Bus lane blues (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bus lane blues

11:35am Monday 4th February 2008

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‘Drivers get the bus-lane blues!’ cried a Telegraph & Argus headline last Thursday.
I know all about the bus-lane blues - I was one of the drivers pulled over by Police Community Support Officers the morning they were out in force on Manningham Lane in a £12,000 Metro-funded operation.
Around 150 motorists were hit with £30 fixed-penalty notices for illegally using a bus lane and dozens more were warned off switching lanes.
The PCSOs were pulling over motorists for driving in the bus lane between peak periods of 7.30am to 9.30am and 4pm to 6.30pm. Metro claims that by blocking bus lanes motorists make bus journey times longer and compromise road users’ safety.
In sixteen years of driving I’ve never been pulled over by the police, but I felt remarkably calm as the two officers standing by the old Spotted House pub, (ironically where I used to wait for the bus every day after school when I was a pupil at St Joseph’s College), beckoned me into the car park.
There was no time for anything to race through my head as I pulled in and wound my window down. “Do you know why we’ve pulled you over?” asked one of the officers. “No,” I said. I wasn’t entirely sure what I’d done wrong but I suspected it might have something to do with the bus lane - even though I’d only nudged onto it by a few inches as I joined the stream of traffic at the end of it.
He told me they were trying to stop motorists using bus lanes and that, while my actions didn’t warrant a ticket, he warned me not to do it again. “Right, thanks, sorry,” I heard myself say.
I was going to tell him that I don’t normally use Manningham Lane, I’d just decided to use it that morning to avoid the gridlock that seems to have become a permanent fixture on Canal Road, my usual route to work. But I decided not to offer any kind of excuse. Instead I smiled sweetly and went on my way - avoiding the bus lane.
I know motorists aren’t supposed to use bus lanes in peak times but in my defence I wasn’t using the lane, I simply nudged into it slightly.
I understand Metro’s reasons for running the scheme but I can’t help thinking that it’s a bit harsh to pull over responsible drivers in rush hour traffic just for skimming the edge of a bus lane when this city is crawling with appalling drivers who just seem to get away with it. Every single day, driving in Bradford, I see bad drivers cutting people up, switching lanes without indicating, speeding through red lights, tailgating other cars and generally making the roads pretty hazardous, tense places to be.
I drove behind one car recently with a ‘Little Ones On Board’ sticker in the back window - yet the two children in the back of the car were standing up and messing about, with no seatbelt in sight. Never mind warning motorists, via a bumper sticker, to drive carefully because you have children in your car. Try driving responsibly yourself.
There’s never a police car in sight when these rubbish drivers are around. And, as the T&A recently reported, six in 10 drivers in Bradford have no insurance. Where’s the multi-thousand pound clampdown on them? A handful of them may have been detected along Manningham Lane the other morning, but if the police were to watch and wait along there without making such a visible song and dance of it they’d probably catch a lot more irresponsible drivers. The ones who are a risk to lives, rather than just bus timetables.