Bloody bus lane cameras

[dan_b]

Oh bloody hell, just got a letter from my council demaning payment for "Vehicle seen in a bus lane".

I'm absolutely fecking gutted. The bus lane in question is no more than 100m from my home, and I know for a fact I can't have been in it for more than 2 car lengths before the bus lane ends - I was sitting in the major (and normal) queue of traffic on Kew Road approaching Richmond Circus. As is normal these days the bus lane was completely empty of buses, and the single lane of traffic was chock full of cars. The turn left lane at the roundabout was empty and to get to that lane, the bus lane ends about 10m before the roundabout. I attempted to get home a little quicker and cut in to the Bus Lane where it ends.

I was caught (allegedly of course) by a "mobile video operator".

The fine is £100, or £50 if I pay it within 14 days. What should I do? Is it even worth attempting to challenge it, or should I just cough up the £50 and consider it another lesson learned in just how awful driving has become in London these days?

I tell you, I am absoluotely f*cking sick of this police-state mentality we're seemingly living in in the UK at the moment. There's so much ruthless absolutisim, so many laws telling you what you can't do, so many restrictions on your daily life. I seriously don't know why I continue to live here. So much for Christmas Cheer...

Sorry, rant over, but does anyone have any suggestions, other than firebombing Richmond Council (who also want to charge me £300 to park my car if their new "CO2-emissions-related parking permit scheme comes in to force)?

[s2driveruk]

bad luck mate that sucks. To be honest it looks like a cough up and leave it at that. As u say, all you wanted to do was get to a clear lane to turn left at the roundabout, typical that u get caught in the process. Just a blo*dy shame that you can guarantee that if you were mugged, house broken into or car stolen that mysteriously there would be nothing the police etc could do to help.

I drove up to my office in High Holborn the other week and couldnt believe how bad the roads were i must have square wheels by now, they really do need to sort it out, i mean where the f**k is all that money going, i know its sorting out the public transport (apparently) but they do need to maintain a basic road surface...I hate this country/govt and its inability to think outside the box on any issue other than impose a charge,levy or install a chuffing camera

Seasons Greetings...

[iain1067]

Pay the fine or ask to see the evidence


Iain

[dan_b]

Yeah, I think it's a pay up and shut up really isn't it?

The utterly annoying thing about all these darned bus lanes, and all the traffic light re-phasing that's gone on to apparently give priority to buses - guess what's happened to overal London bus fleet mileage? Yep, gone DOWN. So, installing all those extra hundreds of miles of bus lanes, putting in all those thousands of "enforcement cameras", re-phasing all the traffic lights has resulted in buses making fewer journies. Guess what, bus lanes cause congestion, it's official! Well that worked didn't it Ken you faschist! I'll try and find the report and link it...

[newsh]

I got caught by that one in Acre lane Brixton a while back, I really thought I was moving over into the left turn lane at the traffic light, all the arrows seemed to make sense.. Few days later I get a nice photo of the ur in a bus lane, doh! Absolutely stupid road layout where you have to use the straight ahead lane to turn left.

[VladaS2]

That's not a big fine to pay, don't let it ruin your christmas. And why don't you move if you don't like it?

[dan_b]

True, £50 is only a full tank of petrol afterall... As to why don't I move, well, the thought has occured to me more than once recently that's for certain!

[topsparky]

pay the fine matey
i got fined for not paying conjestion charge
which
i did via text message or my m8 did as i was driving
he deleted the message after receiving a message saying that it had been paid
l8r that month i got a fine for £80 so i contested it and by the end of it all the fine ballooned to £250
is n't red ken a ****er

[Ducky]

Easier to just pay the £50 and be done with it. I got stitched twice on my bike in bus lanes, and one of them is only like 10 feet long! Bastids!

[VladaS2]

Dan_b your bad luck started when you got rid off S2

[Ross]

Personally, I'd pay it to ensure it doesn't balloon. Then I'd get the pen to paper (or fingers to keys) and start my rant to the local council. I'm fed up of that kinda **** too, there's one in Reading I regularly used to use as all the traffic turned right and it could take 10 mins to get through. The always empty buslane goes straight on however, it's been camera'd up now so I just avoid that area of town...

I doubt you'll get anywhere but I would demand evidence and then justify your case of using the buslane to get to your turning quicker, thus reducing the queue length and your journey time (and Carbon emissions ). You probably won't get anywhere, but with so many public sector pen-pushers employed by our beloved government I'm sure someone will be obliged to read it an reply! Atleast make one of the f@@kers work for your £50.

[Ian Simmonds]

Don't get mad....Get even.

I'd pay it and make sure over the next 12 months you manage to surreptitiously dump as much asbestos (or similar) through your rubbish sacks as possible... £50.00 will look like a bargain.

[KaraK]

might as well pay it mate - its not pleasant but are you really suprised? Common sense has nothing to do with motoring in this country any more.

[dan_b]

So, Richmond Council has a "24 hour automated penalty payment line"! Thieving b*stards!

Have paid it, so will now engage in a massive covert sabotage campaign against my London Borough and all who represent her, the bunch of sandals with socks-wearing, tree-hugging morons.

Happy Christmas!

[~Delta]

Sorry to hear about your grief, Dan. It sucks big time. One of the main reasons I moved out of London, and won't move back.