A40 Bus Lane - The Pointless Answer

This is for all the commuters who travel in to Gloucester along the A40 every morning past Over Farm Market and have to sit and look at the bus lane and wonder why? Has it encouraged bus use and reduced congestion, no. Has it made it easier to travel by bus? I assume the answer is still no as the buses are now held back in the jams on the A40 and A48.

How it looked when new and early on a Bank Holiday



So what is the answer. Mercifully some adjustment has been made to the timings such that the main flow of traffic is not held up every time a bus passes the Toby Carvery as happened in the early days. And car drivers can have some amusement when they see a hard working cyclist pumping hard but still managing to hold up a line of buses and taxis. But why let taxis use the bus lane? Many are often single occupancy and I'm sure a few have simply bought a dodgy set of plates of EBay and are masquerading as taxis.

There are two other bits of pleasure for car drivers, sorry three. The first is school holidays when suddenly the queues magically disappear and the traffic flows again. (How can a few kids having a week off reduce the traffic by more than half?) The second is seeing a local hot head, reaching boiling point and setting off down the bus lane in devil may car style with the on lookers thinking oh if only I dared.

How it was 


Which takes me to final bit of pleasure for drivers and one of the reasons for writing this blog. This is letting other road users annoy you. Earlier this week I happened to notice the driver behind me was photographing the cars who were racing up the inside lane and over the hatching outside Highnam Lodge. Now I can't say I approve of overtaking up the inside like this but is it really necessary to act as big brother in this way and I was worried that the driver was so intent on taking his pictures that he was likely to drive into the back of me. And it won't be long before someone takes exception to what he is doing and asks him to kindly step outside his car for a moment.

At least that will provide a fifth source of amusement to we patient drivers still stuck in the jam!

Another clear run on a Bank Holiday morning