To think that bus lane fines qre a cynical way for the council to rake in some cash?

[malificent7]

Im all for speeding fines and have been caught doing 36 in 30 zone so happy to cough up.
However, in Taunton there is a bus gate that seems impossible to avoid. It is on a main road, you cannot see the signs till you are right there and as they are in front of traffic lights, we have to stop.
Satnav takes me through it too. You get fined £60 for stopping there and if you are unfamiliar with the roads ( as i am) its impossible to avoid. There is virtually no traffic there so it dosn't seem dangerous to be there.

I agree, if you are unfamiliar with the area you go on the bus lane unintentionally and then you get a fine

There’s one in Cheltenham that is absolutely raking it in with fines.
Anyone who doesn’t know the area drives straight through the bus gate as it really isn’t obvious what’s going on with signage.
Once you are there it’s hard to avoid going through it.

I agree ,
There is a bus land near me but you can use it except between 7-10am Monday Friday . It drives me mad at weekends that someone will suddenly move from right to left to avoid bus lane even though it's fine to drive in bus lane . So it's also dangerous I've had to slam on my breaks a couple of times because not looking I'm behind.
Am I right that Liverpool have got rid of bus lanes ?
Bus lanes are dangerous unnecessary and some people are unsure of the rules don't read the signs . The only purpose it seams is to rake in fines for the council .

Can you get the first accidental time wiped by asking nicely?

I had satnav route me onto a toll freeway in the US. It was in the wee hours coming straight from the airport heading to a destination I didn't know in a state I'd never visited in a hire car with no local currency.

The lovely lady in the first booth took pity on me and told me how to get off after putting a handful of her own change in to cover me!

I also got a fine revoked for ignoring a no right turn in London by throwing myself on the council's mercy and admitting to being a country bumpkin driving in the big city for the first time moving DD into halls for uni.

Worth a try?

we got a fine at uni drop off, i didnt think about appealing

I was caught going through a new one in Taunton last week OP. I received a letter with a warning rather than a fine as it's so new. I was so relieved and hope you get the same result. There's a 50% discount on the fine if you pay within a certain number of days too.

Assume you got a ticket op
Yabu

I have asked nicely...contested it...nope. got sent a load of photographic evidence of my misdemeanor.

I hardly go to Taunton...there dosn't seem to be a way in without going through a bus lane/ gate.

The Cheltenham one is absolutely avoidable. There is signage EVERYWHERE.

I got the 50% discount...it's the principle that makes me cross.

Bus lanes /gates only really fulfil their stated purpose (to keep public transport moving) if cars avoid them. So any bus gate where the council is "raking it in" is clearly flawed and not working. So although I don't object to the idea of them being enforced, I agree that its suspicious when one seems to be run for profit.

I live near Taunton and go there all the time.... where is the new bus lane?

The one that annoys me is the one on the main road from North Petherton to Taunton........ I don't see why they had to reroute the main road through the development instead of leaving it where it was.

Rules is rules I suppose, they can't distinguish between accident and deliberate by video or pictures, and if they did by appeal everyone would just say it was an accident. Learn from it and move on.

I don't drive in Nottingham anymore for this very reason, difficult and complicated signage and then bus lanes everywhere.

I work for a council and anyone that thinks that a local authority is "raking it in" needs to remember that the money is used to pay for essential services. Like education and adult social care, which people are quick enough to complain about when the service is poor due to lack of funds.

Council funding and budgets have been stripped to the bone. And noone appears to be volunteering to pay much higher council tax. So where do you suggest the money comes from?

By all means complain about the signage, if it isn't clear. But drivers shouldn't be in bus lanes and I see no issue with this being used as a source of revenue.

Malificent7 that's harsh. London council had a series of flattering photos of me in my car making the illegal turn, but the nice lady on the phone told me what to say - and what definitely not to say - to wriggle free.

Bad luck. 😕

The council can still be raking it in with bus lane fines whatever they spend the money on.

I had one in Wolverhampton,alli did was cut the corner to go left.Hey presto a £60 fine.
B`STARD councils hate them with venom.

AChickenCalledDaal, I would have been right with you on council funding until the other day when I discovered MY council, wot I direct debit my heart's blood to every month, just gave £12 eyewatering
million to a US based Virgin outfit planning to launch satellites into space from our regional airport. 😡
That's even more than they lost by stashing it in that Icelandic bank about 48 hours before it sank without trace.

I'd rather they'd funded an extra ten minutes on every carer's home visit and paid them travelling time, and/or stumped up to ease school budgets a bit. £12mil isn't chickenfeed.

The Cheltenham one is absolutely avoidable. There is signage EVERYWHERE.

Driving through Cheltenham is generally awful anyway, anyone not knowing the area, and following a satnav could still find themselves at Boots Corner.

I am going into Cheltenham today so will have a look to see if the signage has improved.

@imnotinthemood bus lanes, like cycle lanes, are good in theory but they are not long enough to make a difference to your journey on the bus, bike or taxi. Plus the lanes merge into traffic at a stupid and often dangerous points in the road e.g. junctions.

In London due to the various different times of operation and them randomly changing their operation times, lots of people have ended up with fines so the default has been for the last 20 years simply not to drive your car in them.

Dd is a student in Cheltenham, the bus lane "got" her in year 1.
She had absolutely no idea.
Having seen it we paid her fine.

NearlyGranny fair enough. Council-funded spaceports are definitely in the minority. I guess they are hoping for long term rewards, but I can see how it would go down locally.

Round here, it's more a case of people whinging about spending a couple of quid on parking while simultaneously complaining that the Council doesn't empty the bins often enough.

I believe Newcastle city council recently had to repay thousands of bus lane fines because signage was so bad.

I was caught out by one in East Lothian. I wasn't familiar with the area, and it was unexpected to have one in what I saw as a residential area, rather than on a seemingly main route. Apparently it's caught a lot of people off guard, I had a Google when I got home. I paid the fine, obviously, but I cursed at myself.