Guards hiding at the end of bus lanes, WTF?..

arybvtcw0eolkf

Does this bother anyone else?.

Would their time be better served making a visible presense, thereby being a deterent to motorists using the lanes?.

This is something which really bother's the bejasus out of me.

I mean, the city is running amock with crime and these lazy ba$tards (IMO) spend their time hiding behind bus shelters, lamp posts, parked buses & around bends waiting for a 'crime' to happen instead of preventing it.

Rant over...


(Oh and no, I haven't been caught in a bus land)

Mossy Monk

dont have bus lanes where i come from

we're not fancy

kippy

Not every guard is going to be fighting the crimelords.
If they are "hiding" at the end of bus lanes it is for good cause-to catch people who use them illegally.
I am all for it.
Kippy

If they did this in Galway, I'm pretty sure most of the taxi drivers would have hefty fines by now.

xzanti

Deleted User wrote:

If they did this in Galway, I'm pretty sure most of the taxi drivers would have hefty fines by now.

Taxi drivers are allowed to use the bus lanes, are they not??

Faith

Mairt wrote:

(Oh and no, I haven't been caught in a bus land)

There's a bus land?!

jaggeh

even better was last week i was getting a lift home and there was a guard at the start of the buslane waving people into it for freeflow or whatever. then about 600-700 meters down the lane at an intersection was a guard stopping people who had used the bus lane :P

arybvtcw0eolkf

Faith wrote:

There's a bus land?!

Of course there is!.

DonalN

jaggeh wrote:

even better was last week i was getting a lift home and there was a guard at the start of the buslane waving people into it for freeflow or whatever. then about 600-700 meters down the lane at an intersection was a guard stopping people who had used the bus lane :P

now that don't make a lick of sense!!!

arybvtcw0eolkf

kippy wrote:

Not every guard is going to be fighting the crimelords.
If they are "hiding" at the end of bus lanes it is for good cause-to catch people who use them illegally.
I am all for it.
Kippy

So while the rest of us are suppose to work towards crime prevention, guards should get away with lazing policing?.

Seriously, should their job not be to prevent crime from happening in the first place than catching an offender after he/she has offended?.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Deleted User wrote:

If they did this in Galway, I'm pretty sure most of the taxi drivers would have hefty fines by now.

Taxi's are allowed use bus lanes. Although officially their suppose to be either hired, with a passenger or going to a pick up. Their not suppose to be for hire in a bus lane.

TwoShedsJackson

Mairt wrote:

So while the rest of us are suppose to work towards crime prevention, guards should get away with lazing policing?.

Seriously, should their job not be to prevent crime from happening in the first place than catching an offender after he/she has offended?.

I think you should write a strongly worded letter of complaint!! Failing that, whine about it on the internet.

Hail 2 Da Chimp

Were they eating doughnuts? I bet they were eating doughnuts!!!

Hobbes

Mairt wrote:

Does this bother anyone else?.

No because I don't drive in the bus lane when I am not allowed.

The whole problem with a lot of drivers is that they don't behave unless there is a visible Garda around. Which is not the point of safe driving.

Thread on this already in Motors forum. Short jist is that your more liable to be caught for something during Operation Freeflow then any other time.

FlutterinBantam

The whole thread serves to show that the Irish Motorist for the most part will DO ANYTHING provided he/she does not get caught.

Every day of the week you see laws being broken regarding bus lanes/roundabouts/mobile phones/parking/ poor lane discipline /speeding...I could go on...

I'm all for the guards hiding up trees if they can catch those w***ers basically don't give a toss about courtesy but do as they please and screw the rest of us.

GO GET 'EM

John Mason

jaggeh wrote:

even better was last week i was getting a lift home and there was a guard at the start of the buslane waving people into it for freeflow or whatever. then about 600-700 meters down the lane at an intersection was a guard stopping people who had used the bus lane :P

Brilliant - i love driving in Ireland

phantom_lord

thread on spirling crime....thread on guards hiding in bus lanes....hmmmm....

Pherekydes

Mairt wrote:

Does this bother anyone else?.

Yes, me!

Pherekydes

Faith wrote:

There's a bus land?!

Yes, Faith. It's where the city runs amock. :rolleyes:

Umiq88

Driving through the Lee tunnel in Cork (tunnel under the river) and guards where in there cause guess why it was raining outside. Had traffic backed up for ages and even caused a crash further back along the line. Idiots.

Steyr

Jesus Mairt, guys in fairness im well pissed at people here bitching about the Gardai, come on like they are doing the best they can with what they have been provided. I know people who are in them and all the exams and continuous assessements they undergo before they can even call themselves a Garda is unreal yet nobody ever says that, you should be happy that people still want to do that type of work in an ever increasing violent nation. Grow up.

Manic Moran

I remember getting pulled over by a Garda for driving in a bus lane in Dublin, he was just standing at the side of the road flagging people down.

I point out that the bus lane hours of operation were posted on the sign over his shoulder (he was standing right under it), and that the hour of the moment was not within the coverage listed on the sign. He didn't seem impressed.

NTM

rubadub

There is another thread similar to this, suggesting cameras. Cameras would be an excellent idea, the gardai pulling over cars slows things down even futher, and the bastards usually have them pull up illegally onto cycle tracks!

With cameras the garda is "always there" so cars that do drive when no garda is there, will not use the lane if they know a camera is there. So a guy can sit in some office somewhere just typing in licence numbers and have the fines automated. Makes far more money and sense.

Why drives me even more crazy is ignorant gardai letting empty people carriers drive on bus lanes, seems you only have to paint "micks city buses" on the side of a reasonably large vehicle and you can go in a bus lane.

Terry

psittacosis wrote:

Driving through the Lee tunnel in Cork (tunnel under the river) and guards where in there cause guess why it was raining outside. Had traffic backed up for ages and even caused a crash further back along the line. Idiots.

in all fairness, i would say that poor driving caused that crash.

Nunu

I was with my Dad and he was given a ticket for driving in the bus lane. The circumstances were disgraceful.

Those of you who know the Nutgrove area of Dublin will be able to visualise this better:
He was driving from Nutgrove shopping centre towards 'The Yellow House' pub, where he was turning left at the lights. Traffic going straight through the lights was backed up by about 20 cars. The filter light for turning left was green but no one was turning left ahead of him, so my Dad turned into the empty bus lane which stupidly doesn't end till about 10 metres from the lights. There is a bus stop just before the lane ends and lo and behold a garda emerges from behind it where he'd been hiding. He knew exactly why my Dad had been in the bus lane(for no more than 20metres) but still gave him a ticket. If anything he was relieving traffic! Why sit stationery in a lane you're ultimately not using when you have a filter light to turn left you can use by driving in an empty bus lane for a matter of seconds?

Madness! The Garda knew exactly what he was doing because he wouldn't have situated himself there otherwise. I'd say he caught dozens of motorists using the lane in identical circumstances.

arybvtcw0eolkf

kippy wrote:

Not every guard is going to be fighting the crimelords.
If they are "hiding" at the end of bus lanes it is for good cause-to catch people who use them illegally.
I am all for it.
Kippy

This thread isn't about people illegally using the lanes or not. Its about lazing policing methods which mean that instead of being a visible deterent & preventing a crime happening, the guard hides like a sly little whore and catches the motorist in the lane.

I just think the guards time would be better spent being visible and detering people from using the lanes.

ruprect

Mairt wrote:

I just think the guards time would be better spent being visible and detering people from using the lanes.

I see what you are getting at but the gardai are not there all the time. You want people to know they are around so they know if they can break the law or not. That is like saying the gardai should make announcements like "we will not be policing for drunk driving or speeding this bank holiday weekend". Lots of people would drink & speed. If the guy looks for the gardai he will break the law every day he is not there. What is the deterrent? if the gardai is there he will not break the law. If he gets caught by a hidden garda then the next time he will be thinking "those sly gits hide!, I can no longer risk breaking the law simply because I cannot see them".

The only way around it is constant garda prescence, but more sensible is cameras catching everybody.

markpb

Nunu wrote:

Those of you who know the Nutgrove area of Dublin will be able to visualise this better

Actually it doesn't matter where it is, the same thing happens at junctions all around the city. It might not be entirely fair but at the end of the day, your dad made a conscious decision to break the law and use the bus lane to his own advantage.

which stupidly doesn't end till about 10 metres from the lights

Why is it stupid? If the lane ended any earlier, cars would jump in even earlier, blocking the bus from getting to the junction and defeating the entire purpose of the bus lane.

Madness! The Garda knew exactly what he was doing because he wouldn't have situated himself there otherwise. I'd say he caught dozens of motorists using the lane in identical circumstances.

Garda in being in the right place for catching people breaking the law shocker! You make it sound like he forced them to drive in the bus lane so he could catch them.

Mairt wrote:

This thread isn't about people illegally using the lanes or not. Its about lazing policing methods which mean that instead of being a visible deterent & preventing a crime happening, the guard hides like a sly little whore and catches the motorist in the lane.

I just think the guards time would be better spent being visible and detering people from using the lanes.

If gardai are visible on the road, people will see them and pull out of the bus lane. Then, knowing they are reasonably safe, they pull back into the bus lane and continue their journey. Without reasonably high coverage, deterrence doesn't work.

Terry

Nunu wrote:

I was with my Dad and he was given a ticket for driving in the bus lane. The circumstances were disgraceful.

Those of you who know the Nutgrove area of Dublin will be able to visualise this better:
He was driving from Nutgrove shopping centre towards 'The Yellow House' pub, where he was turning left at the lights. Traffic going straight through the lights was backed up by about 20 cars. The filter light for turning left was green but no one was turning left ahead of him, so my Dad turned into the empty bus lane which stupidly doesn't end till about 10 metres from the lights. There is a bus stop just before the lane ends and lo and behold a garda emerges from behind it where he'd been hiding. He knew exactly why my Dad had been in the bus lane(for no more than 20metres) but still gave him a ticket. If anything he was relieving traffic! Why sit stationery in a lane you're ultimately not using when you have a filter light to turn left you can use by driving in an empty bus lane for a matter of seconds?

Madness! The Garda knew exactly what he was doing because he wouldn't have situated himself there otherwise. I'd say he caught dozens of motorists using the lane in identical circumstances.

he didn't have the patience to wait for the traffic to move 50 metres?

Hagar

kippy wrote:

Not every guard is going to be fighting the crimelords

And why not?
Chasing bus lane users given the current state of crime in Ireland is just legal masturbation - it makes the guard feel good for a minute but does **** all good for anyone else.

Saruman

markpb wrote:

Why is it stupid? If the lane ended any earlier, cars would jump in even earlier, blocking the bus from getting to the junction and defeating the entire purpose of the bus lane.

No in this and many situations, the cars would be turing left and not stopping at all unless there was traffic they had to yield to, in which case the bus would not be going anywhere either!

This happened to me years ago... only for me it was even less distance. I only pulled in to turn left about 2 yards or so before the "official" end of bus lane.. and i got a ticket from a motorbike guard behind me. I could not believe it.

I have more recently since freeflow started seen drivers in bus lanes only to be stopped by a garda waiting, but not ticketing.. just telling them off and getting them back in to traffic. Mean while other cars are pulling in practically hitting my car forcing their way in front to get out before the garda sees them Muppets.

Some bus lanes are retarded.. like the N32... no bus uses it At least they finally got rid of the bus lanes at the roundabout to the M50..

Terry

Hagar wrote:

And why not?
Chasing bus lane users given the current state of crime in Ireland is just legal masturbation - it makes the guard feel good for a minute but does **** all good for anyone else.

it makes me feel good as i whizz by all the traffic on the bus.

markpb

Saruman wrote:

No in this and many situations, the cars would be turning left and not stopping at all unless there was traffic they had to yield to, in which case the bus would not be going anywhere either!

It does make a difference though. If 2-3 cars decide to jump in early, even though they have priority, they will hold up a bus behind. The whole idea of bus lanes is to stop buses being held up.

This happened to me years ago... only for me it was even less distance. I only pulled in to turn left about 2 yards or so before the "official" end of bus lane.. and i got a ticket from a motorbike guard behind me. I could not believe it.

So your problem is with the law, not the enforcement of the law. You knew the law, decided to break it and got caught. Boo hoo.

Some bus lanes are retarded.. like the N32... no bus uses it At least they finally got rid of the bus lanes at the roundabout to the M50..

The N32 bus lane was never traffic lane and never will be a traffic lane. It was a hard shoulder converted into a bus lane for the duration of the port tunnel works. It used to have a bus service officially operating on it (AERDart) but they've gone out of business and sillyness on the part of the Dept. of Transport means that no-one else, not even Dublin Bus, can operate a service on it.

kippy

And why not?
Chasing bus lane users given the current state of crime in Ireland is just legal masturbation - it makes the guard feel good for a minute but does **** all good for anyone else.

Okay, every guard in the country including traffic cops head up to Dublin to sort out the gangland problem in Dublin.
That would be a great idea-everyone else run riot.
All the muppets out there on the roads can have a free for all, bad enough as it is already.
Kippy

Hagar

kippy wrote:

Okay, every guard in the country including traffic cops head up to Dublin to sort out the gangland problem in Dublin.

[Sarcasm] Luckily there's no crime anywhere in Ireland except Dublin.
There's no crime at all in Galway, no gangs running drugs down there at all.
It just magically appears in the pocket of the dealer's hoodie. [/Sarcasm never ends in AH]

b3t4

Nunu wrote:

I was with my Dad and he was given a ticket for driving in the bus lane.

You have no idea how people doing what your Dad did erk me on a regular basis. It can take my bus around 10mins to get through some junctions because of this carry on.

People complain so much about buses not being on time but I can't blame them when they are stuck behind imbecile drivers on a daily basis. The standard of driving that I have witnessed in Dublin is appalling.

I'm delighted to see that people are getting fined for this behaviour and I'd be only too happy if every single one of these people were fined till they learnt what a bus lane means.

A.

brianthebard

Mairt wrote:

Would their time be better served making a visible presense, thereby being a deterent to motorists using the lanes?.

Surely that is being a deterent, and more effective in that drivers need to remember that they can be caught out at any stage when there are guards "hiding", whereas if drivers can clearly see where the gardai are then they will just "behave" themselves so to speak, until they see there are no gardai around and go back in the buslane or whatever.

I mean the reason they set up speedchecks at turns and the like is specifically to catch people out who, not to give you a chance to slow down before you meet the guards. That would be silly and in no way encourage people to follow the rules of the road imo. [/rant]

spurious

Bus lane users being caught lessens road rage for those who are sitting fuming in the car lane day after day watching the bus lane skippers get away with it.

Up with that sort of thing I say.

hmmm

b3t4 wrote:

I'm delighted to see that people are getting fined for this behaviour and I'd be only too happy if every single one of these people were fined till they learnt what a bus lane means.

What p*****s me off about these people is the impact on types like me who try to obey the law and stay in the lane until the bus lane ends. As I go to move into the left lane, I find these eejits zipping up my inside preventing me from changing lanes. Then I get to hold up the innocents behind me as I try to move in as traffic moves off.

Good on the guard I say.

brianthebard

spurious wrote:

Bus lane users being caught lessens road rage for those who are sitting fuming in the car lane day after day watching the bus lane skippers get away with it.

Up with that sort of thing I say.

This is the sort of thing that made me join he garda reserve!!!





(well not really but it might. Some day....)

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

kippy

[Sarcasm] Luckily there's no crime anywhere in Ireland except Dublin.
There's no crime at all in Galway, no gangs running drugs down there at all.
It just magically appears in the pocket of the dealer's hoodie. [/Sarcasm never ends in AH]

The guards are doing their job sorting out the pricks who use the bus lanes without being allowed to. They are also doing their jobs catching people for drink driving and speeding. All of these things while minor in the whole scheme of things are breaking the laws of this country.
You cannot say that other crime is being ignored because too many guards are standing at the end of bus lanes without proving it.

{sarcasm} AH is for idiots-myself included. {/sarcasm}

celboy

were they wearing big pig suits and eating freshly cooked Bacon?

They were weren't they.

kippy

were they wearing big pig suits and eating freshly cooked Bacon?

They were weren't they.

Thats the kind of attitude I expect in AH.
That of a 12 year old and a stupid 12 year old at that.
Kippy

Sully

julep wrote:

in all fairness, i would say that poor driving caused that crash.

Exactly what I was thinking. It seems some people have to blame the gardai for everything.

markpb wrote:

If gardai are visible on the road, people will see them and pull out of the bus lane. Then, knowing they are reasonably safe, they pull back into the bus lane and continue their journey. Without reasonably high coverage, deterrence doesn't work.

Exactly, and this defeats the purpose if you ask me. Its like the idea behind speed cameras on the road and having warning signs a few hundred meters before approaching them. What is the point? People are just gonna slow down, drive past, and speed up again. BUT, if the cops are hidden in various locations people wont be able to slow down in advance because they wont know where they are. And will eventually learn there lesson to stick to the law.

Hagar wrote:

And why not?
Chasing bus lane users given the current state of crime in Ireland is just legal masturbation - it makes the guard feel good for a minute but does **** all good for anyone else.

In normal circumstances its the Garda Traffic Unit doing speed checks and all other traffic related stuff. They are not responsible (and im not to sure if they can) hunt down criminals with guns shooting people down in the street etc. Thats a different departments duty, and thus why we now have Armed Gardai out on the street in visible presence to prevent such shootings. Also note, im sure the detectives who normally work in the office are doing their jobs by investigating the recent shootings, interviewing suspects etc. and trying to bring them to justice.

Also note the current state of Road Traffic Offences in Ireland. Cops visible, or hiding instead of having them all working on finding gang lords - will not solve the road problems we have in Ireland.

Honestly, it seems some people just cant fact facts. You break the law - expect to get in trouble. The laws are there for a reason. If you saw people doing road traffic offences and no cops were about because they were all huddled in on the investigation of the gang lords - you would be pretty pissed to im sure. The cops have more then one job to do - they have teams working on gang land crimes, working on road offences, general offences etc. all at the same time. Its not like we have one team told to "do those jobs throughout the day" - its broken up for a reason.

</rant>

brianthebard

Sully04 wrote:

In normal circumstances its the Garda Traffic Unit doing speed checks and all other traffic related stuff. They are not responsible (and im not to sure if they can) hunt down criminals with guns shooting people down in the street etc. Thats a different departments duty, and thus why we now have Armed Gardai out on the street in visible presence to prevent such shootings. Also note, im sure the detectives who normally work in the office are doing their jobs by investigating the recent shootings, interviewing suspects etc. and trying to bring them to justice.

Agree totally, that's the job of the drug squad, surely, I mean they are the ones issued with guns and specifically working on that job. The traffic unit takes care of traffic.

Nehpets

kippy wrote:

Thats the kind of attitude I expect in AH.
That of a 12 year old and a stupid 12 year old at that.
Kippy

Get out more. For everyone's sake.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Sully04 wrote:

thus why we now have Armed Gardai out on the street in visible presence to prevent such shootings.

Actually probably every armed checkpoint I've driven through the armed detectives where standing around chatting with their buddies while the uniformed lads were carrying out car tax inspections!.

Indeed during the 80's when we had a loyalist threat against the republic the governments response was to put up a 'ring of steel' around the captial comprising of army/guarda checkpoints. Do you know what we done?... (I'm a soldier).. We carried out car tax inspections.

Same was true during the first gulf war when we'd a 'ring of steel' around Dublin airport... You guessed it, more car tax inspections!.

Nope, policing the bus lanes does nothing to combat crime or make people feel safer in this god for saken country, it collect's revenue, pure and simple.

Guy:Incognito

Hagar wrote:

And why not?
Chasing bus lane users given the current state of crime in Ireland is just legal masturbation - it makes the guard feel good for a minute but does **** all good for anyone else.

are you suggesting that every gard in the country should abandon any attempt to stop criminals below the top tier of crimelords? :rolleyes: For years people were whingin g about getting a dedicated traffic corps set up, then they get it and the poeple whinge that these gards are upholdign traffic laws. I honestly cant believe how far people will go to whinge about something. Professional moaners.

Mairt wrote:

Seriously, should their job not be to prevent crime from happening in the first place than catching an offender after he/she has offended?.

What do you think this is , minority report?

markpb

Mairt wrote:

Nope, policing the bus lanes does nothing to combat crime or make people feel safer in this god for saken country, it collect's revenue, pure and simple.

Oddly enough policing the bus lanes makes them more efficient, letting bus users travel around faster (or at least at reasonable speeds). It has nothing to do with making people feel safer, I'm not sure where you got that idea.

arybvtcw0eolkf

markpb wrote:

Oddly enough policing the bus lanes makes them more efficient, letting bus users travel around faster (or at least at reasonable speeds). It has nothing to do with making people feel safer, I'm not sure where you got that idea.

That wasn't my idea at all.

:rolleyes: