Bus lane fine! With pics.

[SunnyPineapple]

I just received a fine for going in this bus lane but think I should try to appeal it retrospectively ( DH says I can’t, as the leasing company have already paid it).

I was indicating left to get in lane to take the left turn, when a car undertook me meaning I had nowhere to go. My choices were:
A Stop dead well before the traffic lights and wait for him to pass
B carry on changing lane, across his path and hope he stopped
C Hold my path for a split second longer and move in behind him.

I chose C and clearly entered the bus lane for a second.

AIBU to think that this bus lane set is grossly unfair and maybe even unlawful because:
1 The lane for left turns only exists from the bus stop bay onwards ( there is no lane before the bus stop, it’s just a bay - you can see the bus stop markings in one of the pics). So drivers have a very short distance of a few meters to get in lane.
2 Surely bus lanes aren’t allowed to suddenly appear forcing motorists to change lane just before a set of lights.
3 The blue sign on the roadside seems to contradict the road markings ( the sign implies you can’t be in the left turn lane yet the road markings suggest the opposite!)

So AIBU? WWYD?

Yeah, that's what I thought. You're not going to be stopping anyone going straight on anyway.

@roosnunlilei thank you! So much black and white thinking on this thread!

@Fridafever you have the benefit of reading this thread and deciding it would’ve been better on reflection to stop at a green light. I, on the other hand, had make a split second intuitive decision.

That looks like the exit out of Brighton on to the A27.

You should have stopped, like you would have at a roundabout, or t junction

@Fridafever you have the benefit of reading this thread and deciding it would’ve been better on reflection to stop at a green light. I, on the other hand, had make a split second intuitive decision.

But you’ve said on this thread you think stopping would have been dangerous, I can’t see how.

@Fridafever because when you are driving towards a green light you go into autopilot and tend to think at that you shouldn’t stop dead or someone could run into you from behind. We are not programmed to stop at lights when turning left hence my reaction. Anything else that people are rationalising now is based on hindsight and more thinking time than I had in RL. As PPs said, poor layouts cause accidents.

That’s interesting though isn’t it, if the bus lane is there to allow buses to move more easily and swiftly through traffic, but here a driver either has to stop dead at a green light, therefore blocking access to the bus lane, or risk a ticket - then is the bus lane for optimizing bus routes, or - driving revenue from hard to avoid tickets?

But she wouldn't be stopping at a green light for no reason, she would be slowing down and waiting to merge into the correct lane so she could turn left before reaching the traffic lights ahead of her

this. You were in the wrong lane and needed to move over. This is a common occurrence in driving when people don’t know the roads and aren’t in the correct lane and I genuinely don’t understand the confusion.

But the point of your thread was to ask if you should appeal the fine and the point is, whether in hindsight it would have been better to stop or not, you never and that's all the council care about when issuing the fine.

You did drive in to the bus lane, whether it was a little bit or a lot and you got a fine for it. The fine has already been paid and it's highly unlikely you would win an appeal anyway so better to let it lie

because when you are driving towards a green light you go into autopilot and tend to think at that you shouldn’t stop dead or someone could run into you from behind. We are not programmed to stop at lights when turning left hence my reaction.

So were you on auto-pilot and not really paying attention then?

You always need to be ready to slow and stop at lights.

But bus lanes need to start somewhere, so it stands to reason that wherever they start, someone will have to change lanes somewhere and risk blocking access?

@coffeecupsandfairylights thats not what I meant at all! I meant that you go into auto pilot about what’s safe/ vs unsafe. Eg you wouldn’t randomly stop on a motorway. It’s a very fast road!!

@SunnyPineapple this might be useful where someone was taking avoiding action and went in a bus lane and won their appeal. Hope it helps, good luck.

www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/politics/council/northampton-motorist-wins-appeal-against-council-over-bus-lane-fine-after-going-into-lane-to-avoid-van-turning-right-into-garage-3306350

Yes, of course. They should be well signposted in advance with reasonable space to move over, in order to facilitate the free and safe movement of traffic. So not a few metres after a left turn lane opens up at a lighted junction. Where cameras are there to enforce.

Sorry, but why would the lease company pay the fine without contacting you first??? Is a lease car a work vehicle or a rental like Hertz/Avis etc? Sorry, not British so maybe my understanding of a lease car is different.

... a fast road leading into a light-controlled junction which you would have slow down for.

I'm sorry, but people changing lanes ahead of lights etc when they might be in the right lane is hardly a rare occurance.

*wrong lane.

I suppose it depends where you're used to driving.

I drive daily on NSL/60mph roads where people will have to slow/stop at random so they can turn off across lanes of traffic in order to get to their houses, or turn off onto minor roads.

There's a set of lights near us where there's an option to turn left before the lights, so people are always having to slow/stop and allow people to turn off, or merge from that turn off onto the road where the lights are.

Oh, and surely you're not going that fast if there are traffic lights ahead of you? What would you have done if the lights changed?

the best way to appeal something like this is to state that to have stopped etc would have caused a danger to other road users or check to see if the signage is legally correct as there are rules about distance and how far apart the signs can be.

But we don't know that it wasn't signposted in advance?

What road is this OP - maybe if we could see it properly on Google Maps it might be clearer?

But also if the bus lane is there and there is only a small slither of road after it before the lights then people must frequently have to indicate left and pull into the road after waiting?!

having driven in plenty of bus lanes ive never had a fine. when you're dealing with enterprise (or whoever) you've got to make sure they admit that they paid and that nowhere did you agree to pay therefore you owe them nothing. the second they realise they will make sure you're allowed to appeal said fine just as i have been with parking tickets it's the same. when you appeal you can use the "sugma" defence i normally use whereby essentially you are saying there is no way being somewhere briefly could have obstructed a bus in line with their timetable and therefore you haven't cost them that all important money. hope this helps you!

@69mumnetter420 why have you driven through "plenty" of bus lanes? Accidentally or do rules not apply to you?

@Lou98 ofc they apply why wouldnt they? dont understand?