Bus lane fine

[Mugon]

I expect it's all my fault and I'll pay up.

However, I knew when I was in the bus lane because it was written on the road, but by then it was too late. The photo shows me driving into the bus lane but doesn't show any signs to indicate it was starting (only the writing on the road) and I remember saying when I realised what I'd done, that I didn't think there been any signage.

Probably it's me, I missed it and should pay, but I'd like to appeal and ask them to show me what I missed. I was away on holiday, so can't pop back to check myself. At the least, I think it was probably one of those situations where it's not that clear if you don't know the road layout - there was one in our town where all fines were cancelled for the first 6 months because the signage wasn't clear enough.

Anyway, they've included details of the appeals process, but the fine is £70, £35 if paid within 28 days, but £105 if I use the appeals process unsuccessfully.

How can it be Ok to practically force people not to even try and appeal?

Been caught out in two unfamiliar cities when trying to find the ruddy hotel! In the first city it was dark and its then stressful driving around and around with the satnav spouting nonsense!

I had to pay up to avoid delay but I did appeal, albeit unsuccessfully. The councils just want the money and don’t care that you didn’t intentionally end up in a bus lane.

Completely agree, they are simply to raise revenue. On a road near me the restriction times that you can use the bus lane change every few hundred metres.

Local people like me know and don't use them at all. If you are in one you are allowed to use, you can find yourself in one that you can't very easily and you can't pull out quickly enough because the outside lane is busy.

The pay quickly reduced fine is exactly the same as timed sales, it's designed to apply psychological pressure so you comply easily.

Our government isn't doing anything near enough to protect the UK public from unscrupulous companies like APCOA. You can't pay at several airports anymore in cash or by card for drop off parking, you have to pay parking online within 24 hours of visiting. Just like the bus lines it's designed to catch people out, you're having a busy airport day, the chances of forgetting are high. The same at Manchester airport, although there it's double jeopardy because if you pull into the drop off zone to pick up and pay, you will still get fined. The areas are next to each other and not segregated. They've even fined disabled people who are supposed to be able to use it for free.

Yet you go abroad and airport pick up and drop offs are free, but our governments are becoming more and more like the US, in thrall to big business rather than keeping them in check.

Look at the absolute state of the vetinary industry. Its a total scam. 70 percent price increases between 2016 and 2023. 60 per cent of vets own by huge conglomerates, one of which is enriching the lichtenstein royal family at the expense of working people in the UK.

Councils are using the same tactics. They've employed firms to go round fining people for fly tipping. That includes someone who was doing some building and had their own materials stored in their own front garden! But again it was the pay up or you will have to spend a fortune in court scare tactics.

Our political leaders are allowing us to be screwed over to make the filthy rich even filthier.

All of our politicians.

I got a speeding fine driving in the Peaks on holiday once. I was caught at 37 in a 30 because I thought it was still 40. I’m absolutely convinced that the 30mph sign was obscured by trees because it was unfamiliar roads and the speed was changing so regularly so I was being super vigilant looking for signs.

It was coming into a more built up area, but there were no pavements or streetlights so no other indication it would be 30 yet. When I looked back at Google maps there was a sign about 200m before the speed camera, and it was visible but there were trees around.

Unfortunately it was hundreds of miles from where I live so I couldn’t go back to check to see if the trees were more overgrown than they had been when google had been round so I just had to take it on the chin, but I was so annoyed because of how careful I’d been the whole time we were away.

Sometimes you’ve just got to suck it up!

There is one in Reading that appeared a few years back, Duke St to London St, which used to be a well used route for me to go to my parents. As an out of towner, I didn't know it had become a bus lane, and I followed a bus onto it. Unfortunately, the road sign that said it was a bus lane was unable to be viewed by the first car behind a bus - because the bus means you couldn't actually see the sign was there till you are alongside it and thus cannot read it, due to the narrowness of the road necessitating the sign being immediately adjacent to the road, and when you travel down there at 2mph in traffic you are not leaving more than a car length gap between vehicles. I had no clue it had changed to bus lane (for a mere 12ft of road), but still paid the fine.