Time to put the brakes on bad bus driving
SIR – The Prime Minister promises to put more buses on the roads. Yet if passengers are to feel safe and comfortable, and therefore willing to use buses, drivers must be better trained and more effectively monitored. All Passenger Carrying Vehicles (PCVS), large or small, should be fitted with black boxes to detect driver error, regardless of trade union resistance.
The general standard of bus driving is appalling. In London it is far below what the paying public has a right to expect.
I make these assertions as a retired advanced driving instructor, with experience of training and assessing bus and coach drivers. The first priority of a PCV driver is “the safety and comfort of passengers” (the answer to a question asked of every candidate at the beginning of their test). Alas, most seem to forget this the moment they leave the test centre with their pass certificate.
Abrupt and aggressive acceleration, braking and steering, which throw the vehicle and its helpless passenger about, together with excessive speed (particularly on corners and roundabouts and at junctions), racing to beat traffic lights and driving too close to vehicles ahead, are the most common and dangerous bus driving faults. All would be detected by black box technology.
The Government needs to tackle this problem alongside its expansion of the bus network – or risk its shiny new fleet running empty.
Adrian Barrett
Haywards Heath, West Sussex