Colin McKenzie wrote:
d wrote:
Martin Underwood (a@b) gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying :

No, the problem is the excessive length of bendibuses.

No, it isn't. That has just been demonstrated. It takes a few
seconds to overtake a bendibus, which is about a second more than
a regular bus. ...

That extra second is significant. It prevents cyclists safely
passing bendibuses at the front of the queue at traffic lights,
because it's just long enough for the light to get from red to
green and the bus to move off.

Then you'll have to wait behind the bus like most other road users,
won't you?

With an ordinary bus, even in the worst case you can reach the front
before it moves.

Rubbish. In the worst case, the bus driver starts moving on
red-and-amber. Even if he doesn't, you would have to pass the stop line
on red-and-amber yourself in order to get in front of him (assuming no
cyclist area at the lights).

The extra length also seems to reduce drivers' willingness to wait
for a cyclist to get past before moving off from a stop. And it also
means that by the time you are back at the back of the bus and can
pull in, anything behind the bus is going considerably faster than
you are.
In theory, it's not good to start to pass any bus after it starts to
signal to move off. But you have the right of way, and the bus
driver should let you go if you don't give way. The reason I often
start to pass stopped buses that are already signalling is that many
bus
drivers start indicating long before they are ready to go.

Which is perhaps why the bus drivers aren't willing to wait for you if
you're that foolish.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)