Ah buses.

Who doesn’t have a love / hate relationship with them?

Are they an efficient means to move the masses?

Yes.

Do they provide a viable threat to cyclists?

There’s that too.
 

 

To be honest, I find bus drivers to be more reasonable that car operators on the road, but they should be.

They’re supposed to be professionals.

Bus drivers are also tasked with directing these oversized vehicles, so there should already be this built in level of caution.

But when you come across a bad apple, you really feel like you’re in danger.

 

 

There’s always this you have to worry about.
That’s why I felt compelled to answer Metro’s survey focusing on the cyclist’s perspective in this faulty relationship.

These questions focus around the type of infrastructure around bus stops and traveling alongside these behemoths.

To address the second point first, getting buzzed by a bus causes you’re adrenalin to quickly rise from the instant sense of danger.

You experience situations like these in slow motion, so putting up with a full length bus nearly shaving you by inches feels like an eternity.

Whether it’s a driver not being attentive or trying to asset some type of dominance, this occurs so frequently that you have to ready yourself for this reality.

By the way, how come I’ve never had this problem with school buses?

As for behavior around stops, how many times has a driver moved without signaling or maneuvered suddenly to pick someone up?

 

Look familiar? 

Yeah, that shouldn’t be happening, but you have to ride like you expect it.

Having islands like the one on Los Angeles Street is the ideal solution, but were light years away from this becoming a popular option.

As we live in the Dark Ages as we live in the time between talking about Vision Zero policies and actually doing something about it, at least take the time to fill out this survey.

Damn the fact that it decreases my odds of winning the iPad.