hold up.

BrianD3

Car drivers who illegally use bus lanes are selfish, inconsiderate idiots and queue jumpers. Their actions cause delays and aggravation for other road users. I see several posters in this thread are admitting to knowingly flouting this law with some doing it "every day". I must have a look back at old posts and see if any of these posters have previously complained about other driver behaviour or traffic conjestion...chances are they have and if so that makes them total hypocrites.

Also, to those saying they "only use the last few metres of the bus lane before it become a left turn lane" there's no excuse for that either. If you do that the law abiding drivers who actually wait till the bus lane ends before moving into the left turn lane are unable to change to the left lane because of the f**ing moron who are zooming up the inside.

BrianD3

Yakuza wrote:

Lastly: What is the point of 24-hour bus lanes, with no 24 hour bus service?

Bus lanes are for taxis and cyclists too. There may not be 24 hour buses but you can encouter a taxi or cyclist at any hour.

ballooba

Yakuza wrote:

Lastly: What is the point of 24-hour bus lanes, with no 24 hour bus service?

This is where there traditionally wouldn't have been a lane there.

For instance where a hard shoulder has been converted to bus lane.

Stark

BrianD3 wrote:

Also, to those saying they "only use the last few metres of the bus lane before it become a left turn lane" there's no excuse for that either. If you do that the law abiding drivers who actually wait till the bus lane ends before moving into the left turn lane are unable to change to the left lane because of the f**ing moron who are zooming up the inside.

Yup, this happens to me every evening going home. Sometimes the bus lane is completely backed up from the traffic lights all the way past the nearest bus stop and there's a bus stuck behind a queue of cars waiting to turn left when it could be loading the passengers from the bus stop. I wish taxis/buses would beep the ****ers out of it when they encounter cars blocking them.