Anniversary Report - buses and bus drivers
We received 20 comments which specifically mentioned problems with buses and bus drivers. These comments referred to pollution from bus exhaust fumes causing difficulty breathing; poor training of bus drivers; passengers walking into the path of cycles when alighting a bus at places which are not bus stops; and the gridlock caused by the sheer volume of bus traffic.
Buses being able to let folk off at stops (rather than park away and let them off into the cycle lane)
better trained bus drivers!!
Less smoke from buses - get stuck behind a C-reg Magic Bus and your lungs know about it
No queues of old-crock buses on the 192 route
bus drivers being more courteous
Better trained bus drivers who do not pull out first, then indicate
More considerate bus drivers; Buses with cleaner emissions
Stop buses parking on the cycle lane on Wilbraham Road in the morning
No major bus routes!
Oxford Road- too many buses
being forced off the cycle lane by buses competing for passengers
Have tried cycling. It is very difficult to get accross the city centre safely without getting suffocated by bus fumes e.f. from UMIST to Victoria Station. Have to take bike home then go out in car to collect children from Nursery, rather than go directly to the Nursery on the bus then walk/bus home.
I am scared to hell by the bus drivers on the Wilmslow Road, and can't find a safe/direct back route. Coming back, the bike lanes in Rusholme (Curry Mile) are a good place to vent anger (at parkers and pullouters) but not much use for much else. If you could do something about the weather too (joke)...
I would be firghtened to cycle along Wilmslow Road/Oxford Road due to the number of buses.
After one occasion when a double decker bus didn't quite go round me when overtaking me and another bus (I was literally dragged up Stockport Road by my handlebars!), I've given up the bike. It might take longer on the bus, but I'm an awful lot more likely to arrive at work in one piece.
I don't cycle in Manchester because I have spent many years travelling up & down the Wilmslow Road corridor on buses & witnessed daily the harassment of cyclists by bus drivers. Having a no.42 3cm from my back wheel doesn't appeal! Saying that, cycle lanes are improving things. The density of traffic is quite off-putting too. I walk & use public transport & support any measures to get people out of their cars, with the exception of car-jacking!
