Please report dangerous drivers to the police - Roadsafe. Report to plod, not just whinge here.

If anybody is interested, this is the bus complaint I made:

*I wish to make a formal complaint regarding the driver of the 134 service to Archway, index LK58 COU. The driver was a male with shaved head wearing a light blue short-sleeved shirt.

This afternoon at approximately 14:29 I was on my pedal cycle stopped at the ATS at the intersection of the A401 near the junction of the A40 / A401 in central London. I was to the left of the middle lane and stopped behind two motorcyclists. The 134 service bus was in the right-hand lane. The traffic lights were on red although I could hear the excessively-loud revving of the bus engine, so much so that the bus was even being lifted up and down on its parking brake as the driver revved hard. Looking through the lower deck windows, it looked like the bus was empty and had no passengers on-board, although I couldn't see the upper deck. The movement of the bus up and down as the driver revved against the parking brake seemed such that passengers would have had an issue with this. As soon as the lights changed, the motorcyclists pulled away at a reasonable speed for the type of vehicle but the bus, revving extremely hard, accelerated away from the lights in what seemed to be a race with the bikes - although the motorcyclists seemed not to be responding in any way. One motorcyclist was at this point ahead of the 134 service and it managed to cut get in front of the second cyclist and sped off along the A40 towards Tottenham Court Road. The motorcyclists appeared to head down Shaftsbury Avenue anyway so the driver had no need to overtake them.

As I was cycling in that direction, I was behind the bus by some distance but caught up with it as it stopped to talk to a colleague on another bus which was parked almost at Centre Point, immediately adjacent to The Angel pub. I came along side the driver's cab and said to him that with driving like that, he should lose his licence. He laughed in my face and replied "Yeah, thank you, goodbye" and sped off again laughing. His colleague also laughed at me.

I am absolutely staggered at the disgusting behaviour of this driver and the manner of his driving was not only dangerous but with a complete callous disregard to any other road-user in an area with many pedestrians, including those from other countries who may not be familiar with our road system, but also with a lot of pedal cyclists and other vehicles. It was clear that even when I approached the driver, he couldn't care any less about his driving. It is one thing to drive a car in this kind of manner, but to drive such a huge vehicle like this is absolutely unfathomable and I was left absolutely disgusted.

This email is also being copied to the Met Police Safer Transport Team as I believe it is serious enough to warrant a report being made to the police.*

I got a reply from the met, asking for some more details and eventually got a reply from the bus operator:

*I am writing in response to your complaint to London Buses regarding the actions of one of our drivers on a route 134, details of which have been passed on from London Buses for our attention.

You won’t be surprised to learn that the safety of our passengers, as well as that of other road users, is an issue we take extremely seriously. Our drivers receive comprehensive training to enable them to perform their duties to the highest standard. As you would expect, safety is a vital part of this training. To drive a bus erratically or at excessive speed is totally unacceptable.

I was extremely concerned to learn about the incident you witnessed. Our bus drivers are also the public face of London Buses. As such, they’re expected to behave in professional manner at all times. Driver behaviour such as you describe is totally unacceptable.

The incident is currently in the process of being investigated and followed up with the member of staff concerned. You can be assured that arising from our findings an appropriate course of action will be taken to deal effectively with the matter.

I should like to apologise for any annoyance that may have been caused on this occasion.

Yours sincerely

Jon Parry
Operating Support Manager*