buses taking right of way too far

[aussiblue]

The scariest I had was years ago when they had the right hand lane open on the Narrows Bridge part of the Kwinana Freeway. I was at a standstill queued in that lane right hand (I had to exit from that lane onto Fitzgerald Street) just before the bridge with gridlocked traffic one morning. After I had been there a while a double length link bus pulled up next to me in the left lane on my left and slightly ahead and then proceeded to change lanes on top of me. He had obviously forgotten that he was a double length bus and I had nowhere to go. I avoided being crushed by finding the centre medium strip and just about ripping my sump out on the curbing and almost scraping my car on the armco barrier. In response to me sounding my Horn the driver gave me all those rude gestures indicating I was somehow in the wrong.

I rang Transperth when I got to work to complain but they already knew about it; someone from their office was behind me in the queue and saw it all happen. I got an apology and the driver got a talking to.

I also lease a car parking bay in the Perth Bus Station and I find cars in the bus station are often "invisible" to bus drivers. I give the buses lots of room but have also fitted air horns to my car to ensure I am noticed when one of those near crushing moments arises. I can understand why cars are invisible in the bus station; cars are few (those handful of us leasing bays) and thus unexpected and we sit a lot lower than the other buses they expect to see in their mirrors and out of their line of vision.