Speeding buses

Chris_533976

Before I make a fuss, I'll say that most bus drivers are good. They have to put up with a lot of **** and the reason they're late 90% of the time is outside of their control.

However, a few buses I've been on recently try a little too hard to catch up on time. I carry my handheld GPS with me often, and I've noticed that a lot of them go a little too fast.

The entire bus run is a 50kmh limit, and today I took the bus into town and back, and walked around town a bit. The bus was the only fast thing I was on. Now in an entirely 50kmh zone, I notice on getting home that the max speed my GPS recorded is 69.9kmh. Most speedometers here overestimate by up to 10% (both cars I've driven do too), so basically a bus driver could knowingly have gone what he thought was 77kmh in a 50kmh zone. Thats a bit excessive IMO and I'm tempted to send an ole email to the company involved. Its not the only time this has happened either, I've seen the GPS register 60kmh in many 50kmh zones on buses from the same company.

(And the GPS is accurate before you ask. I'm not sure just how accurate, but its within a kmh or two, max. Its accurate to between 3 and 6m most of the time, dunno how to translate that into a speed error).

Any else had experience with blatantly speeding bus drivers?

Wishbone Ash

It might be appropriate to specify the bus company and town/city that you are referring to.

BTW - regardless of the posted speed limit, the maximum speed that a double deck vehicle may travel at on a public road is 64kph. I regularly see Dublin Bus buses exceeding that speed on outer suburban routes.

dsane1

Maybe slightly off the topic but how about 100k speed limit for buses on the main routes around the country as in the rest of europe afaik ?Bloody annoying sitting on a bus on a motorway doing 80kph !

Chris_533976

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

It might be appropriate to specify the bus company and town/city that you are referring to.

Yeah I didnt want to mention names in this case as its accusation, but its in Galway and its not Bus Eireann. Their buses are red

Wishbone Ash

dsane1 wrote: »

Bloody annoying sitting on a bus on a motorway doing 80kph !

It is illegal for a bus to travel on the righthand lane of a motorway, (unless the speedlimit of the motorway is less than 80kph), so you shouldn't really be stuck behind one. .... .

........but then again, this is Ireland and the overtaking lane is probably being hogged by inconsiderate drivers.

corktina

sitting ON not Behind methinks....

Red Buses? not Bulgy is it?

Wishbone Ash

corktina wrote: »

sitting ON not Behind methinks...

Ah yes, Now I see!

Zoney

dsane1 wrote: »

Maybe slightly off the topic but how about 100k speed limit for buses on the main routes around the country as in the rest of europe afaik ?Bloody annoying sitting on a bus on a motorway doing 80kph !

Yeah, although actually a lot of the time the bus suspiciously doesn't get passed out by everyone and has to overtake trucks and even some cars...

PRND

In Dublin I find a big problem with the rapid acceleration and braking of Dublin Buses. They may not break the speed limit but they seem to move off at full power then ram on the brakes as they approach the vehicle in front. It's not much fun when you are standing.

In relation to the max speed of double deal buses; what about those Ulsterbus Goldline ones?

Wishbone Ash

PRND wrote: »

In Dublin I find a big problem with the rapid acceleration and braking of Dublin Buses. They may not break the speed limit but they seem to move off at full power then ram on the brakes as they approach the vehicle in front. It's not much fun when you are standing.

It can be very difficult to brake gently in some buses - it's either all or nothing!

PRND wrote:

In relation to the max speed of double deal buses; what about those Ulsterbus Goldline ones?

The would be subject to our regulations while travelling in the ROI.

The maximum speed limit for standard single deckers (80kph) in regularly flouted by Bus Eireann drivers in my experience.

L1011

Don't think I've seen a 66 doing less than 80 along the R148 (old N4) in many years - used to have them keep up with you doing 60mph in the old days anyway. Its a nice safe WS2 road, but 99kmh != 64kmh... do the Guards ever enforce the category specific speed limits?

corktina

i should imagine that the low speed limits should apply to vehicles permitted standing passengers and all-seated vehicles should be not included. (ie Bus vs Coach). AN example of regulations written by someone who does not understand the Road Transport industry perhaps?)

sgt.bilko

do these buses not have limiters fitted ?

Strange but true : Army Medical Corp Ambulances in Kildare regularly turn out for 999 calls but have limiters fitted.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Victor

corktina wrote: »

i should imagine that the low speed limits should apply to vehicles permitted standing passengers and all-seated vehicles should be not included. (ie Bus vs Coach). AN example of regulations written by someone who does not understand the Road Transport industry perhaps?)

Coaches 80km/h
Double decker buses 65km/h
Unless the posted limit is lower.

sgt.bilko wrote: »

do these buses not have limiters fitted ?

I imagine they do, although vehicles with a max of 80km/h tend to have the limit about 90km/h

Strange but true : Army Medical Corp Ambulances in Kildare regularly turn out for 999 calls but have limiters fitted.

Maximum speed is rarely used by an ambulance.

Solitaryman666 wrote: »

I don't know whether all these buses I'm thinking of actually break the limit but I think some of them drive very wrecklessly. I know I've been on a 70N a few times and afair in Castleknock where it has to pole which shows your speed the bus was doing 70+.

I imagine its possible.

I've found that late night buses fly along and take turns/roundabouts very quickly. I was on a 70N there on Friday night coming home from work and coming into Littlepace around the roundabout at some speed some poor man went flying into a seat.

I think there are two additional contributory causes to that (a) not holding on (b) being drunk.

corktina

Victor, I know what the limits are...Im saying that there SHOULD be a difference between Coaches and Buses (whether single OR double deckers...

SickCert

In my depot everything from 1998 and beyond is limited to 65 kph.

The 1996 RAs to early 1998 Rvs are a tad wild.

patrickc

SickCert wrote: »

In my depot everything from 1998 and beyond is limited to 65 kph.

The 1996 RAs to early 1998 Rvs are a tad wild.

that being mainly comprised of 78a's? id imagine

TommyShannon

patrickc wrote: »

that being mainly comprised of 78a's? id imagine

To make sure they get off the Neilstown road as soon as possible;)

TirEoghain

I remember one time about 10 years ago I was on a Wright Endeavour bodied Leyland Tiger with a Volvo engine (type TR2R62V16Z4), and I had calculated based on distance travelled versus time taken that the bus had done an average speed of about 77MPH. Now that was a fast journey. This was over the most of the M1 from Dungannon to Belfast.

parsi

Chris_533976 wrote: »

I notice on getting home that the max speed my GPS recorded is 69.9kmh.

(And the GPS is accurate before you ask. I'm not sure just how accurate, but its within a kmh or two, max. Its accurate to between 3 and 6m most of the time, dunno how to translate that into a speed error).

I went for a walk last week and had my Garmin tracking my speed and position. Came home and it showed that my max speed was circa 70km/h. I now I walk fairly fast but.....

Victor

Someone tells me

"Most of the buses limiters are set to 66-67kph. A handful of the tri-axel buses are set to 72kph. What most people don’t realise is that when travelling on a bus it feels like your going much faster than you actually are."

Polar101

Solitaryman666 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I believe one of the reasons they do that is trying to keep drunk passengers awake. If it's a very smooth ride, then they'll have a lot of sleeping passengers at the terminus. Not an excuse for reckless driving, of course.