I used to be one of those people that just trusted buses, but since I became a driver I understand that the bus is VERY heavy and unfortunately sometimes the brakes do not always work the way they are supposed to and the bus can lurch or move unexpectedly. The video was correct to tell operators to pull the brake and put the bus in neutral (a veteran driver many years ago instructed me to do that very thing when loading bikes) and the video was also right to warn bicyclists not to cut across the front of a bus from left to right. I’ve seen a few people nearly get killed that way as the bus “suddenly” moved pulling out from a stop.

I think your defensive style of cycling makes sense not just for buses but for all road vehicles much bigger than yourself. If someone is a lot bigger and badder than you, doesn’t discretion prove the better part of valor?

Kaja,

You don’t want to know what I’m thinking.

If you’re a semitrailer or van or passenger-car and you’re on my ass while I’m in the center of my rightmost lane, I will slow down and carefully give you an extended middle-finger until you quit being a jerk. God help you if you honk at me.

But for a bus, I’ll get out of the way.

It’s both out of the civic responsibility instinct, and because I ride a bus in the winter when it’s too cold to ride, and I see the moves a lot of cyclists pull; and I never want to be that guy. (It’s certainly not out of a sense of deference to bus /drivers/.)

That was a neat video, I’m impressed CTA shows it to bus drivers. Contrast with NYCT operators, who’re often happy to just drive from block to block inside the class-A bike lane, to avoid having to pull back out into a “car lane.”

Even the poor girl who was killed was really killed by an irresponsible driver who opened their door without checking to see if it was safe.

Sure there could always be improvements, but I just don’t find buses that scary.

Perhaps I’m just one of those crazy “slow bicycle” people, but I think that my life is worth the 20 seconds I’d save riding up in the blind spot of a bus on either side, and I’m happier just hanging way back, stopping and waiting if necessary to give it a wide berth. If I can’t give it a full lane’s space, I’m not going to pass it. Rather than play leapfrog, I’ll just pull over and get a cup of coffee or smell the flowers. If I’m in a hurry, I’ll find another route rather than pass and be passed repeatedly.

Of course, I’m also one of those crazy “vehicular cyclists” too, and I stay way out in the lane and make the bus pass instead of letting it crowd me into the door zone.

This leapfrogging often results in a cyclist temporarily positioned in a narrow, uncomfortable space between the left side of the bus and moving vehicles… or between the right side of the bus and stationary vehicles. With so much to look out for on the road, I can understand how the bus driver might not notice such a small road user in such a small space, especially far behind them along a long, articulated bus.

Conflicting traffic laws don’t help… cyclists are supposed to ride in the rightmost travel lane, but also must obey all other motor vehicular laws, which forbid use of a bus lane. Where do they belong? As such, how can bus drivers know where and how to look out for them?

All this said, as a cyclist I would much rather share the road with 100 buses and no cars than 100 cars and no buses. The real issue is that bus drivers, like cyclists, must share the road with zillions of barely-trained nuts zipping around everything else in their rush to wait at the next traffic light.

Of course this respect I have for bus drivers creates a false sense of security around them in traffic, that since they are indeed trained professionals employed by the MTA (as opposed to your everyday motorist), my life seems safer in their hands. But I acknowledge reality: Due diligence around buses! Due diligence!