The Bicycle Advocacy Group is very worried by Arriva’s recent comment that a transport operator is bound to have accidents based upon the number of kilometres driven (November 22).

It’s an implicit duty of any transport operator, from luxury coach to karrozzin, to ensure the safety of their occupants and third parties.

Coming in the wake of yet another rash of cyclists’ complaints of being forced into the kerb in Sliema or a group of cyclists being subjected to an unprovoked barrage of insults by a driver in Ħamrun, it is indeed worrying that such statements might be indicative of a pervading ethos at Arriva.

Surely zero accidents are the more acceptable scenario?

For the record, bendy buses didn’t actually cause any cycling fatalities in London but they did cause quite serious accidents, there and in York, the latter’s streets being similar to Malta’s.

Both cities have many more bus lanes and cycling infrastructures, yet the cycling blogs credited the avoidance of fatalities to cyclists themselves.

We would similarly advise Maltese cyclists to treat bendy buses, like other long articulated vehicles, with extreme caution. Follow the same basic rules of no overtaking or filtering of stopped long vehicles at junctions. Drivers also need to understand that they may lose sight of riders, as the articulation blankets their view of their mirrors when turning or on bends, where most riders feel there is little a rider can do.

But just as cyclists have learned that the only way to avoid car doors is to ride further out, riders need to be more assertive with bendies. Research has shown that riders who tuck into the gutter tend to invite the ‘big squeeze’ while being further out helps drivers make better spatial judgements, keeps riders visible (especially around bends) and gives them a little ‘diving space’ if drivers do misjudge. Good precautions for cyclists and drivers alike.

On Arriva’s part, bendies need to give cyclists (and other road users) more room because of their articulation. Common complaints from riders being buses often cutting-in before the trailer has completely passed the rider and this is the perennial problem with bendies. They just don’t seem to end, especially as cyclists often think they are being overtaken by a normal bus. Although Arriva placed warning stickers at the back of the bus, there is no such mitigation to designate the front of the vehicle and warn road users that they are being overtaken by a behemoth! There also need to be infrastructural improvements so bus drivers can realistically make journey times.

Left-turn filtering on red at certain junctions for all road users and a number of timed bus lanes on key roads could reduce the stuck bus/traffic phenomenon. For what slows buses down is other traffic and vice~versa.

Improving punctuality will increase capacity and traffic flow. Diverting just 10 per cent of car traffic into other modes, yes, buses and bicycles, ferries, motorcycles, etc., could paradoxically result, according to research, into a 20 per cent increase in traffic flow.

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