Well, had a lovely letter come through today with a Ã,£60 fine attached for having driven down a bus lane. :(
At first I was amazed because I obey the rules of the road and secondly concerned because I've driven down that road loads of times over the last 6 years! So I set about looking at things and it appears they made this is a bus only lane without much consultation and with next to no road signs - hence its damn easy to drive down it without knowing its changed. (Just two signs on its entrance (both up high and on a corner), no red road colour, no advanced sign-age from some directions and on a road which demands a attention is given elsewhere.
Ã,£270,000 in fines in the first month! (I'll be disputing mine!)
If anyone's interested in reading about it: http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/New-signs-controversial-Dorchester-Street-bus/story-21013561-detail/story.html (http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/New-signs-controversial-Dorchester-Street-bus/story-21013561-detail/story.html)
And if you fancy signing a petition:
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/cancel-bath-bus-gate-fines (http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/cancel-bath-bus-gate-fines)
Sorry but thats not really suprising! Bath is one of the worst cities I have ever driven in with bad road markings and road layouts. I would vote your council out next election as they clearly dont give a stuff about road users!
If I lived in Bath I would ;)
You are right though, I can think of around 20 problem areas in Bath that could be fixed/helped by applying common sense, unfortunately you clearly dont need that to be a BANES councillor. I suspect there is one person who writes the guidlines for their policies who is clearly a halfwit - you only have to look at the J18 traffic lights, they dont seem to be able to say "part-time signals" like most councils and hence you have to sit on red at 2am with no other traffic about.
The last time we went to Bath it was to cycle along the new(ish) Two Tunnels cycle way through a couple of disused railway tunnels (which was fantastic), however, we parked in a park and ride on the outskirts and cycled in along the river- glad we did if that's the kind of confusion going on in the city centre! I find myself baffled quite frequently by many of the things road planners do, I swear children could do a better job! ::)
To be honest Bath is a LibDem city and they've never liked the motor car, it just seems recently they've decided to go on an all out war against it! To name a few:
Parking on-street in the centre is now Ã,£1.80 for just 30 mins.
There is virtually no free parking anywhere around the centre any more, its either permit or expensive. Roads that used to have lots of parked cars are now deserted.
This bus-gate thing
Traffic light, upon traffic light, upon traffic light.
I travel around 200 miles a day for work and visit most City's in the South. I can honestly say that Bath its one of the few that could make a real difference to its traffic problem if adopted some common sense.
To conclude my rant, I find it really funny that having done all this bodging they are now moving all of their council offices out of Bath and into Keynsham (Bristol)... I rest my case :)
mark just a thought as im sure you film every time you get in the car,can you not scan your film to see when you entered the so called bus lane to see if there are clear and precise road furniture to let the motorist know?
if not then surely you have em by the short n curlies?
coz if the info is too high then how on earth is a driver meant to see them in there normal driving vision?
go to a panel appeal armed with your copy of said film and see what there reaction is.
Already done mate although today it appears BANES have decided they were incompetent after all! ;)
http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/Drivers-caught-Dorchester-Street-bus-lane-fines/story-21033373-detail/story.html
RESULT :)
trouble there now is i expect everything else will now be increase to pay for this huge cock up.and i bet no heads will roll for this fiasco?
they will give themselves a massive payrise for being a bunch of clowns.