"Dave Arquati" wrote in message
...
Although in favour of speeding up buses, I wonder whether it might
better serve the interests of both bus users and motorists to introduce
a rule which makes it compulsory to let buses leaving a bus stop pull
out.

Such a rule would never be safe. A decision to allow a bus to pull out
should be based upon a range of factors:-
(i) How close is the vehicle behind?
(ii) Would you have to brake hard? (dangerous in wet conditions)
(iii) Is there a cyclist near you?
(iv) Is there a gap behind that the bus could easily fit into with minimal
delay to the traffic flow as a whole?
(v) Is the bus going to attempt to cross more than just your own lane?
(vi) Is the bus going to pull out at all? (The right-turn indication on a
bus is a problem issue because you don't know if he's actually intending to
change lanes or merely start moving in his existing lane, and can't tell
because the bus blocks out the forward view).

Furthermore, such a rule would simply give the many incompetent bus-drivers
that unfortunately exist in London even more mis-placed authority to pull
out when not appropriate/safe, which would be highly dangerous for
everybody.

Apart from these issues, I don't really see why buses should have priority
over other traffic, but then I never travel by bus and hopefully will never
need to.