Standard Lancashire Coach Attack by Bradshaw’s Quality Travel of Bispham, Blackpool- lots of oncoming traffic so they overtake anyway and swerve into the cyclist, because they know there’s no possibility of police action. It’s not the worst I’ve experiences, but still alarming
Incident type: Bus
Coach performing unsafe overtake of cyclists, right at the start of the rear facing video and then again in the middle of the front facing video.
Copy/paste of the complaint to TransportNSW:
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I was cycling northbound from work (Brookvale) to home (Newport) along Pittwater Road when a B1, number 2851, overtook me immediately before the Dee Why B-Line stop and then cut in front, squeezing me into the kerb and forcing me to brake hard to avoid a collision. In fact I had to swerve out into the traffic around the B1 in order to avoid going into the back of it, as my braking was reduced in the wet conditions. The B1 sounded its horn as it overtook me, and I believe that it was a completely deliberate move motivated by a aggressive and negative attitude towards cyclists. In the 500m before the incident I was riding slightly downhill at around 40km/h, I was not holding the B1 up. I was highly visible with a bright flashing lights, an orange backpack, white bike and a Cycliq Lumiere fully-reflective jacket. In rush hour, the B1 was clearly going to have to pull over at the Dee Why B-Line stop, it’s not a case that a passenger rang the Stop bell at the last moment.
Following this incident, with the same B1 now behind me, I was very nervous about being overtaken again by the same driver. I rode as hard as I could, hitting 180bpm heart-rate, towards home. I almost reached Mona Vale before the same B1 caught me. I pulled off Pittwater Road when I realised it was behind me, but the driver still beeped me again as they passed.
On Wednesday last week, in almost exactly the same place, another B1 beeped me again, I assumed for taking up ‘their’ space in the bus lane. I guess now that it was the same driver, who just is aggressive towards cyclists.
I have commuted by bike 15-20km each way approx. 3 days/week for several years. I am well used to aggression and endangerment from car drivers, but I don’t appreciate it from professional public transport drivers.
The driver of Bus 441 squeezed me between a concrete kerb and another parked bus on Easty St, Phillip ACT. I was forced to brake to avoid being possibly crushed between the two buses. In the ACT, drivers are required to give cyclists a minimum passing distance of 1m at speeds less than 60 km/h. The drive could easily have waited for me to continue up the road – he was about to pull-over anyway.
He could have waited a couple of seconds and then made his stop. But no, he gave me a near-death experience instead
Bus made a ridiculously close pass at pinch point. My elbow made contact with the bus (see smear on side of bus). Did not hear bus approaching.