.CeiS kave
Page 30
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mum Owe
When I drove an artic for a living I used to wonder why bus drivers would pull out in front of me. As professionals, didn't they realise it took a lot of effort to slow down 32 tons of inertia and then get it moving again?
Now that I drive a Green Line coach, I sit in my bus lay-by with my right indicator flashing waiting for a gap in the passing traffic so that I can move off . . waiting . . and waiting . . . and getting further and further behind schedule, until at last I see an appfoaching lorry, and think "Ah, here's a professional driver. If I start to move, he'll recognise my predicament and let me out."
Usually this is so and the driver, using his common sense, will slow down or move over if possible to let me continue my manoeuvre, but occasionally I meet somebody like I. J. Hewbury (CM, November 11) or John McKay (CM, November 25), who seem to need to prove that they have the "right of way" by aiming their vehicles at the side of my
coach.
Personally, I hope their local LA has read their letters, so that when their operators' come up for renewal he can judge whether they are suitable persons to be allowed to continue using their vehicles as offensive weapons.
If the Hawk had used his birdbrain before putting quill to paper (CM, October 28), he would have realised the problem lies not with modern bus drivers, but with modern densities of traffic in urban areas. In short there are far more vehicles on the move, running beak to tail and, therefore, less gaps for the bus driver to pull out into.
Some drivers stop in the road and hold up traffic rather than face this problem up to 200 times in a shift. They are wrong to do so, but the intelligent answer is for more drivers to use their common sense and allow a bus to pull out, instead of taking offence and plunging in front at any cost.
You see, Hawk, your point of view depends upon your perch. Of course, there are bad bus drivers, and there are some very good ones too. The same can be said of any class of road user, whether artic driver or pedal cyclist, so why judge the whole species by the droppings of the few?
As professional drivers and operators, we should be setting an example of co-operation instead of indulging in mindless back stabbing. After all, we have to work together on the same tarmac nests.
As one who has passed both the hgv Class 1 and psv driving tests, I found the psv standards of roadmanship to be the highest, so there is a feather in our caps. I am a bus driver, and proud of it!
TONY HAYNES, St Albans.