Derby bus lanes and bus stops making big money.

In this Derby Telegraph story  We learn that Derby's Bus Lanes and bus stops have generated 10,000 tickets in five months.  

As you know, as with high generating speed camera sites, we either have to assume that these 10,000 were deliberately disobedient or that there is something wrong at the site.


Whatever the reason, these 10,000 are showing that the system is failing for some reason or another. Only anti drivers and profiteers will see this as a success; just as they do with speeding. 

For a start, as all bus services are now privately owned and run, I am automatically against a privileged share holder's right to make money from hived off public roads and to prosecute all other road users and drivers. Somehow there is something not right about that.


There is little excuse for anyone who ignores the clear 'No stopping except for buses sign' as above but Bus Lanes have always worried me.  Look at these two signs:  Unlike other driving signs they are not diagrammatic but need to be read, digested and then acted upon. Now to do that, attention and focus is taken from the drive. This is exactly the dilemma that we need to consider when deciding what distractions are in aid of a drive and what are not. These regulations are not about safety but about a politically motivated ideology so clearly they do not take precedence over the driving. To actually read these signs is careless driving; it's as simple as that. How often do you see bus lanes empty, even when not in force? Lines of traffic in the outside lane proving that the signs are unreadable when actually driving.

Locals get to know the rules, but I suspect that, just like speed cameras, these lanes are mostly catching out visitors and strangers. How many of these 10,000 were local? 

Is the council going to find out and analyse what's going wrong? Of course not; just as high generating speeding sites are allowed to carry on too.

Then there is the coercive 'Plead guilty for a discount' enticement.

Any good lawyer willing to try the careless driving conflict? It's long overdue that someone did so!