Timed bus lanes are a great example of many drivers not reading signage. A few bus lanes near to me are timed and I often use them when allowed. I also have to be ready for angry drivers trying to cut in front of me (i may pass numerous drivers on the approach to the traffic signals), often without indicating, at end of the bus lane who think i should not be there, and they possibly feel that I am getting in their way. I believe they see the solid white line and the blue sign, but do not bother to read the blue sign, and just stay out by default. So, I always proceed carefully in bus lanes due to this problem, and try to anticipate other drivers that may decide to aggresively cut in front of me believing they are making a point.
@@fburton8 Indeed, a bus lane local to me that is always a headache is Balmore Road near Possil heading in to town...and to compound the issue, people park in the bus lane to use the carry out shop and take away 🤪
@@DemiGod..just to clarify, they mustn't enter it after the lights change. If they were already in it (entered on green but then the lights changed, held up by traffic etc) they must stay there and not cross the second line. Highway code says you shouldn't enter it if you can't exit it on green, not mustn't.
Try using a bus lane in London, then indicating to move out when encountering an obstacle (bike or delivery driver, for example) The abuse one gets is even more than Ash does when he criticises a bike rider on a tube video 😆 It is just easier & safer to stay out of the bus lane altogether. I'm sure that's why the vast majority of drivers don't bother using the bus lanes. It is rarely any quicker anyway, as timed bus lanes only come in when there is increased road demand,.
Same here timed bus lanes are the best everyone stays right,until the bus lane ends then they swing across 3 lanes to get to lane 1 of 4 so you have to be aware that they are going to be stupid at the end of the bus lane and pick Lane 1 to go straight on (as long as this video doesn't become common knowledge I am Happy)
Near Bury there were bus lanes along a the Manchester road into Bury. As you approached the bus lane it had times, so it wasn’t in use, further along the road the bus lane then had a sign with no times, then further again there was another sign with times. The problem was people saw a time at the start of the bus lane and expected that to be the same all along the whole bus lane, of course there was a camera along the part with no times catching everyone. This is the sort of actions that make road users distrust councils.
I love that people don't read the bus lane times near me. The amount of times they pile into the right lane and slows down to a crawl and I wizz on by.
Drive in Nottinghan the signs are up and down every few hundred yards backed up by cameras, much safer to stay in the normal lane. Some of the time signs are like war and peace 😮
Reading times and dates on signs when in busy traffic or in poor light on roads you are not familiar with is a big ask. Roads in Liverpool are unusual in being so big and wide with good sight lines, many other cities are far more congested.
An idea I had is to install an LED light above or below the sign that is either green or red based on the current time. It would require a small computer and a power source for each sign but if we start now in 2-4 years all of the signs would be easy to read in all weather and light conditions.
Not here for an argument but would like to add that if traffic is that congested one would be driving that bit more cautiously and further back from the car in front so one is able to create a little time to read the signs. Having said that, anything more than a time slot of operation is beyond me. I've always had a problem reading and driving. It seems to me like two conflicting parts of the brain are required to work at the same time and my driving ability suffers for it, especially if signs are put in silly places.
It is not just about how visible it is but also sometimes about information overload, and maybe if one is going to discard some information as more than one can cope with the times a bus lane is active may be less important and so safer to discard than other more important driving information.
Some years ago I received a parking infringement notice from the people who monitor Clacket Lane services on the M25. The photograph showed a tatty old Ford Fiesta with the same registration mark as my Harley-Davidson motorcycle. How on earth could these people confuse a small car with a motorcycle? I attempted to inform the police about the cloned plate but they weren't interested.
Agreed. It's not so bad if the time information is simple (e.g. the bus lane is in operation from 08:00-18:00) but near me there are several bus lanes where the lane may be in operation during morning rush hour, evening rush hour and perhaps even at other times of the day and the timings are not simple whole hours but things like 07:45. So, you have a lot of (reasonably) complex information to take in, that is printed in quite a small font and perhaps you may also need to do a double check of the actual time to figure out whether you are inside or outside any of the specified operational timeslots: all as you pass by at the speed of the traffic flow. Very few (if any) other signs (even complex direction signs) present you with that level of information in such a condensed way, that you then have to process numerically before you can figure out what it says and then respond accordingly.
And yet people just assume that everyone can read small text, or just assume that everyone has a clock in their cars, or just simply assume that everyone wear watches.
1:43 If the road tax is replaced by pay by mile in the UK, let's hope it's via the mot; otherwise there's going to be a hell of a lot of number plate cloning if it's done by cameras.
I got a parking fine once from a council in Hertfordshire. The accompanying photo clearly showed a VW Golf with my number plate. I replied that I was never anywhere near their town and my car at the time was a Rover 75. They replied relatively quickly that I was right and my fine had been cancelled. Never heard anything else about it.
Your viewer, Tom, was very fortunate that it was not West Yorkshire Police. I can remember handing in some lost property to a police station in Leeds while another person was trying to convince the police that there was a car with cloned number plates in a car park in the city antre and the police wanted nothing to do with it, telling the guy that it was a civil matter.
Parking is a civil matter now here in Aberdeen. The police aren't interested in people on double yellow lines or whatever, it's down to the City Wardens. Who all clock off at 8pm, so after that, park where you like, mate 🙄
An old colleague of mine got pulled over in his Driving School car for driving “ in a bus lane “ by the Police. He let the officer write the ticket and, just before he signed it, told the officer that he wasn’t accepting it. The officer then got educated on the times on the signs as my colleague was driving in it when it wasn’t in operation and the officer hadn’t got a clue about the times on the signs….. In my area, one local authority has bus lanes 24/7 the next local authority has rush hour times. No one drives in the out of hours ones but loads drive in the 24/7 ones. Crazy.
This is because normal police drivers get no extra training. Only traffic police get extra training. So I was informed after I sped past a normal police car and pulled over only for him to advise me he could not issue a ticket.
I used to have fun when I taught in Shrewsbury. It's a one way, 2 lane 20mph zone with the left lane being a bus lane from 7:30 - 18:30. I used to time lessons to take students through at 18:31 and watch drivers speed past us at 30, apopleptic with rage that we were in a bus lane. The irony.
First time I got caught in a bus lane was 3 days after I retired from driving buses 😆 🤣 another funny story I broke down in a bus lane driving a bus this time and the recovery truck driver got a fine for coming into the bus lane to recover my bus in Glasgow
Regarding bus lanes, interestingly in Vancouver Canada you are allowed to drive in a bus lane for a maximum of one city block in order to either turn off into an upcoming side street or to use it as a merge / acceleration lane when coming out of a side street onto the main road. I actually have a situation over there where I am turning onto a main road with a bus lane and two blocks later I need to turn off it again into another side street. Because I can legally drive in the bus lane for one block to merge onto the main road and also allowed to drive one block to turn off the main road, this means I can continue in the bus lane for the full two blocks for turning on and off the main road without leaving the bus lane.
This could be useful at Heuston Station Dublin where you have 2 car lengths of allowed lane to make a left turn into the station carpark when approaching from the west. Idiotically short turn left lanes are painted at many of our junctions and idiotic lane changes painted on or near junctions which if followed to the letter of the law would result in sideswipes and collisions.
Bus lanes are a pain because as a bus driver I use them all the time but people who don't use them then suddenly want to turn left and just go for it without indicating in front of buses or cars if out of times of bus lane operation is unreal. If I'm undertaking cars queuing in outside lane it definitely makes you more aware of cars queuing and slow down for each junction.
Near Newcastle where I live there's a few bus lanes where the restriction is only 12 hours a day, from 7am to 7pm. For some reason car drivers tend to keep clear of them all the time, maybe they're just on autopilot. Furthermore if you do use the lane some drivers seem to go all out to stop you merging back in at the end, even if the traffic is moving with no queues.
For those who might face a similar situation. It's all about documentation. Have all your documents ready, photocopies, and proof of communication, keep copies of any letters you send or receive. All this will come in handy if it goes to the county court. If it does, it's simply about providing documentation, and writing a story. Describe each step you took, and the response you received, or the lack thereof. Better not to write long paragraphs, write it in bullet point format after initial introduction regarding the case. The judge can quickly scan the information, they won't have time to read long paragraphs, and could miss important information. Resulting in a judgement against yourself, probably a slight chance but why take it, when you can simply present your arguments in a easy to follow format. Good luck if you are in such a situation.
My 80 year old father from Fife Scotland received a fine from Liverpool council a few years back for driving in a bus lane somewhere in Liverpool, photo is same car looks like same reg, only problem was he’s never been out of Scotland in this particular car owned from new for 16 years, contacted Police and council Police we’re not bothered about possible cloned plates, council did however cancel the fine.
I passed my test in 1990 and my instructor did not give the comprehensive running commentary that you do for your students. It reminded me of my grandfather who took the Advanced Driver test, he told me as part of the test he had to give a running commentary as he performed the test.
My instructor was the same: he did not do a running commentary. However, he did discuss any issues emerging so I was happy enough. I find doing a running commentary a really useful exercise to sharpen my driving, particularly my observation skills as I am looking for things about which I can or should comment! Commentary was something I practiced for my IAM Roadsmart advanced driving, although I didn't need to do it for all of my IAM Roadsmart advanced test way back in 1989.
I got a fixed penalty for riding in a bus lane, luckily I knew where and I was in a position to go back. I took a photo of the sign that said motorbikes are permitted and sent it to them. They cancelled it however if I didn't know the road or wasn't able to go back and check... 🤷
Timed bus lanes are great and as you said, it's about reading the signage. There's a road (with a timed bus lane) near me that on a Sunday morning all the learner drivers are in the middle lane and not in said bus lane.
I still think bus lanes should only be reserved for buses at all times. UK allowing everyone on the bus lane for certain hours is stupid, it's says "BUS LANE" meaning that buses should only be allowed at all times. No wonder why UK drivers cut off bus drivers and causing them to be late.
Whenever there is an oppurtunity to drive in a bus lane I will, provided it is at a time where it is non-functioning. I don't drive in the bus lane for really any other reason than I can! But much to my annoyance, whether councils allow you to ride a motorcycle in bus lanes seems to vary too much! South of the Tyne in Gateshead it is a massive no-no but yet Newcastle City Council and most other councils in the North East will allow you to do so.
The weirdest story I heard about illegal bus lane usage was on TV. A guy had registration something like KN19 TER received a letter, got the photo and it was of two women crossing the bus lane on foot. One woman had a bright yellow knitted top on and a shoulder bag with a diagonal black strap. On her top it said in big letters KNITTER. No one from officialdom had checked it for a ridiculous and embarrassing error. Its on you tube "woman walking in a bus lane gives a car a fine".
Whilst that incident does look daft, do you think they have the resources to check all the automated letters that get sent out? Occasionally these silly mistakes occur but the effect is minor and easily rectified, whilst the vast majority will work as intended. Everyone would be up in arms if they found out a council was wasting money checking something that had a miniscule failure rate.
@waltersobchak1719 meanwhile, in the real world, the councils have been bled dry. The idea they can spend money on that is fanciful. If you met someone that said "my job is to check the number plates match the vehicle on automated letters" you'd be thinking "typical council, they spend money to ensure their fines are correct but leave my road full of potholes". It is just not feasible to monitor these, for what will be a tiny failure rate. Where these mistakes occur it is horrible for the victim, I'm not arguing with that. I've little sympathy for councils either but am aware of how poorly funded they are and I'm also aware of how these mistakes can be made (I work in IT), with an understanding the economics of adding in a manual process.
@@bobby_hmm Most people assume that if you receive a letter saying you have committed an alleged offence that you would write and tell the council. However other people would actually go to court and deal with it that way. Imagine if the accused turned up in court with a barrister backed by solicitors and travelled a few hundred miles to get to a town they have never visited then get acquitted and put in a legal fees and other costs bill for £5000. Each letter should be bringing in £100 so there is presumably a budget to draw from.
@@keith6400 and maybe when a case is going to court the council will check they have everything correct, at that stage. Then the error could be picked up. So you're adding the manual intervention further down the line, on a reactive basis. Honestly, it looks poor when you pick out these individual cases but when you think about the number of letters issued, having manual checks in an automated process just doesn't add up. I'm going to leave it here though, I see where you guys are coming from, I do agree it looks bad and is horrible for the victim. I'm just giving my insight from the other side.
They've done this for decades - the automated system just sends stuff out without even rudimentary checks. I knew someone 25 years ago who got a speeding ticket and a picture of a common car in the post. He sent back a picture of his motorbike and politely told them he wouldn't be paying.
Had my motorbike teg cloned when i was in Portsmouth, police knocked my door asked me for proof of ownership not reg doc but proof, luckily i had my sales invoice still. Apparently they caught a biker on the isle of wight with my plate, think it was suspicious they checked. That was the last time i ever came across police investigating a crime properly 😂
I had a similar thing. I bought a very nice red 5-series BMW for what was, I thought, a very good price. Things started to get strange when I randomly received a new V5 that stated the vehicle was modified for use by a disabled driver... which I'm not. I contacted the DVLA and got that sorted out and then, during an MOT, the garage told me my car had the "wrong" engine in it. Apparently, according to the DVLA, it was a 525 (2.5l straight six petrol) when my car was actually a 540 (4.0l V8 petrol). Again, I received a new V5 showing a cylinder capacity of 2495cc and, this time, had to pay the DVLA to change the details back to what it had always been. That happened for 2 or 3 years; I'd take it for an MOT and be told it "should" be a 525, get issued a new V5, contact the DVLA and have it change back to being a 540. This was back in the days before the DVLA had a website but it was also in a time when you could easily get in touch with a helpful person on the phone and I was told "my car" had been through 3 new owners during the time I'd owned it and each one had changed something on the V5. Shame really because it WAS a really nice car but after I got the V5 sorted out for the 3rd or 4th time, I traded it in for a newer model which turned out to be far less reliable and ended-up being the last BMW I owned.
Yeah but this is Britain. Everything possible is done to increase traffic congestion & frustrate the motorist. At 4.56 for example, one is not allowed to use an empty bus lane to go round a vehicle turning right. Instead one must waste brake material to stop & wait like a lemon, burning over-taxed fuel, until the car turns and the accelerate again burning more over-taxed fuel.
@@wibbley1 Britain is just backwards and have stupid laws regarding bus lanes. In many Nordic countries when approaching intersections it's allowed to go on the bus lane right away, most bus lanes are doubled as turning lanes for cars. And yet in the UK, you're only allowed enter at the end of the bus lane. No wonder why UK drivers cut off buses.
@@wibbley1lol, everything’s a war on motorists to you types. Given the average length between turns isn’t particularly large in the UK, if drivers were allowed to use the bus lane for turning “immediately” (whatever that means) then you’d basically not have bus lanes.
@@MrDblStop I do drive, I last voted Labour but will probs vote Green as they’re the only semblance of a left-wing party left in the country, and I would like for much better and more affordable public transit to be available to everyone (myself included). So like 1 out of 3, good job fella.
Last year I had a new V5 in the post for a Vauxhall Zafira I had never owned. DVLA website tells you what to do although I copied the front and back for my own records before posting off. Expected lots of fines in the next 6-8 weeks but got nothing. Just fortunate I think on this one.
Twice I've had notices from Brighton & Hove, from which I live 100 miles away and never drive to. The first included a photograph and was very clearly a misread plate. Another clue was that the vehicle involved was a flatbed Transit and not my Yamaha GTS1000. That one resolved quite quickly. The second was for my van and the provided evidence was an incredibly poor quality video, in which I could just about tell it was the same model and colour as mine. No picture of the plate was provided. My initial appeal was rejected, at which point a picture of the plate was included, which made it quite obvious that it was again a misread plate. I then had to start going through the independent appeals process, at which point the penalty was dropped before an appeals decision.
In one of the Large Towns not far from my home, there are Full Time and Part Time Bus Lanes. When they were introduced and I was still Instructing, myself as well as other Local Instructors correctly advised our Pupils to drive in the Part Time Bus Lanes outside the times displayed. The amount of abuse we all got for doing the correct thing became so bad that we got the DSA, Police and Local Press Involved. Did it improve matters NO. Even today there is still a minority of drivers think its wrong, when I drive in the Bus Lanes outside the times on the signs.
It's right, and easy enough if you drive the route regularly, but if you're unfamiliar it's just hard to keep up with that and simultaneously safely navigate hazards.
@@martineyles The Drivers who are the biggest culprits for not reading signs and complaining about drivers doing the right thing are residents of that said town, Not Strangers who are unfamiliar as they are the ones who read the signs. Familiarity Breeds Contempt.
The timed lanes can be funny. I frequently experience people getting quite indignant when I use one in the permitted time, one woman broke the speed limit to overtake, gesticulating wildly as she passed, and then pulled in front and slowed sharply. I didn't see her face as I moved into the other lane, passed her and proceeded through the lights which changed to red before she caught up, but I doubt it would have done much for any local milk.
I got my car cloned some years ago. First I heard of it was a mate calling me to ask if I knew anything about an armed robbery that 'my' car had just been used in. Worst of all it was local, but I was 200 miles away at the time.
I had the same with a ram raid. Police surrounded the house. They were shocked when I said if you have my car whose car did I park on my drive. Different make and different colour. They had used a cloned plate.
When my misses worked as an administrator for a company, she dealt with the company cars. They received a speeding ticket for one of their cars, captured fairly local to their office in Hertordshire. However the person responsible for the car had gone by train to Edinburgh for a few days. The police were adamant that they had issued the ticket accurately, it was only after a lot of badgering that they re-checked the photo and with reluctance and no apology had to confess that they had transposed two of the registration letters when they generated the ticket. That was a very long time ago (early 1990s). Probably these days it would all be automatic, done using ANPR technology?
Rookies use cloned plates, they're pretty easy to detect especially once the real owner flags it up. Proper crims use foreign number plates, which effectively gives one carte blanche to ignore all driving laws as long as there's not an actual police officer about (which given the cuts to the forces is fairly unlikely). You can observe this in many parts of London for example.
At 04:57 it is not clear whether you said would or wouldn't be allowed to use the bus lane to overtake a car turning right. My understanding is that you should not use the bus lane, but have to wait behind the right turning vehicle. In Swindon, there's a situation where there's a bus lane down the centre of the road, as oncoming buses turn right behind you. When a bus stops ahead of you, the only way past it is to use the opposing bus lane, which to me is a no, as it means crossing a solid white line. Just have to wait for the bus to move, but most of the locals use the bus lane. On one approach to Salisbury, there's a timed bus lane, but hardly anyone uses it out of times, due partly to occasional parked cars, btu mostly due to the last few yards being 24/7 bus lane, on approach to traffic signals that give buses priority as the road narrows. Using the bus lane will always bring a fight to return to the main lane at this pinch point. I think the local test centre stopped using this on routes due to the confusion caused. When a bus lane is not in operation, we all should use it, as we should keep left unless overtaking, but add in parked cars and most drivers not using the bus lane, and few timed bus lanes are of use. Would be easier if they were all 24/7, or at most a single time, not morning/afternoon. In Swindon, there are a few permanent bus lanes, but most are 7am-7pm. So we're allowed to use the bus lanes when traffic is light. Brilliant.
>At 04:57 it is not clear whether you said would or wouldn't be allowed to use the bus lane to overtake a car turning right. Sorry but it's perfectly clear. You can't enter a bus lane to pass a vehicle turning right, unless of course it is a timed bus lane and out of it's hours of operation, in which case you should probably have been in the left lane anyway. If you think it isn't clear a brush up of the highway code is needed! >as it means crossing a solid white line This is common misconception. There is nothing automatically wrong about crossing a solid line. What you mustn't do is cross a *double* solid white line (where the line nearest to you is solid) or a solid line surrounding a hatched area. Separately you mustn't enter a bus lane during it's hours of operation. So in the example you quoted, for me it would depend entirely on if the bus lane is during its hours of operation. Outside of those hours I see no issue in using it to overtake. During it or if it's a 24hr lane, I wouldn't. >Would be easier if they were all 24/7 God no. So many bus lanes I know that I will concede are helpful during peak times, but absolutely aren't needed most of the time, and it improves flow being a general traffic lane most of the time.
Britain is just backwards and have stupid laws regarding bus lanes. In many Nordic countries when approaching intersections it's allowed to go on the bus lane right away, most bus lanes are doubled as turning lanes for cars. And yet in the UK, you're only allowed enter at the end of the bus lane. No wonder why UK drivers cut off buses.
@@ryanmitcham5522 You have misunderstood. My query was not about teh rules being clear, but about the sound quality at that instant on the video, so it was not clear what Ashley actually said. Your reply is rude, whether it was meant to be or not, so wind your neck in.
I feel a lot of drivers stay out of bus lanes just to avoid a conflict with the council sending you a fine because they are not clever enough to work out time let alone when they fine a cloned car that was not the same type or colour as the as the as the V5 - Staying clear of bus lanes just makes life easier in the long run.
I've heard it recommended that you don't post photos of your car online showing the plate number, as this makes it very easy for someone in another part of the country to clone your plates without even seeing your car or being anywhere near you. Be careful on social media for this sort of thing, including Facebook, Instagram and so forth.
I'd rather someone on the other side of the country cloned my plate than someone just down the road. Much easier to prove you weren't in Glasgow if you have receipts and GPS data showing you were in Bristol for example. Someone cloned my other half's car a few years ago, and they were using it only about 20 miles away - she ended up getting 4 speeding tickets and a parking ticket. Fortunately for us a) we were at the other end of country at the time and were able to show receipts from supermarkets etc., and b) the car hadn't actually moved since the MOT a few weeks before and the difference in mileage between the reading at the MOT and the current odo reading wasn't enough to actually get to where the camera caught her! Still took a couple of months to get them dropped however - found it interesting that there was no option on the NIP for "I have no idea who was driving as this wasn't my car", so I had to add one. The force refused to supply any photographs/video of the car either to allow us to identify any differences. Our legal system supposedly operates on the principle of "innocent until proven guilty", but that certainly wasn't the impression I got from the process.
@@Haggisking It seems "innocent until proven guilty" doesn't apply to motoring offences. It's really difficult and potentially expensive to try and prove your innocence in things like this. I think a lot of people don't bother challenging them as it's less hassle just to suck up the £200 fine and 3 points (or whatever the penalty has been dished out) than go through all the stress and cost of challenging it, knowing you're unlikely to succeed.
@@Haggisking That's quite something and I'm very sorry you had to go through such hassle and no doubt considerable stress and worry until everything got sorted out.
Thw problem with timed bus lanes in Edinburgh is that often the blue bus lane sign is located maybe up to 100 yards AFTER the start of the bus lane as marked on the road surface. Because I know the timings for some of them I can use them. But when I am on an unfamiliar road, I tend to stay out of the bus lane because I dont know the timings until the lane has already started and as it is a continous white line, I am not supposed (allowed) to cross over into the bus lane.
A bus lane was installed fairly recently on a two lane carriageway between Silverburn and Braehead in Glasgow but I didn’t last long and is now discontinued. There is a sign saying ‘bus lane not in use. Use both lanes’. But a lot of people don’t notice they just look at the road markings and treat it like it’s still a bus lane
Many years ago, my idiot brother stole the plates off an identical car, then went and filled up at the local Morrisons and did a runner. He didn't expect his picture from the CCTV to make the front page! Fool he was but he's grown up since.
@@automation7295 oh no. He was an idiot. I won't say what else he did on here but he had nobody to blame but himself as he chose to do it. I don't get offended if someone calls a relative a fool if they are a fool. 😀
@@RikAindow While you would get offended if someone calls your relative a fool, but you would probably get offended or even cry if someone makes fun of your relative in a rude way.
The one thing I would say about timed bus lanes is that, in my experience at least, the vast majority I come across allow roadside parking outside the hours of operation, and so are blocked to through traffic anyway. I generally keep out of timed bus lanes even out of their operating times for this reason alone, although there are one or two around where you know there won't be any parked cars (A370 heading towards Weston-Super-Mare approaching M5 J21, for instance), and are quite handy for jumping the queue. You've just got to be careful of people cutting across at the end of the bus lane not expecting you to be there.
Surely they'd check their mirrors. It could be any vehicle that can legally use the bus lane, like a taxi. Or what about when the bus lane is open to all traffic?
@@SteveMcIlhennie: Also see the last motorcycle compilation, where a rider came out of a bus lane that was timed, and allowed motorcycles while active, for example. There's one location where there's a break in a bus lane to allow for vehicles turning left, but people will often cut in that lane with the hopes of passing someone/squeezing past the junction before the bus lane begins again, often without any indication, or even time to react safely...
The cloning thing is one reason I download and keep my dash cam footage for a minimum of a month. It's all part of the protection it offers. You won't believe the number of drivers I've seen today crossing solid white lines into bus lanes, wrong side, and worst of all, joining and leaving motorways. It seems to be just a normal part of driving for some.
The problem I have with timed bus lanes is the roadside parking outside the designated bus lane times. In certain areas I drive, it’s better to stay out of the inactive bus lane to avoid all the parked vehicles.
Similar to lanes that have timed “no parking”. Often called “urban clearways” At some places, at times when parking is allowed, I avoid using them altogether.
About the speed camera so many drivers below the limit and still they hit the brakes when getting to a speed camera, see this all the time with one of our rare cameras on the A1 in Northumberland.
This disease seems to be widespread. Drivers hitting the brakes to 50 kph in a 80 kph zone when they spot a speed van. Made worse by people coming up behind them at 100 kph because they have just left the motorway 1 Km before. I call this road Revenue Road because it seems to be infested by speed vans while other roads with much higher rates of speeding cars are largely left alone.
Worth noting if you need to lead or pick up you can enter and exit the bus lane depending on the waiting/loading restrictions. (I wouldn’t do it by a camera to save the hassle though 😂)
There's a series of bus lanes on the west side of Edinburgh where many drivers seem to be unaware that these are timed lanes and so, do not enter. But when you do legitimately drive in them, you soon start to wonder if there's another, smarter reason. The amount of potholes in these lanes is appalling and so telling of the amount of damage these heavy vehicles do to the road. Another reason some drivers do not enter timed lanes is because they are driving too fast to read the restriction details and so take the 'safer' option.
We have a long road with a timed bus lane on test routes in Northampton. The problem is people park in it, stop to deliver goods in it and poke their car half way out over it when waiting to emerge. There are also some legacy road markings and signs which make the situation confusing. But if learners don't use this lane when it's available then they can get a serious fault on their test and fail.
gov web site has this "Bus lane signs show the times when they operate. Most bus lanes operate at peak times only (typically 7.30am to 9.30am or 3.30pm to 6.00pm on Monday to Friday). Outside the hours of operation the lanes can be used by all traffic. The legislation for most bus lanes allows permitted taxis, motorcycles and bicycles to use bus lanes. the city centre, bus lanes operate all day, from 7.00am to 7.00pm from Monday to Saturday."
Wonder if that was the only photo of the vehicle the Council provided? Many times people wrongly assume it was a clone when on closer inspection it's actually a misread of the offending vehicles plate. And as to why discrepancies aren't picked up (van rather than a car) that's because the system is almost totally automated with very little human intervention and no incentive to have any.
We have a non existent ex bus lane that's been gone for about 5yrs and even the red surface has gone - yet still people don't drive it and pull across where it used to end - scary! I also see sooooooo many cars who avoid a bus or 2+ lane outside of the active times - total lack of awareness
It's not just regular motorists not reading bus lane times. Around a year ago, I had read a news article about a local primary school headmistress complaining about cars driving in the bus lane outside her school when the kids were leaving. School finishes at 3pm, bus lane isn't active until 4pm. Maybe a week later, I was driving in the lane around 3.05pm when a traffic officer stepped out, and signalled for me to stop. He appeared stunned when I pointed out that the lane wasn't yet active. This happened 3 times over the following 2 weeks, with different officers. All had taken the view that the bus lane was active at 3pm, not 4pm. I wondered how many tickets were issued before the message got back to police Scotland. Bus lanes here used to all be active at 3pm, but changed to 4pm around 20 years ago. Just a shame that the police were only just realising this.
I got a fixed penalty notice for a driving offence in London when I was 60 miles away at the time! I explained the situation and provided a photo of my car as well as a witness statement from my manager at work who vouched for me being at work in Northampton when the incident occurred. The penalty was obviously quashed. It does show that the authority in question did not check the rwhistration as it would have shown that my car was not involved. I did read somewhere that some foreign plates can throw up a mis-read registration but I don't know that this is true.
The annoying and quite frankly mind boggling bit of this is the fact that there is a camera picture of the "offending vehicle", and anyone with a single brain cell should have picked up "hmm, that's a funny looking Honda, somethings not right" Either this is all automatic, or the person who looked at this before sending the FPN letter is stupid
Was sent a ticket a few months ago, and it was obvious no human had been involved at any point before the letter was sent out. On the photos, about the only thing that was even close to correct was the vehicle colour. Make and model were completely different, and the plate was nothing like my number. Doesn't give much confidence in ANPR when it gets the basics so very wrong.
it is all automatic the camera just captures the reg and it gets matched to the last known address in the DVLA database and then its sent out no one looks its the same for all camera fines private or government.
@@AnythingForSouls makes sense Though in this developing world where we have AI, surely that would be intellegant enough to recognise what vehicle is caught. Would prevent a lot of these incidents from happening
Yes, I remember those breakdown buses too. Guess it's more cost effective to farm out breakdowns to specialists nowadays, or it might be Health and Safety, who knows?
Problem with times bus lanes is that the signs are placed at the start of the lane and to read it clearly can be difficult especially if the lane is active when you get there. Don’t assume that if cars are in the lane that it is open to use either.
The problem is, unfortunately, that the times shown in writing on the signs is quite small and that, together with all the other street furniture plus traffic and pedestrians, makes reading and checking when the bus lane is in operation a risky operation. Hence in London many drivers just steer clear of bus lanes at all times.
I find the times on bus signs often hard to read, while observing other things, due to the size and trying to make sure which times are relevant. I often use the none bus lane to avoid any penalty until I get to a 2ns sign that I can read and confirm it's 'open' then move back to use it.
Hi Ash, at 4:56, did you say would or Wouldn’t? I’ve been given a bus lane ticket (a few years ago) for doing exactly this. Bus Lane Camera was positioned at a junction and got my picture, with just the left side in the lane, but still, in the lane.
In Nottingham the sections of bus lane change form 24 hour to other times like it’s going out of fashion. They also have cameras on them. Choosing to drive in the normal lane all the time negates the risk of accidentally getting a ticket in the bus lane. I’m sure the council have made it deliberately awkward, just so they can get some more money in fines .
I've recently went to London and ended up accidentally in a bus lane... Then I noticed I was just in time, it went out of operation a minute before I got in it. By the point I saw the sign I had already moved out of it only to then notice many cars move into it and pass unreasonably fast on the left...
I find it amusing that bus/cycle/taxi lanes are meant to speed up public service vehicles and cycles yet as soon as you have a cyclist in the lane the other two vehicles have to slow to the speed of the cyclist because there is insufficient room to pass safely and often this is slower than the main traffic. A word of warning if you are in Nottingham. At the end of the bus lanes, which are often monitored by cameras and where there is traffic lights, under no circumstances cross the solid white line even it is by just a couple of feet from the end to pull into the LH lane because you will be fined. Its a particularly nasty situation because you may be turning left and because the left lane in front of the bus lane has a couple of cars in the very limited space you will be stuck in the RH lane obstructing all the through traffic. Pulling into the bus lane would be pragmatic to maintain traffic flow and will not inconvenience the buses but the 'jobs worth' will not be allowed any discretion.
I tend to ignore times on bus lanes and avoid them altogether. You're not doing anything wrong by not driving in them when you're allowed to. It's much simpler this way and it allows me to keep my eyes on the road rather than looking at the clock and working out whether the bus lane restriction applies or not.
I used to love the timed buslanes in south London. Used to undertake dozens of queued up cars. As for Hampshire Police. I have a grouse with them, they sent me a summons for speeding at 18:53, when I was definitely not driving. I queried it, they sent me a pic of 10:53, an 8 hour difference, but it was me, not paying attention, and they said the charge stands. However, several letters later they still state the incorrect time which is giving me a niggle. Buggers.
Chances of it being an actual cloned plate is small ... it's much more likely to be a plate misread, maybe due to dirt on the plate or the colour of the plate mounting screw.
I'm noticing too, the letter 'D' on newer reg. plates tend to have a slight overlap on both the top and bottom with the vertical line. I'm guessing to make it more distinguishable from the numeral '0'
There's also the authorities' unwavering belief in the reliability of technology such as ANPR, where they can't seem to consider it might not be 100% reliable or accurate.
I had a similar thing with my number plate. This was invilving a parking ticket. The local council had issued me with a parking ticket. Different area different vehicle and I was working at the time. They first tried to say someone else was using my car and stole my car keys. When I highlighted the fact it was a van and not a car that was parked they then went on to ask for my VIN and Tax disc number. This seemed to clear the matter up and they stated the matter had now been cleared. I have since wondered how common is this practice and can I do anything to prevent it again.
Unless you're familiar with the bus lane, you've got to try and read the times when it's in use, without taking your eyes off the road for more than the split second it would take read a normal warning sign.
Cloned Plates : About 10 years ago I flew into heathrow and picked up an Astra hire car to drive home back to Wales, about 2 months later I had a traffic violation from inner London for this car, BUT it was not the car I Hired it was another make and model. I did the same thing reported to my local Police station and to Heathrow Police , they told me it's very common for people to scan the hire car places and copy plates and drive on them so number plate recognition sees the car is taxed and insured. Needless to say I got the traffic violation reconded but it's a very common thing to happen
The issue of cloned plates is ridiculous - successive Governments haven't done enough to counter the issue. There are covert & overt ways to make it far harder - contained in a report that the Home Office still seems to be sitting on 3 years later. Innocent motorists are caught up, Police are wasting time, criminals are committing more crime ('county lines' drug gangs, 'bilking' fuel theft etc.). It's a growing problem & ANPR picks-up more of it.
The way to counter cloned plates is to adopt the American system of having them made by prisoners in jail. In most places in the US, the plates are issued by the state, you don't get them made privately. They also have an excellent way of stopping bilking (driving off without paying for fuel). The pumps are pretty much all pay-at-pump with a card, if you want to pay cash you go to the cashier in the kiosk/shop and say "I want $30" or whatever. You give them the cash and they enter the amount into the computer and the pump is switched on. When you get to $30 or whatever you paid for, the pump cuts off. If you fill up before that amount is reached, you go back in for your change. Why can't we do that..?
@@TestGearJunkie. Well, the British (and German) fuel pump system gives people to fill up with more fuel than they wanted. If you try to fill up for 30.00 and end up putting 30.72 into the tank, that's an extra 72 cents that this fuel pump gets (and the next one that the person fills up at doesn't get - ignore the fact that will often be the exact same gas station). But apparently those extra cents are (or look) higher than the looses due to bilking (or insurance against bilking losses). Not to mention that that change would cost money and would likely confuse the customers. And the state-issued plates only solve part of the problem. There will still be producers of vanity plates. But if you can't say "Plates to the usual legal specs, please. I definitely own this registration; You don't need proof for that, right?" then it would be harder to find a place where you can buy a plate like BR-QG-17 without raising suspicion. Nothing keeping you from driving around with plates like "RE-TIR-ED" that on first glance have the normal design, though. But why not make the life of criminals that little bit harder? Also, you don't necessarily have to have the plates manufactured by prisoners. Each county or whatever can also just buy them in batch from the cheapest bidder.
If a bus lane or a cycle lane is in operation and there is a solid white line you’re allowed to cross the lane at 90 degrees, you’re just not allowed to park in the lane and you’re not allowed to drive along the lane.
I stay out of timed bus lanes at all times as I just don't want the hassle of having to deal with the local council who have fined people for using a bus lane, despite it being outside of it's hours of operation. It takes months of arguing and the burden of proof is always on the victim. Not worth the hassle for me.
Ashley, I know it’s not bus lane but can I ask about police sitting under a 30mph sign to then issue tickets for speeding ? In my home town of Bangor N Ireland there is a ring road which takes traffic round the outside of a small town to residential and commercial premises. There are a short set of dual carriage way interspersed with roundabouts with 4 exits. There are 6 roundabouts and the road links to each roundabout. So you drive along the carriage way for quarter of mile to next roundabout then quarter of mile to next roundabout then quarter of mile to next roundabout. Each of the roundabouts speed limit is 30 and carriageway is 40. So you slow to 30 a few yards before roundabout then go round this and then as you leave there are 40 signs. The police sit with a speed camera just behind the 30 sometimes and issue tickets as you are driving at 40. So is the 30 sign meaning you have to do 30 as soon as you pass the sign or you must have slowed in the 40 area enough to be at 30 effectively in the 40 zone so that as soon as you pass the sign you are doing 30 ? It’s just the road in some spots is less than 100 yards so you couldn’t really get to 40 before you’d have to slow to 30. Thanks
As a bus driver, personally I love it when drivers dont read the timed signs, as it means the buses get a lane to themselves, even outside of operating hours. However, I am always amazed at how little notice people pay attention to the signs and there poor lane discipline.
As a bus driver that occasionally uses a car, I love it when they do that even when I'm in the car. Happens on the Mansfield Road virtually all of 5 miles into Nottingham (though there are a couple of 24hr sections, including one very short pointless one). Mind you, if I'm going into Nottingham, I don't usually take the car. Also happens on the Chesterfield Road (a similar length) into Sheffield. Number of times I've gone several miles along there at twice the speed of the rest of the traffic...
My parents had a car about 4 years ago and they got a private parking ticket for a location elsewhere in the country (several hours away). They explained this but the private parking company ignored this and ultimately it ended up in a CCJ.
>ultimately it ended up in a CCJ. Realistically this only happened if they ignored court paperwork or didn't enter a court defence properly AND then failed to pay promptly when judgement was made against them. People like to to comment 'you'll end up with a CCJ', but that only happens if you fail to defend, lose and then fail to settle promptly. It is entirely avoidable. You enter a defence, in circumstances like this the case should be dismissed as a result, but even if the worst happens and judgement is made against you, as long as you pay promptly at that point, the CCJ is removed. There is no reason for anybody to 'end up in a CCJ'.
@@ryanmitcham5522 yes. They did ignore and I know all of this. I was making a point about the cloned plates still ultimately causing this. I’ve defended and won a county court judgement myself. I know the process. For elderly people it is not a simple situation to resolve as you make out. If you ever have to do this, you’ll understand.
Part of the issue of cloned plates is that there are companies online that advertise they will make any plate for you as a "show plate". No questions asked and no checks performed, as would be the case at an authorized number plate dealer. Interestingly, some of these "show plate" companies have offshore addresses, such as the Isle of Man.
it leaves me wondering if the US and Canada practice of only allowing state approved manufacturers to make number plates makes cloning harder or if it's easy enough for black market plates to be made.
On the cloning issue. There was a BBC Radio 4 programme “You and Yours” on 8th May discussing drivers licence cloning which viewers might find interesting.
Do local authority parking officers in the UK have authority to issue to vehicles for having incorrect plates attached? As an enforcement officer in NZ I have the authority to issue to a range of stationary vehicle offences, including no vehicle inspection, expired registration, plates not fitted/obscured/or incorrect, and even worn and damaged tyres.
The same thing happened to me few years ago, not a bus lane, but a no entry road. It went all the way to county court before it was dismissed. It was a ridiculous process.
My mate got pulled over on the M5 by 3 unmarked police cars with armed police. Someone had cloned his plates and done an armed robbery at some point before. The bad guys put the plate on a similar car (make, model, colour). He had no idea what was going on. Annoyingly for him it was a personalised plate as well and he had to stop using it as the police basically he would be stopped forever more if he kept the personalised plate on.
One of those police programmes on tv showed a situation like that. The officer speaking with the innocent driver, after finding out they were the proper driver/owner after boxing them in with TPAC, gave them a 'think bike' sticker and then got a note on the system to say this was now on the official car.
Thanks for teaching me this. As a foreigner I certainly would have entered the bus lane when turning right from the traffic lights, as I would expect a bus lane to be marked with the word BUS painted on the tarmac. I would probably miss the blue sign, and if I didn't, I'd ask myself "Okay, but where?". Now I know what to look for. One related question popped up though... Looking at the situation between the bus lanes along the Cooksons Bridge Pub there is a blue sign for cyclists that seems to direct them onto the pavement. This pavement does not appear suitable for cycling at all. Where should they enter that "lane"? How should they navigate all those obstacles? There are even lamp posts in the middle of the pavement on both sides of the bridge. I know the cycling infrastructure in the UK can be horrible. Is this just one example?
so that sign is saying cyclists can use the pavement for that bridge it is a lowered kerb before it so you can enter it smoothly but coming off it you would never need to do it at that first junction with the lowered kerb if there was no car right next to you id personally put my hand out to indicate i was coming off it or the safer option is just to go to the next junction slightly up from when the bus lane starts again and just merge over there should be pretty safe to do so. It is shocking but if you look around you'll find cycle lanes that jump from one side of the road to the other for no other reason that its a new council district and they put that path there.
@@AnythingForSouls The last chance to enter the lowered kerb is at 4:13 where the pedestrian is waiting. You'd have to navigate around the pedestrian and the lamppost following. But is it even legal to cycle there? The cycle lane starts quite some distance down the road, at 4:17. If you did not notice the sign from a distance, you'd have to hop onto the pavement via a much higher kerb. And then there's that yellow sandbox, and cracks in the pavement trying to distort your balance. Just horrible.
There was a case a few years ago of a Seattle resident (Washington State USA) who kept getting billed for the toll of crossing the Hwy 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington even though they never ever used that bridge. Turns out that someone else with the same licence plate number but with a Texas license plate rather than the "victim's" Washington State plate was crossing the bridge. The toll cameras weren't making the distinction between the same plate numbers from two different states. It took the local resident some time to sort it all out after the photographic evidence was examined and showed a Ford Explorer rather than Honda Civic. There were a few other cases of this re same plate but different state.
that's an inherent problem with our national fascination with number plates as fashion accessories. we used to be able to positively identify which state issued a number plate by color pattern, alone. now number plates are a work of art, and you have to get close enough to read the state stamp to tell them apart.
@@martineyles problem is we have too many number plates out there to tie up 2 characters for state codes. they all have the name of the state across the top or bottom, but otherwise, there just aren't enough combinations available for nationwide coordination.
@@kenbrown2808You beat me to it Ken. Even with each US state / Canadian province having its own licencing system, they are already having to juggle around with their various combinations to accommodate the ever growing number of registered vehicles. I can't imagine the US or Canada going to a national system without dividing it up by state or province. How long would a unique national plate have to be?
@@ibs5080 There are something under 300 million registered vehicles in the US. Assuming the same character set as the UK, and no additional formatting rules, that requires.. six characters. 34 items, 6 selected, no repetition, that's just shy of a billion permutations. Note permutations, not combinations, because there's no reason for '123456' and '123465' to be the same plate. Math is not the limiting factor, nor space on vehicles for a plate - inability to cooperate is the reason there's no unified system.
Here in Norway, and I assume this also applies for some other countries, Electric cars are allowed to use the bus lanes unless sign states they cannot drive there. The same applies for hydrogen powered cars too.
I helped someone out at work once when they were sent a bus lane fine from somewhere they had never been I believe it was Luton council.- the operators had actually misread the number plate. The image sent on the letter was so poor you couldn't read it at all but it was clearly a different vehicle. Luckily there was a facility to view online. When you zoomed in you could see they had read one of the digits wrong. Took a while before they finally accepted it though.
as I recall, in the UK, you can get private reg plates from a private manufacturer, as long as they are made to the standard. in the states, all license plates are issued by the state, even custom "vanity" plates. it seems to me that allowing private manufacturing of plates would make it easier for plates to be cloned, but then, many of the plates in the US are no longer embossed, just printed, so theoretically it would not take much setup for a person to be able to produce counterfeit plates, in the US. and then, it seems in parts of the US, it's common for a person wishing to hide their identity to simply steal plates from a similar car, and replace them with their own, and the victim isn't observant enough to notice.
You are absolutely correct re the companies supplying UK plates. Some of these online companies can also supply North American plates made to order, no questions asked. I've also seen at car shows as well as retro / antique stores, whole boxes of North American plates for sale. I've seen this both in the UK as well as North America. Admittedly these are likely no longer in actual circulation but I have to wonder at the whole process. Here in my mum's garage in the UK, we have licence plates from BC, WA, OR and CA. All legitimately bought and solely for the purpose of displaying auto memorabilia on the garage wall and nothing more.
@@ibs5080 an interesting bit of trivia: early Oregon license plates were intended to be permanent, and the state has ruled that if an antique car owner can find a plate issued in the year of manufacture of the car, that plate can be registered to the antique car, and becomes valid. - meaning the owner pays no registration fees after that.
Outside the hours of operation of a bus lane, am I correct in thinking that it's legal to cross the solid white line that separates the bus lane from the adjacent lane? To either move into or out of the bus lane at any point, outside it's hours of operation. My understanding is that this is legal and yet it contradicts the general rule that you must not cross a solid white line, with a few exceptions such as the "to overtake a cyclist / dustcart / maintenance vehicle travelling at no more than 10 mph" thing.
Had a mate at a place I worked years ago had the number plate clone happen, and worse it was the same colour and make of car. Neither the police nor DVLA would lift a finger to help him, even though the police knew it was cloned they wouldn't hand over the evidence that would have cleared him. We even joint signed a letter to say he was in the company car park at the times and dates he was done for numerous offences, but still the DVLA wanted him to 'prove it', which of course only the old bill could do and refused to help.
When I was living in France, I got a call at the end of July from the police saying that my car was involved in a fatal hit and run. The next Monday, I went to the police station and was told that the investigating officer was on holiday and would return at the end of the month. I spent the whole of August panicking, went the first day he was back, only to be told that my plate had been cloned and that the car in the accident was a Ford Focus whilst I had a BMW Z3. I can confirm that misread and cloned plates can cause a loss of stress! 😂
It amazes me that people do not read these signs. There are bus lanes in Hampshire that allow HGV's. The amount of times I have driven a truck in a bus lane, and been beeped at or blocked. Also, car share lanes in Bristol can be used by HGV's. Again, I get beeped or blocked by other road users. All because I can read signs and they don't.
I once cloned a plate by accident when I was 18. My brother took my plate as he needed some metal. I had to get w new one so went to my local plate shop. Later that week I got the blue light treatment on my way home at 1am. Turns out the plate I had made I got to letters the wrong way around. It was matching a stolen Allegro, however I was on my motorbike. Lol I was arested and held for several hours whilst they tried to sort it all out. Its now one of my favourite stories 😅
Great video. If a plate is cloned or stolen DVLA should issue you with a new one. Not expect you to buy a private plate. I believe this is what happens in some other countries.
In the South, people often refuse to use the bus lanes when out of hours. So if you use it, you often get people making left turns infront of you from the right lane. Or people thinking you're pushing in and blocking you.
@@lolitapitpong3826 Many refuse. I see it especially during afternoon rush hour when the left lane starts as a normal lane and turns into a morning only bus lane, people stop and try to merge instead of using it.
The cloning issue you brought up rings a vague bell, but not about cloning, where, just after i bought a new car, and sold the previous one to a garage, years ago, i think i remember getting a speeding fine through the post to do with the previous car, but i think it got resolved quickly, and i forgot about it, till now.
Nothing worse than someone in lane two outside of the timed bus lane times, doing 15mph on a safe and clear stretch of road, in the middle of the night, and everyone following them! This is what it’s like driving out of Manchester!
near Edinburgh airport there's a dual carriage way and the return side to leave Edinburgh the left lane got turned into a bus lane making it essentially a single lane for some odd reason maybe 2-3 years ago and they have ALWAYS had a sign saying bus lane not in use or not enforced use both lanes something to that effect and there's a few placed along it . Still people don't use it and it just backs up the traffic more which is why I think its never been used as a bus only lane because it was stupid taking a dual down to single for no reason it was such a waste of tax money.
Here in the city where I live NO one uses the bus lanes, not even the buses even if the traffic is almost at a standstill.... Only one using them is taxis and that is only sometimes. I do not understand why the bus lanes is never in use, not even ambulances or firetrucks will use them when running blue lights.
Redundant bus stops can be a problem even more than bus lanes. There’s one locally that’s been out of use for over five years and has legal parking in front and behind, but you’ll still get a parking ticket if you leave your car within the lines of what was the bus stop.
As with anything the council probably doesn't have the money to resurface the road/ remove the bus stop marking. But perhaps a sign should be put up to permit the space for being used for car parking.
About 10 years ago I received a speeding fine on a road I had not been on. I contested it and the police asked for photos of my car. After I sent the photos I heard no more about it, so I assume the plates were cloned.
Timed bus lanes are a great example of many drivers not reading signage. A few bus lanes near to me are timed and I often use them when allowed. I also have to be ready for angry drivers trying to cut in front of me (i may pass numerous drivers on the approach to the traffic signals), often without indicating, at end of the bus lane who think i should not be there, and they possibly feel that I am getting in their way. I believe they see the solid white line and the blue sign, but do not bother to read the blue sign, and just stay out by default.
So, I always proceed carefully in bus lanes due to this problem, and try to anticipate other drivers that may decide to aggresively cut in front of me believing they are making a point.
That's common in Glasgow - everyone tailed back in the lane next to a timed bus lane.
@@fburton8
Indeed, a bus lane local to me that is always a headache is Balmore Road near Possil heading in to town...and to compound the issue, people park in the bus lane to use the carry out shop and take away 🤪
They don't read the highwaycode after passing. Anothern thing they dont understand is that they not supposed to stop inside cycle box at lights.
@@DemiGod..just to clarify, they mustn't enter it after the lights change. If they were already in it (entered on green but then the lights changed, held up by traffic etc) they must stay there and not cross the second line.
Highway code says you shouldn't enter it if you can't exit it on green, not mustn't.
Try using a bus lane in London, then indicating to move out when encountering an obstacle (bike or delivery driver, for example) The abuse one gets is even more than Ash does when he criticises a bike rider on a tube video 😆
It is just easier & safer to stay out of the bus lane altogether. I'm sure that's why the vast majority of drivers don't bother using the bus lanes. It is rarely any quicker anyway, as timed bus lanes only come in when there is increased road demand,.
When I was a delivery driver I absolutely LOVED timed buslanes, used them to miss so much standstill traffic.
Same here timed bus lanes are the best everyone stays right,until the bus lane ends then they swing across 3 lanes to get to lane 1 of 4 so you have to be aware that they are going to be stupid at the end of the bus lane and pick Lane 1 to go straight on (as long as this video doesn't become common knowledge I am Happy)
Near Bury there were bus lanes along a the Manchester road into Bury. As you approached the bus lane it had times, so it wasn’t in use, further along the road the bus lane then had a sign with no times, then further again there was another sign with times. The problem was people saw a time at the start of the bus lane and expected that to be the same all along the whole bus lane, of course there was a camera along the part with no times catching everyone. This is the sort of actions that make road users distrust councils.
I love that people don't read the bus lane times near me. The amount of times they pile into the right lane and slows down to a crawl and I wizz on by.
Drive in Nottinghan the signs are up and down every few hundred yards backed up by cameras, much safer to stay in the normal lane. Some of the time signs are like war and peace 😮
Reading times and dates on signs when in busy traffic or in poor light on roads you are not familiar with is a big ask. Roads in Liverpool are unusual in being so big and wide with good sight lines, many other cities are far more congested.
An idea I had is to install an LED light above or below the sign that is either green or red based on the current time. It would require a small computer and a power source for each sign but if we start now in 2-4 years all of the signs would be easy to read in all weather and light conditions.
Not here for an argument but would like to add that if traffic is that congested one would be driving that bit more cautiously and further back from the car in front so one is able to create a little time to read the signs. Having said that, anything more than a time slot of operation is beyond me. I've always had a problem reading and driving. It seems to me like two conflicting parts of the brain are required to work at the same time and my driving ability suffers for it, especially if signs are put in silly places.
@@vladimirszabo384 Brilliant idea!
@@vladimirszabo384 yeah, there was a guy on Dragons Den with a great idea like this 🙂
It is not just about how visible it is but also sometimes about information overload, and maybe if one is going to discard some information as more than one can cope with the times a bus lane is active may be less important and so safer to discard than other more important driving information.
Some years ago I received a parking infringement notice from the people who monitor Clacket Lane services on the M25. The photograph showed a tatty old Ford Fiesta with the same registration mark as my Harley-Davidson motorcycle. How on earth could these people confuse a small car with a motorcycle? I attempted to inform the police about the cloned plate but they weren't interested.
Police would only be interested if it was a racist cloned plate!
It's pretty easy to miss the times, or indeed not be sure what the time is!
Agreed.
It's not so bad if the time information is simple (e.g. the bus lane is in operation from 08:00-18:00) but near me there are several bus lanes where the lane may be in operation during morning rush hour, evening rush hour and perhaps even at other times of the day and the timings are not simple whole hours but things like 07:45.
So, you have a lot of (reasonably) complex information to take in, that is printed in quite a small font and perhaps you may also need to do a double check of the actual time to figure out whether you are inside or outside any of the specified operational timeslots: all as you pass by at the speed of the traffic flow.
Very few (if any) other signs (even complex direction signs) present you with that level of information in such a condensed way, that you then have to process numerically before you can figure out what it says and then respond accordingly.
There isn’t the time to process the times given as you drive past.
@@Enjay001 All very well put and I can totally relate to this
*no stopping in this area*
Bus lane rules the length of Fellowship of the Ring
And yet people just assume that everyone can read small text, or just assume that everyone has a clock in their cars, or just simply assume that everyone wear watches.
1:43 If the road tax is replaced by pay by mile in the UK, let's hope it's via the mot; otherwise there's going to be a hell of a lot of number plate cloning if it's done by cameras.
I got a parking fine once from a council in Hertfordshire. The accompanying photo clearly showed a VW Golf with my number plate. I replied that I was never anywhere near their town and my car at the time was a Rover 75. They replied relatively quickly that I was right and my fine had been cancelled. Never heard anything else about it.
Your viewer, Tom, was very fortunate that it was not West Yorkshire Police. I can remember handing in some lost property to a police station in Leeds while another person was trying to convince the police that there was a car with cloned number plates in a car park in the city antre and the police wanted nothing to do with it, telling the guy that it was a civil matter.
Parking is a civil matter now here in Aberdeen. The police aren't interested in people on double yellow lines or whatever, it's down to the City Wardens. Who all clock off at 8pm, so after that, park where you like, mate 🙄
An old colleague of mine got pulled over in his Driving School car for driving “ in a bus lane “ by the Police. He let the officer write the ticket and, just before he signed it, told the officer that he wasn’t accepting it. The officer then got educated on the times on the signs as my colleague was driving in it when it wasn’t in operation and the officer hadn’t got a clue about the times on the signs…..
In my area, one local authority has bus lanes 24/7 the next local authority has rush hour times.
No one drives in the out of hours ones but loads drive in the 24/7 ones. Crazy.
This is because normal police drivers get no extra training. Only traffic police get extra training. So I was informed after I sped past a normal police car and pulled over only for him to advise me he could not issue a ticket.
I used to have fun when I taught in Shrewsbury. It's a one way, 2 lane 20mph zone with the left lane being a bus lane from 7:30 - 18:30. I used to time lessons to take students through at 18:31 and watch drivers speed past us at 30, apopleptic with rage that we were in a bus lane. The irony.
Did you also enjoy going back passed them at the lights they were all waiting at up the road? 🤭
@@smilerbob Oh, but of course. That's still a favourite of mine.
First time I got caught in a bus lane was 3 days after I retired from driving buses 😆 🤣 another funny story I broke down in a bus lane driving a bus this time and the recovery truck driver got a fine for coming into the bus lane to recover my bus in Glasgow
That could only happen in Glesga'!
That's daft, hope he got it cancelled.
When I still lived in Scotland most if not all of the recovery trucks were chopped down single deckers still in bus company colours
yes I'm old.
Regarding bus lanes, interestingly in Vancouver Canada you are allowed to drive in a bus lane for a maximum of one city block in order to either turn off into an upcoming side street or to use it as a merge / acceleration lane when coming out of a side street onto the main road. I actually have a situation over there where I am turning onto a main road with a bus lane and two blocks later I need to turn off it again into another side street. Because I can legally drive in the bus lane for one block to merge onto the main road and also allowed to drive one block to turn off the main road, this means I can continue in the bus lane for the full two blocks for turning on and off the main road without leaving the bus lane.
That sounds unenforcible except by cops in cop cars.
@@mattwardman Yes that's true. In fact Vancouver doesn't have bus lane cameras, though they do have red light cameras.
This could be useful at Heuston Station Dublin where you have 2 car lengths of allowed lane to make a left turn into the station carpark when approaching from the west. Idiotically short turn left lanes are painted at many of our junctions and idiotic lane changes painted on or near junctions which if followed to the letter of the law would result in sideswipes and collisions.
Bus lanes are a pain because as a bus driver I use them all the time but people who don't use them then suddenly want to turn left and just go for it without indicating in front of buses or cars if out of times of bus lane operation is unreal. If I'm undertaking cars queuing in outside lane it definitely makes you more aware of cars queuing and slow down for each junction.
Near Newcastle where I live there's a few bus lanes where the restriction is only 12 hours a day, from 7am to 7pm. For some reason car drivers tend to keep clear of them all the time, maybe they're just on autopilot. Furthermore if you do use the lane some drivers seem to go all out to stop you merging back in at the end, even if the traffic is moving with no queues.
For those who might face a similar situation.
It's all about documentation. Have all your documents ready, photocopies, and proof of communication, keep copies of any letters you send or receive.
All this will come in handy if it goes to the county court.
If it does, it's simply about providing documentation, and writing a story.
Describe each step you took, and the response you received, or the lack thereof.
Better not to write long paragraphs, write it in bullet point format after initial introduction regarding the case.
The judge can quickly scan the information, they won't have time to read long paragraphs, and could miss important information. Resulting in a judgement against yourself, probably a slight chance but why take it, when you can simply present your arguments in a easy to follow format.
Good luck if you are in such a situation.
Better not register your vehicle would be easier.
@@Sonya_Makepeace that makes no sense. Not registering is an illegal act.
Are you encouraging people to break the law?
@@youknow6968 Yes. Laws are made by the same cretins, that told you to get jabbed.
My 80 year old father from Fife Scotland received a fine from Liverpool council a few years back for driving in a bus lane somewhere in Liverpool, photo is same car looks like same reg, only problem was he’s never been out of Scotland in this particular car owned from new for 16 years, contacted Police and council Police we’re not bothered about possible cloned plates, council did however cancel the fine.
I passed my test in 1990 and my instructor did not give the comprehensive running commentary that you do for your students.
It reminded me of my grandfather who took the Advanced Driver test, he told me as part of the test he had to give a running commentary as he performed the test.
I'd never have passed that then, I'm hopeless at commentary driving.
My instructor was the same: he did not do a running commentary. However, he did discuss any issues emerging so I was happy enough.
I find doing a running commentary a really useful exercise to sharpen my driving, particularly my observation skills as I am looking for things about which I can or should comment!
Commentary was something I practiced for my IAM Roadsmart advanced driving, although I didn't need to do it for all of my IAM Roadsmart advanced test way back in 1989.
I got a fixed penalty for riding in a bus lane, luckily I knew where and I was in a position to go back. I took a photo of the sign that said motorbikes are permitted and sent it to them. They cancelled it however if I didn't know the road or wasn't able to go back and check... 🤷
Google Street View is always worth a look
This is when you use Google street view and hopefully it's up to date enough and has an angle that makes it visible
Timed bus lanes are great and as you said, it's about reading the signage. There's a road (with a timed bus lane) near me that on a Sunday morning all the learner drivers are in the middle lane and not in said bus lane.
I still think bus lanes should only be reserved for buses at all times. UK allowing everyone on the bus lane for certain hours is stupid, it's says "BUS LANE" meaning that buses should only be allowed at all times. No wonder why UK drivers cut off bus drivers and causing them to be late.
Whenever there is an oppurtunity to drive in a bus lane I will, provided it is at a time where it is non-functioning. I don't drive in the bus lane for really any other reason than I can!
But much to my annoyance, whether councils allow you to ride a motorcycle in bus lanes seems to vary too much! South of the Tyne in Gateshead it is a massive no-no but yet Newcastle City Council and most other councils in the North East will allow you to do so.
The weirdest story I heard about illegal bus lane usage was on TV. A guy had registration something like KN19 TER received a letter, got the photo and it was of two women crossing the bus lane on foot. One woman had a bright yellow knitted top on and a shoulder bag with a diagonal black strap. On her top it said in big letters KNITTER. No one from officialdom had checked it for a ridiculous and embarrassing error. Its on you tube "woman walking in a bus lane gives a car a fine".
Whilst that incident does look daft, do you think they have the resources to check all the automated letters that get sent out? Occasionally these silly mistakes occur but the effect is minor and easily rectified, whilst the vast majority will work as intended. Everyone would be up in arms if they found out a council was wasting money checking something that had a miniscule failure rate.
@waltersobchak1719 meanwhile, in the real world, the councils have been bled dry. The idea they can spend money on that is fanciful. If you met someone that said "my job is to check the number plates match the vehicle on automated letters" you'd be thinking "typical council, they spend money to ensure their fines are correct but leave my road full of potholes". It is just not feasible to monitor these, for what will be a tiny failure rate.
Where these mistakes occur it is horrible for the victim, I'm not arguing with that. I've little sympathy for councils either but am aware of how poorly funded they are and I'm also aware of how these mistakes can be made (I work in IT), with an understanding the economics of adding in a manual process.
@@bobby_hmm Most people assume that if you receive a letter saying you have committed an alleged offence that you would write and tell the council. However other people would actually go to court and deal with it that way. Imagine if the accused turned up in court with a barrister backed by solicitors and travelled a few hundred miles to get to a town they have never visited then get acquitted and put in a legal fees and other costs bill for £5000. Each letter should be bringing in £100 so there is presumably a budget to draw from.
@@keith6400 and maybe when a case is going to court the council will check they have everything correct, at that stage. Then the error could be picked up. So you're adding the manual intervention further down the line, on a reactive basis. Honestly, it looks poor when you pick out these individual cases but when you think about the number of letters issued, having manual checks in an automated process just doesn't add up. I'm going to leave it here though, I see where you guys are coming from, I do agree it looks bad and is horrible for the victim. I'm just giving my insight from the other side.
They've done this for decades - the automated system just sends stuff out without even rudimentary checks. I knew someone 25 years ago who got a speeding ticket and a picture of a common car in the post. He sent back a picture of his motorbike and politely told them he wouldn't be paying.
Had my motorbike teg cloned when i was in Portsmouth, police knocked my door asked me for proof of ownership not reg doc but proof, luckily i had my sales invoice still. Apparently they caught a biker on the isle of wight with my plate, think it was suspicious they checked. That was the last time i ever came across police investigating a crime properly 😂
Is it autocorrect that keeps putting rouge rather than rogue? It's a very common error, in fact it seems more common than seeing the correct spelling.
@@paulqueripel3493
Are you suggesting it wasn't a red policeman speaking French?
That must have been years ago.
I had a similar thing.
I bought a very nice red 5-series BMW for what was, I thought, a very good price.
Things started to get strange when I randomly received a new V5 that stated the vehicle was modified for use by a disabled driver... which I'm not.
I contacted the DVLA and got that sorted out and then, during an MOT, the garage told me my car had the "wrong" engine in it.
Apparently, according to the DVLA, it was a 525 (2.5l straight six petrol) when my car was actually a 540 (4.0l V8 petrol).
Again, I received a new V5 showing a cylinder capacity of 2495cc and, this time, had to pay the DVLA to change the details back to what it had always been.
That happened for 2 or 3 years; I'd take it for an MOT and be told it "should" be a 525, get issued a new V5, contact the DVLA and have it change back to being a 540.
This was back in the days before the DVLA had a website but it was also in a time when you could easily get in touch with a helpful person on the phone and I was told "my car" had been through 3 new owners during the time I'd owned it and each one had changed something on the V5.
Shame really because it WAS a really nice car but after I got the V5 sorted out for the 3rd or 4th time, I traded it in for a newer model which turned out to be far less reliable and ended-up being the last BMW I owned.
Interesting. Here in Finland you're allowed to go on the bus lane right away if you're turning at the next intersection, no need to wait for anything.
Yeah but this is Britain. Everything possible is done to increase traffic congestion & frustrate the motorist.
At 4.56 for example, one is not allowed to use an empty bus lane to go round a vehicle turning right. Instead one must waste brake material to stop & wait like a lemon, burning over-taxed fuel, until the car turns and the accelerate again burning more over-taxed fuel.
@@wibbley1 Britain is just backwards and have stupid laws regarding bus lanes.
In many Nordic countries when approaching intersections it's allowed to go on the bus lane right away, most bus lanes are doubled as turning lanes for cars.
And yet in the UK, you're only allowed enter at the end of the bus lane. No wonder why UK drivers cut off buses.
@@wibbley1lol, everything’s a war on motorists to you types. Given the average length between turns isn’t particularly large in the UK, if drivers were allowed to use the bus lane for turning “immediately” (whatever that means) then you’d basically not have bus lanes.
@@rainbowevil "You types." Don't tell me, you don't drive, you vote Green, and you want everyone to give up their cars.
@@MrDblStop I do drive, I last voted Labour but will probs vote Green as they’re the only semblance of a left-wing party left in the country, and I would like for much better and more affordable public transit to be available to everyone (myself included). So like 1 out of 3, good job fella.
Last year I had a new V5 in the post for a Vauxhall Zafira I had never owned. DVLA website tells you what to do although I copied the front and back for my own records before posting off. Expected lots of fines in the next 6-8 weeks but got nothing. Just fortunate I think on this one.
Twice I've had notices from Brighton & Hove, from which I live 100 miles away and never drive to. The first included a photograph and was very clearly a misread plate. Another clue was that the vehicle involved was a flatbed Transit and not my Yamaha GTS1000. That one resolved quite quickly. The second was for my van and the provided evidence was an incredibly poor quality video, in which I could just about tell it was the same model and colour as mine. No picture of the plate was provided. My initial appeal was rejected, at which point a picture of the plate was included, which made it quite obvious that it was again a misread plate. I then had to start going through the independent appeals process, at which point the penalty was dropped before an appeals decision.
In one of the Large Towns not far from my home, there are Full Time and Part Time Bus Lanes. When they were introduced and I was still Instructing, myself as well as other Local Instructors correctly advised our Pupils to drive in the Part Time Bus Lanes outside the times displayed. The amount of abuse we all got for doing the correct thing became so bad that we got the DSA, Police and Local Press Involved. Did it improve matters NO. Even today there is still a minority of drivers think its wrong, when I drive in the Bus Lanes outside the times on the signs.
It's right, and easy enough if you drive the route regularly, but if you're unfamiliar it's just hard to keep up with that and simultaneously safely navigate hazards.
@@martineyles The Drivers who are the biggest culprits for not reading signs and complaining about drivers doing the right thing are residents of that said town, Not Strangers who are unfamiliar as they are the ones who read the signs. Familiarity Breeds Contempt.
The timed lanes can be funny. I frequently experience people getting quite indignant when I use one in the permitted time, one woman broke the speed limit to overtake, gesticulating wildly as she passed, and then pulled in front and slowed sharply. I didn't see her face as I moved into the other lane, passed her and proceeded through the lights which changed to red before she caught up, but I doubt it would have done much for any local milk.
I got my car cloned some years ago. First I heard of it was a mate calling me to ask if I knew anything about an armed robbery that 'my' car had just been used in. Worst of all it was local, but I was 200 miles away at the time.
You were lucky, people have had their doors kicked-in very early in the morning due to a cloned plate being used in a robbery.
I had the same with a ram raid. Police surrounded the house. They were shocked when I said if you have my car whose car did I park on my drive. Different make and different colour. They had used a cloned plate.
@@WheelieMacBin It was definitely a bonus that the investigating cops knew me otherwise I'd have had the old come out with your hands up malarkey.
When my misses worked as an administrator for a company, she dealt with the company cars. They received a speeding ticket for one of their cars, captured fairly local to their office in Hertordshire. However the person responsible for the car had gone by train to Edinburgh for a few days. The police were adamant that they had issued the ticket accurately, it was only after a lot of badgering that they re-checked the photo and with reluctance and no apology had to confess that they had transposed two of the registration letters when they generated the ticket.
That was a very long time ago (early 1990s). Probably these days it would all be automatic, done using ANPR technology?
Rookies use cloned plates, they're pretty easy to detect especially once the real owner flags it up. Proper crims use foreign number plates, which effectively gives one carte blanche to ignore all driving laws as long as there's not an actual police officer about (which given the cuts to the forces is fairly unlikely). You can observe this in many parts of London for example.
At 04:57 it is not clear whether you said would or wouldn't be allowed to use the bus lane to overtake a car turning right. My understanding is that you should not use the bus lane, but have to wait behind the right turning vehicle.
In Swindon, there's a situation where there's a bus lane down the centre of the road, as oncoming buses turn right behind you. When a bus stops ahead of you, the only way past it is to use the opposing bus lane, which to me is a no, as it means crossing a solid white line. Just have to wait for the bus to move, but most of the locals use the bus lane.
On one approach to Salisbury, there's a timed bus lane, but hardly anyone uses it out of times, due partly to occasional parked cars, btu mostly due to the last few yards being 24/7 bus lane, on approach to traffic signals that give buses priority as the road narrows. Using the bus lane will always bring a fight to return to the main lane at this pinch point. I think the local test centre stopped using this on routes due to the confusion caused.
When a bus lane is not in operation, we all should use it, as we should keep left unless overtaking, but add in parked cars and most drivers not using the bus lane, and few timed bus lanes are of use. Would be easier if they were all 24/7, or at most a single time, not morning/afternoon. In Swindon, there are a few permanent bus lanes, but most are 7am-7pm. So we're allowed to use the bus lanes when traffic is light. Brilliant.
>At 04:57 it is not clear whether you said would or wouldn't be allowed to use the bus lane to overtake a car turning right.
Sorry but it's perfectly clear. You can't enter a bus lane to pass a vehicle turning right, unless of course it is a timed bus lane and out of it's hours of operation, in which case you should probably have been in the left lane anyway. If you think it isn't clear a brush up of the highway code is needed!
>as it means crossing a solid white line
This is common misconception. There is nothing automatically wrong about crossing a solid line. What you mustn't do is cross a *double* solid white line (where the line nearest to you is solid) or a solid line surrounding a hatched area. Separately you mustn't enter a bus lane during it's hours of operation. So in the example you quoted, for me it would depend entirely on if the bus lane is during its hours of operation. Outside of those hours I see no issue in using it to overtake. During it or if it's a 24hr lane, I wouldn't.
>Would be easier if they were all 24/7
God no. So many bus lanes I know that I will concede are helpful during peak times, but absolutely aren't needed most of the time, and it improves flow being a general traffic lane most of the time.
Britain is just backwards and have stupid laws regarding bus lanes.
In many Nordic countries when approaching intersections it's allowed to go on the bus lane right away, most bus lanes are doubled as turning lanes for cars.
And yet in the UK, you're only allowed enter at the end of the bus lane. No wonder why UK drivers cut off buses.
@@ryanmitcham5522 You have misunderstood. My query was not about teh rules being clear, but about the sound quality at that instant on the video, so it was not clear what Ashley actually said. Your reply is rude, whether it was meant to be or not, so wind your neck in.
@@nigelcox1451 I thought he said that as well, and relistening to it it still sounds like "would be able to"
I feel a lot of drivers stay out of bus lanes just to avoid a conflict with the council sending you a fine because they are not clever enough to work out time let alone when they fine a cloned car that was not the same type or colour as the as the as the V5 - Staying clear of bus lanes just makes life easier in the long run.
I've heard it recommended that you don't post photos of your car online showing the plate number, as this makes it very easy for someone in another part of the country to clone your plates without even seeing your car or being anywhere near you. Be careful on social media for this sort of thing, including Facebook, Instagram and so forth.
I'd rather someone on the other side of the country cloned my plate than someone just down the road. Much easier to prove you weren't in Glasgow if you have receipts and GPS data showing you were in Bristol for example.
Someone cloned my other half's car a few years ago, and they were using it only about 20 miles away - she ended up getting 4 speeding tickets and a parking ticket. Fortunately for us a) we were at the other end of country at the time and were able to show receipts from supermarkets etc., and b) the car hadn't actually moved since the MOT a few weeks before and the difference in mileage between the reading at the MOT and the current odo reading wasn't enough to actually get to where the camera caught her!
Still took a couple of months to get them dropped however - found it interesting that there was no option on the NIP for "I have no idea who was driving as this wasn't my car", so I had to add one. The force refused to supply any photographs/video of the car either to allow us to identify any differences.
Our legal system supposedly operates on the principle of "innocent until proven guilty", but that certainly wasn't the impression I got from the process.
@@Haggisking It seems "innocent until proven guilty" doesn't apply to motoring offences. It's really difficult and potentially expensive to try and prove your innocence in things like this. I think a lot of people don't bother challenging them as it's less hassle just to suck up the £200 fine and 3 points (or whatever the penalty has been dished out) than go through all the stress and cost of challenging it, knowing you're unlikely to succeed.
Wouldn't bother, they just get them off auto trader, search for same model and colour then take your pick.
@@Haggisking That's quite something and I'm very sorry you had to go through such hassle and no doubt considerable stress and worry until everything got sorted out.
@@davem9204 Three points on your licence can mean a hike in your insurance, and if you've already got points, a potential ban.
Thw problem with timed bus lanes in Edinburgh is that often the blue bus lane sign is located maybe up to 100 yards AFTER the start of the bus lane as marked on the road surface. Because I know the timings for some of them I can use them.
But when I am on an unfamiliar road, I tend to stay out of the bus lane because I dont know the timings until the lane has already started and as it is a continous white line, I am not supposed (allowed) to cross over into the bus lane.
A bus lane was installed fairly recently on a two lane carriageway between Silverburn and Braehead in Glasgow but I didn’t last long and is now discontinued. There is a sign saying ‘bus lane not in use. Use both lanes’. But a lot of people don’t notice they just look at the road markings and treat it like it’s still a bus lane
Many years ago, my idiot brother stole the plates off an identical car, then went and filled up at the local Morrisons and did a runner. He didn't expect his picture from the CCTV to make the front page! Fool he was but he's grown up since.
It's funny how people calls their own sibling idiots, yet get offended and angry when someone else calls their sibling idiots
@@automation7295 oh no. He was an idiot. I won't say what else he did on here but he had nobody to blame but himself as he chose to do it. I don't get offended if someone calls a relative a fool if they are a fool. 😀
@@RikAindow While you would get offended if someone calls your relative a fool, but you would probably get offended or even cry if someone makes fun of your relative in a rude way.
@@automation7295 my slime they quite clearly do not care
The one thing I would say about timed bus lanes is that, in my experience at least, the vast majority I come across allow roadside parking outside the hours of operation, and so are blocked to through traffic anyway. I generally keep out of timed bus lanes even out of their operating times for this reason alone, although there are one or two around where you know there won't be any parked cars (A370 heading towards Weston-Super-Mare approaching M5 J21, for instance), and are quite handy for jumping the queue. You've just got to be careful of people cutting across at the end of the bus lane not expecting you to be there.
Surely they'd check their mirrors. It could be any vehicle that can legally use the bus lane, like a taxi. Or what about when the bus lane is open to all traffic?
@@SteveMcIlhennie: Also see the last motorcycle compilation, where a rider came out of a bus lane that was timed, and allowed motorcycles while active, for example.
There's one location where there's a break in a bus lane to allow for vehicles turning left, but people will often cut in that lane with the hopes of passing someone/squeezing past the junction before the bus lane begins again, often without any indication, or even time to react safely...
The cloning thing is one reason I download and keep my dash cam footage for a minimum of a month. It's all part of the protection it offers.
You won't believe the number of drivers I've seen today crossing solid white lines into bus lanes, wrong side, and worst of all, joining and leaving motorways. It seems to be just a normal part of driving for some.
A clear and concise video. I certainly read the signs of the prat in the grey Audi, who took the left lane too early.
The problem I have with timed bus lanes is the roadside parking outside the designated bus lane times. In certain areas I drive, it’s better to stay out of the inactive bus lane to avoid all the parked vehicles.
Similar to lanes that have timed “no parking”. Often called “urban clearways” At some places, at times when parking is allowed, I avoid using them altogether.
About the speed camera so many drivers below the limit and still they hit the brakes when getting to a speed camera, see this all the time with one of our rare cameras on the A1 in Northumberland.
This disease seems to be widespread. Drivers hitting the brakes to 50 kph in a 80 kph zone when they spot a speed van. Made worse by people coming up behind them at 100 kph because they have just left the motorway 1 Km before. I call this road Revenue Road because it seems to be infested by speed vans while other roads with much higher rates of speeding cars are largely left alone.
Worth noting if you need to lead or pick up you can enter and exit the bus lane depending on the waiting/loading restrictions. (I wouldn’t do it by a camera to save the hassle though 😂)
There's a series of bus lanes on the west side of Edinburgh where many drivers seem to be unaware that these are timed lanes and so, do not enter. But when you do legitimately drive in them, you soon start to wonder if there's another, smarter reason. The amount of potholes in these lanes is appalling and so telling of the amount of damage these heavy vehicles do to the road. Another reason some drivers do not enter timed lanes is because they are driving too fast to read the restriction details and so take the 'safer' option.
We have a long road with a timed bus lane on test routes in Northampton. The problem is people park in it, stop to deliver goods in it and poke their car half way out over it when waiting to emerge. There are also some legacy road markings and signs which make the situation confusing. But if learners don't use this lane when it's available then they can get a serious fault on their test and fail.
gov web site has this "Bus lane signs show the times when they operate. Most bus lanes operate at peak times only (typically 7.30am to 9.30am or 3.30pm to 6.00pm on Monday to Friday). Outside the hours of operation the lanes can be used by all traffic.
The legislation for most bus lanes allows permitted taxis, motorcycles and bicycles to use bus lanes.
the city centre, bus lanes operate all day, from 7.00am to 7.00pm from Monday to Saturday."
Wonder if that was the only photo of the vehicle the Council provided? Many times people wrongly assume it was a clone when on closer inspection it's actually a misread of the offending vehicles plate. And as to why discrepancies aren't picked up (van rather than a car) that's because the system is almost totally automated with very little human intervention and no incentive to have any.
We have a non existent ex bus lane that's been gone for about 5yrs and even the red surface has gone - yet still people don't drive it and pull across where it used to end - scary!
I also see sooooooo many cars who avoid a bus or 2+ lane outside of the active times - total lack of awareness
It's not just regular motorists not reading bus lane times. Around a year ago, I had read a news article about a local primary school headmistress complaining about cars driving in the bus lane outside her school when the kids were leaving. School finishes at 3pm, bus lane isn't active until 4pm. Maybe a week later, I was driving in the lane around 3.05pm when a traffic officer stepped out, and signalled for me to stop. He appeared stunned when I pointed out that the lane wasn't yet active. This happened 3 times over the following 2 weeks, with different officers. All had taken the view that the bus lane was active at 3pm, not 4pm. I wondered how many tickets were issued before the message got back to police Scotland. Bus lanes here used to all be active at 3pm, but changed to 4pm around 20 years ago. Just a shame that the police were only just realising this.
I got a fixed penalty notice for a driving offence in London when I was 60 miles away at the time! I explained the situation and provided a photo of my car as well as a witness statement from my manager at work who vouched for me being at work in Northampton when the incident occurred. The penalty was obviously quashed. It does show that the authority in question did not check the rwhistration as it would have shown that my car was not involved. I did read somewhere that some foreign plates can throw up a mis-read registration but I don't know that this is true.
Yes it can. Romanian plates follow the UK format, so a ticket can be issued to a UK car instead that has the same registration mark.
The annoying and quite frankly mind boggling bit of this is the fact that there is a camera picture of the "offending vehicle", and anyone with a single brain cell should have picked up "hmm, that's a funny looking Honda, somethings not right"
Either this is all automatic, or the person who looked at this before sending the FPN letter is stupid
Probably automated
Was sent a ticket a few months ago, and it was obvious no human had been involved at any point before the letter was sent out.
On the photos, about the only thing that was even close to correct was the vehicle colour. Make and model were completely different, and the plate was nothing like my number.
Doesn't give much confidence in ANPR when it gets the basics so very wrong.
You think that's bad, London we have 24hr bus lanes but ppl Park in them in the evening when the single red line is allowed to be parked on......
it is all automatic the camera just captures the reg and it gets matched to the last known address in the DVLA database and then its sent out no one looks its the same for all camera fines private or government.
@@AnythingForSouls makes sense
Though in this developing world where we have AI, surely that would be intellegant enough to recognise what vehicle is caught. Would prevent a lot of these incidents from happening
Yes, I remember those breakdown buses too. Guess it's more cost effective to farm out breakdowns to specialists nowadays, or it might be Health and Safety, who knows?
Problem with times bus lanes is that the signs are placed at the start of the lane and to read it clearly can be difficult especially if the lane is active when you get there.
Don’t assume that if cars are in the lane that it is open to use either.
The problem is, unfortunately, that the times shown in writing on the signs is quite small and that, together with all the other street furniture plus traffic and pedestrians, makes reading and checking when the bus lane is in operation a risky operation. Hence in London many drivers just steer clear of bus lanes at all times.
I find the times on bus signs often hard to read, while observing other things, due to the size and trying to make sure which times are relevant. I often use the none bus lane to avoid any penalty until I get to a 2ns sign that I can read and confirm it's 'open' then move back to use it.
Hi Ash, at 4:56, did you say would or Wouldn’t? I’ve been given a bus lane ticket (a few years ago) for doing exactly this. Bus Lane Camera was positioned at a junction and got my picture, with just the left side in the lane, but still, in the lane.
Wouldn't
In Nottingham the sections of bus lane change form 24 hour to other times like it’s going out of fashion. They also have cameras on them.
Choosing to drive in the normal lane all the time negates the risk of accidentally getting a ticket in the bus lane.
I’m sure the council have made it deliberately awkward, just so they can get some more money in fines .
I've recently went to London and ended up accidentally in a bus lane... Then I noticed I was just in time, it went out of operation a minute before I got in it. By the point I saw the sign I had already moved out of it only to then notice many cars move into it and pass unreasonably fast on the left...
That's insane good on him for reporting this brilliant lesson with your learner 👍
I find it amusing that bus/cycle/taxi lanes are meant to speed up public service vehicles and cycles yet as soon as you have a cyclist in the lane the other two vehicles have to slow to the speed of the cyclist because there is insufficient room to pass safely and often this is slower than the main traffic.
A word of warning if you are in Nottingham. At the end of the bus lanes, which are often monitored by cameras and where there is traffic lights, under no circumstances cross the solid white line even it is by just a couple of feet from the end to pull into the LH lane because you will be fined. Its a particularly nasty situation because you may be turning left and because the left lane in front of the bus lane has a couple of cars in the very limited space you will be stuck in the RH lane obstructing all the through traffic. Pulling into the bus lane would be pragmatic to maintain traffic flow and will not inconvenience the buses but the 'jobs worth' will not be allowed any discretion.
I tend to ignore times on bus lanes and avoid them altogether. You're not doing anything wrong by not driving in them when you're allowed to. It's much simpler this way and it allows me to keep my eyes on the road rather than looking at the clock and working out whether the bus lane restriction applies or not.
I used to love the timed buslanes in south London. Used to undertake dozens of queued up cars.
As for Hampshire Police. I have a grouse with them, they sent me a summons for speeding at 18:53, when I was definitely not driving. I queried it, they sent me a pic of 10:53, an 8 hour difference, but it was me, not paying attention, and they said the charge stands.
However, several letters later they still state the incorrect time which is giving me a niggle. Buggers.
Chances of it being an actual cloned plate is small ... it's much more likely to be a plate misread, maybe due to dirt on the plate or the colour of the plate mounting screw.
yeah that’s what I thought too!
Yeah, it does happen but they're usually smart enough to not put a grey Civic plate on a Transit!
I'm noticing too, the letter 'D' on newer reg. plates tend to have a slight overlap on both the top and bottom with the vertical line. I'm guessing to make it more distinguishable from the numeral '0'
There's also the authorities' unwavering belief in the reliability of technology such as ANPR, where they can't seem to consider it might not be 100% reliable or accurate.
@@sanchoodell6789I just checked our printer (make plates at work), the official font has those.
I had a similar thing with my number plate. This was invilving a parking ticket. The local council had issued me with a parking ticket. Different area different vehicle and I was working at the time. They first tried to say someone else was using my car and stole my car keys. When I highlighted the fact it was a van and not a car that was parked they then went on to ask for my VIN and Tax disc number. This seemed to clear the matter up and they stated the matter had now been cleared. I have since wondered how common is this practice and can I do anything to prevent it again.
Unless you're familiar with the bus lane, you've got to try and read the times when it's in use, without taking your eyes off the road for more than the split second it would take read a normal warning sign.
Cloned Plates : About 10 years ago I flew into heathrow and picked up an Astra hire car to drive home back to Wales, about 2 months later I had a traffic violation from inner London for this car, BUT it was not the car I Hired it was another make and model. I did the same thing reported to my local Police station and to Heathrow Police , they told me it's very common for people to scan the hire car places and copy plates and drive on them so number plate recognition sees the car is taxed and insured. Needless to say I got the traffic violation reconded but it's a very common thing to happen
The issue of cloned plates is ridiculous - successive Governments haven't done enough to counter the issue. There are covert & overt ways to make it far harder - contained in a report that the Home Office still seems to be sitting on 3 years later.
Innocent motorists are caught up, Police are wasting time, criminals are committing more crime ('county lines' drug gangs, 'bilking' fuel theft etc.). It's a growing problem & ANPR picks-up more of it.
The way to counter cloned plates is to adopt the American system of having them made by prisoners in jail. In most places in the US, the plates are issued by the state, you don't get them made privately. They also have an excellent way of stopping bilking (driving off without paying for fuel). The pumps are pretty much all pay-at-pump with a card, if you want to pay cash you go to the cashier in the kiosk/shop and say "I want $30" or whatever. You give them the cash and they enter the amount into the computer and the pump is switched on. When you get to $30 or whatever you paid for, the pump cuts off. If you fill up before that amount is reached, you go back in for your change. Why can't we do that..?
@@TestGearJunkie. Well, the British (and German) fuel pump system gives people to fill up with more fuel than they wanted. If you try to fill up for 30.00 and end up putting 30.72 into the tank, that's an extra 72 cents that this fuel pump gets (and the next one that the person fills up at doesn't get - ignore the fact that will often be the exact same gas station). But apparently those extra cents are (or look) higher than the looses due to bilking (or insurance against bilking losses).
Not to mention that that change would cost money and would likely confuse the customers.
And the state-issued plates only solve part of the problem. There will still be producers of vanity plates. But if you can't say "Plates to the usual legal specs, please. I definitely own this registration; You don't need proof for that, right?" then it would be harder to find a place where you can buy a plate like BR-QG-17 without raising suspicion. Nothing keeping you from driving around with plates like "RE-TIR-ED" that on first glance have the normal design, though.
But why not make the life of criminals that little bit harder?
Also, you don't necessarily have to have the plates manufactured by prisoners. Each county or whatever can also just buy them in batch from the cheapest bidder.
If a bus lane or a cycle lane is in operation and there is a solid white line you’re allowed to cross the lane at 90 degrees, you’re just not allowed to park in the lane and you’re not allowed to drive along the lane.
I stay out of timed bus lanes at all times as I just don't want the hassle of having to deal with the local council who have fined people for using a bus lane, despite it being outside of it's hours of operation. It takes months of arguing and the burden of proof is always on the victim.
Not worth the hassle for me.
Ashley, I know it’s not bus lane but can I ask about police sitting under a 30mph sign to then issue tickets for speeding ? In my home town of Bangor N Ireland there is a ring road which takes traffic round the outside of a small town to residential and commercial premises. There are a short set of dual carriage way interspersed with roundabouts with 4 exits. There are 6 roundabouts and the road links to each roundabout. So you drive along the carriage way for quarter of mile to next roundabout then quarter of mile to next roundabout then quarter of mile to next roundabout. Each of the roundabouts speed limit is 30 and carriageway is 40. So you slow to 30 a few yards before roundabout then go round this and then as you leave there are 40 signs. The police sit with a speed camera just behind the 30 sometimes and issue tickets as you are driving at 40. So is the 30 sign meaning you have to do 30 as soon as you pass the sign or you must have slowed in the 40 area enough to be at 30 effectively in the 40 zone so that as soon as you pass the sign you are doing 30 ? It’s just the road in some spots is less than 100 yards so you couldn’t really get to 40 before you’d have to slow to 30. Thanks
As a bus driver, personally I love it when drivers dont read the timed signs, as it means the buses get a lane to themselves, even outside of operating hours. However, I am always amazed at how little notice people pay attention to the signs and there poor lane discipline.
To be fair, the written times are pretty small. Humans tend to focus a symbols, less on small fonts.
As a bus driver that occasionally uses a car, I love it when they do that even when I'm in the car. Happens on the Mansfield Road virtually all of 5 miles into Nottingham (though there are a couple of 24hr sections, including one very short pointless one). Mind you, if I'm going into Nottingham, I don't usually take the car. Also happens on the Chesterfield Road (a similar length) into Sheffield. Number of times I've gone several miles along there at twice the speed of the rest of the traffic...
My parents had a car about 4 years ago and they got a private parking ticket for a location elsewhere in the country (several hours away). They explained this but the private parking company ignored this and ultimately it ended up in a CCJ.
>ultimately it ended up in a CCJ.
Realistically this only happened if they ignored court paperwork or didn't enter a court defence properly AND then failed to pay promptly when judgement was made against them.
People like to to comment 'you'll end up with a CCJ', but that only happens if you fail to defend, lose and then fail to settle promptly. It is entirely avoidable. You enter a defence, in circumstances like this the case should be dismissed as a result, but even if the worst happens and judgement is made against you, as long as you pay promptly at that point, the CCJ is removed. There is no reason for anybody to 'end up in a CCJ'.
@@ryanmitcham5522 yes. They did ignore and I know all of this. I was making a point about the cloned plates still ultimately causing this.
I’ve defended and won a county court judgement myself. I know the process.
For elderly people it is not a simple situation to resolve as you make out. If you ever have to do this, you’ll understand.
Part of the issue of cloned plates is that there are companies online that advertise they will make any plate for you as a "show plate". No questions asked and no checks performed, as would be the case at an authorized number plate dealer. Interestingly, some of these "show plate" companies have offshore addresses, such as the Isle of Man.
it leaves me wondering if the US and Canada practice of only allowing state approved manufacturers to make number plates makes cloning harder or if it's easy enough for black market plates to be made.
On the cloning issue. There was a BBC Radio 4 programme “You and Yours” on 8th May discussing drivers licence cloning which viewers might find interesting.
Do local authority parking officers in the UK have authority to issue to vehicles for having incorrect plates attached? As an enforcement officer in NZ I have the authority to issue to a range of stationary vehicle offences, including no vehicle inspection, expired registration, plates not fitted/obscured/or incorrect, and even worn and damaged tyres.
The same thing happened to me few years ago, not a bus lane, but a no entry road.
It went all the way to county court before it was dismissed.
It was a ridiculous process.
It's not always a cloned plate. Can be one with a similar reg that the system has misidentified for some reason eg worn or dirty plates
My mate got pulled over on the M5 by 3 unmarked police cars with armed police. Someone had cloned his plates and done an armed robbery at some point before. The bad guys put the plate on a similar car (make, model, colour). He had no idea what was going on. Annoyingly for him it was a personalised plate as well and he had to stop using it as the police basically he would be stopped forever more if he kept the personalised plate on.
One of those police programmes on tv showed a situation like that. The officer speaking with the innocent driver, after finding out they were the proper driver/owner after boxing them in with TPAC, gave them a 'think bike' sticker and then got a note on the system to say this was now on the official car.
Thanks for teaching me this. As a foreigner I certainly would have entered the bus lane when turning right from the traffic lights, as I would expect a bus lane to be marked with the word BUS painted on the tarmac. I would probably miss the blue sign, and if I didn't, I'd ask myself "Okay, but where?". Now I know what to look for. One related question popped up though...
Looking at the situation between the bus lanes along the Cooksons Bridge Pub there is a blue sign for cyclists that seems to direct them onto the pavement. This pavement does not appear suitable for cycling at all. Where should they enter that "lane"? How should they navigate all those obstacles? There are even lamp posts in the middle of the pavement on both sides of the bridge.
I know the cycling infrastructure in the UK can be horrible. Is this just one example?
so that sign is saying cyclists can use the pavement for that bridge it is a lowered kerb before it so you can enter it smoothly but coming off it you would never need to do it at that first junction with the lowered kerb if there was no car right next to you id personally put my hand out to indicate i was coming off it or the safer option is just to go to the next junction slightly up from when the bus lane starts again and just merge over there should be pretty safe to do so. It is shocking but if you look around you'll find cycle lanes that jump from one side of the road to the other for no other reason that its a new council district and they put that path there.
@@AnythingForSouls The last chance to enter the lowered kerb is at 4:13 where the pedestrian is waiting. You'd have to navigate around the pedestrian and the lamppost following. But is it even legal to cycle there? The cycle lane starts quite some distance down the road, at 4:17. If you did not notice the sign from a distance, you'd have to hop onto the pavement via a much higher kerb.
And then there's that yellow sandbox, and cracks in the pavement trying to distort your balance. Just horrible.
There was a case a few years ago of a Seattle resident (Washington State USA) who kept getting billed for the toll of crossing the Hwy 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington even though they never ever used that bridge. Turns out that someone else with the same licence plate number but with a Texas license plate rather than the "victim's" Washington State plate was crossing the bridge. The toll cameras weren't making the distinction between the same plate numbers from two different states. It took the local resident some time to sort it all out after the photographic evidence was examined and showed a Ford Explorer rather than Honda Civic. There were a few other cases of this re same plate but different state.
Sounds like a national number plate system would be a better idea. Add 2 letters to the end of the actual number, in the same font, to disambiguate.
that's an inherent problem with our national fascination with number plates as fashion accessories. we used to be able to positively identify which state issued a number plate by color pattern, alone. now number plates are a work of art, and you have to get close enough to read the state stamp to tell them apart.
@@martineyles problem is we have too many number plates out there to tie up 2 characters for state codes. they all have the name of the state across the top or bottom, but otherwise, there just aren't enough combinations available for nationwide coordination.
@@kenbrown2808You beat me to it Ken. Even with each US state / Canadian province having its own licencing system, they are already having to juggle around with their various combinations to accommodate the ever growing number of registered vehicles. I can't imagine the US or Canada going to a national system without dividing it up by state or province. How long would a unique national plate have to be?
@@ibs5080 There are something under 300 million registered vehicles in the US. Assuming the same character set as the UK, and no additional formatting rules, that requires.. six characters. 34 items, 6 selected, no repetition, that's just shy of a billion permutations. Note permutations, not combinations, because there's no reason for '123456' and '123465' to be the same plate.
Math is not the limiting factor, nor space on vehicles for a plate - inability to cooperate is the reason there's no unified system.
Here in Norway, and I assume this also applies for some other countries, Electric cars are allowed to use the bus lanes unless sign states they cannot drive there.
The same applies for hydrogen powered cars too.
4:50 I never knew that was allowed.
If theres a queue turning right, is it still ok to use the bus lane when it's clear during the active times?
I helped someone out at work once when they were sent a bus lane fine from somewhere they had never been I believe it was Luton council.- the operators had actually misread the number plate. The image sent on the letter was so poor you couldn't read it at all but it was clearly a different vehicle. Luckily there was a facility to view online. When you zoomed in you could see they had read one of the digits wrong. Took a while before they finally accepted it though.
as I recall, in the UK, you can get private reg plates from a private manufacturer, as long as they are made to the standard. in the states, all license plates are issued by the state, even custom "vanity" plates. it seems to me that allowing private manufacturing of plates would make it easier for plates to be cloned, but then, many of the plates in the US are no longer embossed, just printed, so theoretically it would not take much setup for a person to be able to produce counterfeit plates, in the US. and then, it seems in parts of the US, it's common for a person wishing to hide their identity to simply steal plates from a similar car, and replace them with their own, and the victim isn't observant enough to notice.
You are absolutely correct re the companies supplying UK plates. Some of these online companies can also supply North American plates made to order, no questions asked. I've also seen at car shows as well as retro / antique stores, whole boxes of North American plates for sale. I've seen this both in the UK as well as North America. Admittedly these are likely no longer in actual circulation but I have to wonder at the whole process. Here in my mum's garage in the UK, we have licence plates from BC, WA, OR and CA. All legitimately bought and solely for the purpose of displaying auto memorabilia on the garage wall and nothing more.
@@ibs5080 an interesting bit of trivia: early Oregon license plates were intended to be permanent, and the state has ruled that if an antique car owner can find a plate issued in the year of manufacture of the car, that plate can be registered to the antique car, and becomes valid. - meaning the owner pays no registration fees after that.
Outside the hours of operation of a bus lane, am I correct in thinking that it's legal to cross the solid white line that separates the bus lane from the adjacent lane? To either move into or out of the bus lane at any point, outside it's hours of operation. My understanding is that this is legal and yet it contradicts the general rule that you must not cross a solid white line, with a few exceptions such as the "to overtake a cyclist / dustcart / maintenance vehicle travelling at no more than 10 mph" thing.
Had a mate at a place I worked years ago had the number plate clone happen, and worse it was the same colour and make of car. Neither the police nor DVLA would lift a finger to help him, even though the police knew it was cloned they wouldn't hand over the evidence that would have cleared him. We even joint signed a letter to say he was in the company car park at the times and dates he was done for numerous offences, but still the DVLA wanted him to 'prove it', which of course only the old bill could do and refused to help.
When I was living in France, I got a call at the end of July from the police saying that my car was involved in a fatal hit and run. The next Monday, I went to the police station and was told that the investigating officer was on holiday and would return at the end of the month. I spent the whole of August panicking, went the first day he was back, only to be told that my plate had been cloned and that the car in the accident was a Ford Focus whilst I had a BMW Z3. I can confirm that misread and cloned plates can cause a loss of stress! 😂
What annoys me about 24hr bus lanes is the fact that there are rarely 24hr bus services. Not but a money maker for the local authorities.
It amazes me that people do not read these signs. There are bus lanes in Hampshire that allow HGV's. The amount of times I have driven a truck in a bus lane, and been beeped at or blocked.
Also, car share lanes in Bristol can be used by HGV's. Again, I get beeped or blocked by other road users. All because I can read signs and they don't.
I once cloned a plate by accident when I was 18. My brother took my plate as he needed some metal. I had to get w new one so went to my local plate shop. Later that week I got the blue light treatment on my way home at 1am. Turns out the plate I had made I got to letters the wrong way around. It was matching a stolen Allegro, however I was on my motorbike. Lol
I was arested and held for several hours whilst they tried to sort it all out. Its now one of my favourite stories 😅
Great video. If a plate is cloned or stolen DVLA should issue you with a new one. Not expect you to buy a private plate. I believe this is what happens in some other countries.
In the South, people often refuse to use the bus lanes when out of hours. So if you use it, you often get people making left turns infront of you from the right lane. Or people thinking you're pushing in and blocking you.
It’s not that they refuse they are just following the cars in front like a sheep rather than thinking and using their brain
@@lolitapitpong3826 Many refuse. I see it especially during afternoon rush hour when the left lane starts as a normal lane and turns into a morning only bus lane, people stop and try to merge instead of using it.
The cloning issue you brought up rings a vague bell, but not about cloning, where, just after i bought a new car, and sold the previous one to a garage, years ago, i think i remember getting a speeding fine through the post to do with the previous car, but i think it got resolved quickly, and i forgot about it, till now.
Nothing worse than someone in lane two outside of the timed bus lane times, doing 15mph on a safe and clear stretch of road, in the middle of the night, and everyone following them!
This is what it’s like driving out of Manchester!
near Edinburgh airport there's a dual carriage way and the return side to leave Edinburgh the left lane got turned into a bus lane making it essentially a single lane for some odd reason maybe 2-3 years ago and they have ALWAYS had a sign saying bus lane not in use or not enforced use both lanes something to that effect and there's a few placed along it . Still people don't use it and it just backs up the traffic more which is why I think its never been used as a bus only lane because it was stupid taking a dual down to single for no reason it was such a waste of tax money.
Here in the city where I live NO one uses the bus lanes, not even the buses even if the traffic is almost at a standstill.... Only one using them is taxis and that is only sometimes. I do not understand why the bus lanes is never in use, not even ambulances or firetrucks will use them when running blue lights.
Redundant bus stops can be a problem even more than bus lanes. There’s one locally that’s been out of use for over five years and has legal parking in front and behind, but you’ll still get a parking ticket if you leave your car within the lines of what was the bus stop.
As with anything the council probably doesn't have the money to resurface the road/ remove the bus stop marking. But perhaps a sign should be put up to permit the space for being used for car parking.
@@skylarius3757 The council are probably happy to collect income from the fines for people parking there, so no incentive for them to remove it.
About 10 years ago I received a speeding fine on a road I had not been on. I contested it and the police asked for photos of my car. After I sent the photos I heard no more about it, so I assume the plates were cloned.