Today's Bus Operator From Hell Brought To You By The MTA 333 Line

The above blink-and-youll-miss-it snippet sliced from todays morning commute timelapse footage might seem at first look to be nothing much, so lemme just cut to the chase and let the complaint filed with the MTA tell the whole story:

Text of my complaint (Designated as No. 3896) to the MTA "Customer Comment" form:

The operator of MTA bus No. 8115 on the 333 line at 9:20 a.m. this morning committed several moving violations and demonstrated a blatant disregard for safe driving practices. I was traveling westbound on Venice Boulevard on my bicycle in the striped Class II bike lane between Ogden and Sawyer when the bus operator from out of view behind me on the left and moving at speed startled me with two illegal honks of the bus' horn. Despite me having position in the lane ahead of him and having the right of way the operator immediately thereafter accelerated to pull abreast of me (at the intersection of Sawyer and Venice) and began to bear right encroaching against me while at the same time crossing over into the bike lane and forcing me to take evasive braking and maneuvering in order to prevent his bus from striking me. The operator continued on with zero concern for the risks he took until crossing completely over to the curb lane ultimately coming to a stop at the northeast corner of the intersection of Venice Boulevard and Fairfax. Approaching the operator via his window on the left side of the bus (which he refused to open) and advising him that the safer more responsible action would be to decrease his speed and pull in behind me, he simply shrugged and pointed to the front of the bus in a gesture I took to assume I should note the bus number and file a complaint. I told him I already planned to.

It's entirely disheartening to encounter such sub-quality, aggressive, irresponsible and unrepentant bus operators who do the MTA such a great disservice. A less-experienced cyclist might have ended up injured or worse because of this operator's careless behavior.

As a dedicated bicycle commuter I carry cameras with me, both handheld and mounted to my bike to document egregious incidents like this. A brief real-time timelapse video clip of the bus violating my space as well as pictures of the front and rear of the bus identifying the operator and the bus number are publicly available and can be viewed at the following links:

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• wildbell
• bicycles
• bicycling
• mta
• bus
• trafficviolation
• recklessdriving
• traffic
• streets
• timelapse

[wildbell]

Not quite finn, I was wearing green -- for St. Patrick's Day, of course! :)

[iib8903]

wot u on about

[finnjolly]

well sh*t //.u.\\ You must have been wearing your orange shirt... he didnt hit you :)