Solid white lines/bus & cycle lanes

[M-C]

Had to attend a training course where they attempt to get commercial drivers to stop hating cyclists, and one of the things that came up was cycle lanes with solid white lines (how you can't enter them).

They then went on to say and cyclists cannot exit them? So I asked about bus lanes, they have a solid white line, yet taxi's/buses duck in and out of them all the time... and after a confused look from the trainer for a few seconds he said they were allowed to.

So how does that work?

https://news.limobroker.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/bus-lane-225x300.jpg

[Ariel Badger]

Road near me... 2 lane dual carriageway each direction one of those lanes each way is a bus lane. There is a bus three times an hour.
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[G]

[Al]

What I've never understood is where I live motorbikes can't use the bus lane but cyclists can which means the bus is stuck behind cyclists and has to keep moving out of the bus lane to overtake. Surely the worst two modes of transport to place together. One with poor visibility that keeps stopping and one that's slow and hard to see. Motorbikes are faster and wouldn't cause a problem.
Also taxis are allowed to use the bus lane, not just black cabs but all of them,why? How is a taxi any different to any other commercial vehicle.
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[Pigeon]

The bus lanes usually have the solid white line stop then re-start at suitable points on the route. So in theory, nothing should enter/exit except through those breaks / gaps.....unless overtaking stationary vehicle, horse, road sweep etc

[G]

Also, cyclists generally like to keep their momentum up - not great when there's a massive vehicle that's hard to see around stopping in front of you regularly.

Still, find they're useful.
Reading has allowed motorcycles in it's bus lanes for many, many years.

Taxis are generally allowed on the basis that they are for people not clogging up the roads with their own cars, so get priority treatment.
Also, it would seems police vehicles not on emergencies are allowed too .

[Nobby the Bastard]

The bus lane on the Bristol ring road (that they are ruining by adding a traffic light at the end of it) has a break just before the roundabout to the M32.

It looks like normal traffic are being given the use of the lane, but within 20 yards it's a bus lane again. Presumably for buses that don't want to go left down the M32 so they don't have to cross a solid white line...
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[M-C]

Bus lanes in London go on for miles without breaks, they only appear to have them at junctions or crossings.

I thought solid white lines defined the edge of the road, so with respect to a cycle lane the road ends there as far as cars are concerned, but then that doesn't make sense with bus lanes which can (sometimes) be used at certain times.

I dislike bus lanes having such a thick/wide line as they're quite slippy in the wet.

[Wonko The Sane]

[Al]

[weasley]

[handbasket]

Of course you can exit a cycle or bus lane. Otherwise how do you overtake or make a right turn, etc. They're not the same as the solid line in the middle of the road which have rules about crossing. There are no rules about crossing bus or cycle lane lines. Its not the crossing that's an offence, it's being in the lane when you should not be.

Dashed lines/gaps at junctions etc are to allow turning etc by other vehicles.

[Rogerborg]

[Baffler186]

[G]

[handbasket]

Bloke I play football with went on one of these awareness courses. He learned stuff he really should have known (like what the NSL is in various contexts). So IMO they have their place. Feeding bollocks misinformation to the participants isn't it. But as Roger says, the box got ticked.

[handbasket]

Bristol bus lanes allow bikes in all but two locations. The consistency makes life a lot easier. Would be better still if they were 24/7.

[noobRider]

When I was doing my training in Bristol my instructors pointed out the bus lanes I couldn't use. They told me that I could enter the bus lanes at the ends and where there were dotted lines, but if I had to leave them to go around something I couldn't go back in until I got to another break in the solid line.
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[Rogerborg]

[Lord Percy]

[bamt]

There's an irritating bus lane around our way; it's usefully long and skips a big queue of traffic in the evening when I'm on my bicycle. However, it is buses, cycles, taxis and goods vehicles (!) only - no motorbikes. And the road has a solid white so you can't filter down the outside of the traffic even though there is usually nothing coming in the other direction (typical rush hour traffic flows). If they allow vans, then there is no real reason not to allow motorbikes.

[Rogerborg]

[Al]