A bus driver's lot... (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

A bus driver's lot...

12:34pm Monday 12th March 2007

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Unless you travel by bus in Bradford during the evening rush hour the abuse of bus lanes by other drivers won't mean much to you - unless you are a culprit.

That's why First Bus driver Phil Read (In My View, T&A, March 9) has my sympathy.

Men and women who drive buses at that time of day through central Bradford have a lot to put up with.
One Friday evening I took the 626 bus home. The driver was cut up by a young male driver on his offside at a set of traffic lights. Bus driver and car driver exchanged looks and words.

Further up Manningham Lane the bus was flagged down at a bus stop. On got the young male car driver, effing and blinding, demanding to know who the bus driver thought he was and what he intended to do about it.

The altercation was brief; a companion yanked the young man off the bus's running board, telling him to calm down. The bus driver, a middle aged man, had reprimanded his antagonist for swearing at him.

That was just the start of this poor bloke's nightmare drive to BD17. All along Manningham Lane car drivers lurched out of side roads into the main road, necessitating quick evasive action. At Shipley, just as he was pulling out into the road, an old man appeared from nowhere scurried across the front of the bus in an attempt to board it.

I felt so sorry for the driver that as I got off at my stop I ducked my head round into his cab and offered my sympathy.

"It's just not my day," he said in a resigned voice.
"No, that route is always a nightmare," I said.
On another occasion I saw one impatient young woman hurry after a 622 pulling out from the Sunbridge Road bus stop and try to get on by pressing the external emergency button.

This kind of nonsense is prevalent. The other morning, coming to work from a morning doctor's appointment, the bus I was on was flagged down several times by pensioners wanting to know if the time was after 9.30am, when cheaper fares came into operation I suppose.

I have yet to see police officers riding shotgun on buses, as we were told they would be earlier this year. I have yet to see traffic wardens patrolling Manningham Lane and Keighley Road in the afternoon to get rid of vehicles parked on double-yellow lines or in the bus lanes.

But if, as Mr Read believes, action is being taken it's not before time.