How to make a complaint about a bus driver?

It might be an idea to have a "witness" that was on the bus to back up your story as it's his word against yours.

Someone should be able to help............

Bullshit, request camera footage asap and report to police informing them you've requested camera footage. If the driver veered at you it will be on film. All London buses are riddled with cameras. See older related posts/incidents.

If you make a complaint, nothing will happen

Try telling BDW who got a new wheel and other sweeties out of a London bus driver/company that rather negligently ran into the back of him. There are other success stories as well Captain Positive.

Cheers everyone. Perhaps I should have just asked how to make a complaint and leave out the details, oh well...

I don't recall saying in my original post I was right and the drive was wrong, it wasn't that black and white, but how he reacted me "jumping" in front of him was not acceptable. Clearly he thought I did something, which might have been the case from his point of view.

Like some of you have said, we have al experienced situations where we make wrong judgements, maybe I should have waited behind those buses, but then if I did that, there might have been another impatient driver who might think I was in their way had I waited between cars, and would I have been in the safest position then? Anyway, enough said about what I did or didn't do to be the safest cyclist because I know I am not. I merely want to know how to make a complaint and I thanks those of you who have bakced me up on this. I don't wish to discuss where I was any further and I am not going to draw anything to explain this any further.

I was quite angry when I got home, hence I did a search for about 30 secs, but I will read some of the old posts later on to get a grip on others experiences.

As much as I don't want to admit it, I do agree my complaint probably won't make anything happen, but at least I need to voice my concern, if the system fails to act, then there is not our fault. But if there is a system in place, then we need to use it and hopefully one day, something will start to happen.

When I said he tried to push me onto the pavement, what I meant is he deliberately turned his bus left to not give me any room to go forward at all. If I could do a jump, I would have jumped onto the pavement, but since I can't, I felt pretty trapped. So maybe if I say he blocked my way would be more accurate. (Sorry about my English...)

As for witness, I think the bus was going back to the garage or something, because that bus should not be going down that road, it's not its route. And there was nobody on the bus.

Slightly off this topic, I have actually managed to get a driver fined £450 and 6 points off his license about 2 years ago, because apparently I was going "too slow" and he decided to give me a bump from behind. I went straight to the police station, and as ironic as it could have been, he did this to me right outside a police station. So I guess there is still justice and punishment in place for aggressive drivers.

Anyway, onto writing the letter tonight, I will remain objective and factual.

Thanks a lot everyone.

Bullshit, request camera footage asap and report to police informing them you've requested camera footage. If the driver veered at you it will be on film. All London buses are riddled with cameras. See older related posts/incidents.

Out of interest, has anybody managed to get any footage for whatever reasons before? The reason I am asking is because a friend of mine did a project about London buses a couple of years back and apparently the CCTVs are on a loop for about 2 hrs or so, so nothing ever really get recorded unless you stop the bus there and then to watch it. This was what he was told by the drivers who took part in the project... I have also heard sometimes the CCTVs are not even recording anything. Obviously, I don't know and I hope this is not true.

Also, I wasn't on the bus, so how would the CCTV help? Does it also record the road? And surely it's not pointing to the driver's booth?

Look here:
https://www.lfgss.com/thread53843.html

Out of interest, has anybody managed to get any footage for whatever reasons before? The reason I am asking is because a friend of mine did a project about London buses a couple of years back and apparently the CCTVs are on a loop for about 2 hrs or so, so nothing ever really get recorded unless you stop the bus there and then to watch it. This was what he was told by the drivers who took part in the project... I have also heard sometimes the CCTVs are not even recording anything. Obviously, I don't know and I hope this is not true.

Also, I wasn't on the bus, so how would the CCTV help? Does it also record the road? And surely it's not pointing to the driver's booth?

Recordings should be kept between 1 or 2 weeks, and under the Data Protection Act 1998, you are entitled to CCTV footage in which you appear.
The sooner you ask for it, the better.
London buses usually have a crazy amount of CCTV cameras recording pretty much everything inside and outside the vehicle.

Try telling BDW who got a new wheel and other sweeties out of a London bus driver/company that rather negligently ran into the back of him. There are other success stories as well Captain Positive.

That's interesting.
A bus driver got out of his vehicle to square up to me once. It didn't come to blows but was very close. I had many witnesses, all of whom were prepared to back up my story that I was 100% innocent. I wrote a complaint to the bus company and received a completely dismissive reply. They were not prepared to do a thing about it. I could have pushed it further I suppose but I have better things to be doing than writing letters to companies who quite clearly don't give a fuck

I should add that he got out of his bus after * deliberately* trying to crush me to death between the bus and a car

Have you considered legal training?

I have considered all sorts of training, but it is a little too late for a career change. I am thinking of doing a course in welding and mechanics though.
I am one of the disillusioned masses.

Got a reply from the bus company:

"Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for your email which has now been forwarded to the relevant personnel for a full investigation, upon receipt of their findings I will be in touch with you.
In the meantime if I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me..."

Will see if they will actually do anything... I doubt it though, but hey, I have done it, whatever happens next is beyond my controls.

diagram diagram diagram!!

Needs a poo in it though.

Quite a while (2-3 years) ago I posted on here about some kind of racism comment from a bus driver to my mother, i complained on her behalf, cue a couple weeks later, we got both a call and letter, and a name of the driver and said he was suspended.

So, I gotta agree, if the system is there, then use it.

^ RESULT RESULT!!! Woohoo... how long was he suspended for do you know?

I can't remember, it was a while ago. But as VanUden said, other people have also had serious crashes like what happened to BigDaddyWayne, and gotten results. So don't give up, and feel free to pressure them from time to time for a result.

I wish I had done the same with the pass couple of incidents, one was about 2 weeks ago and one was like over 3 years ago. Both of which were more serious this this one. The one that happened 3 years ago, I actually fell off my bike and the driver got off the bus to have a go at me, but then that was not long after I started cycling in London, so I was scared and scared... I guess we all learn from our experiences.

wow, it had never occurred to me that a complaint would actually get anywhere. good to know there is an official route to take.

ExTra, i'm sorry to say I don't understand. What do you think you did to envoke this reaction? I don't get it? If safe I always over take vehicles to end up at the front at lights (overtaking on the right). Isn't that what you did?

^ This is exactly the point. I didn't do anything to have deserve that aggressive reactions from the driver. Yes, I did overtake on the right, which wasn't as safe as overtaking on the left. And some people have already backed me up on this that I might or might not have done something wrong, but either way, it didn't excuse the driver's behaviour. Maybe he was having a bad day, maybe he was born a cunt, I don't know, but he didn't have to right to threaten me the way he did, hence the complaint.

I think the confusion was that I underestimated how long the red light would stay on, so half way through my overtaking, the green light came on, so it was a little messy and I think both myself and the driver could have been a little more patient. I don't know... it's over now, let's see what the bus company says.

ah, ok - a couple of things... you undertake on the left (which I never do with a bus), and you have to ride with a good awareness of the lights to avoid the situation where the bus starts to move while you are doing your maneuver.

Doesn't excuse the driver's actions though, good luck with the complaint

It was one of those days, you know. And some red lights changetoo quickly... Anyway, it's over now.

And... The good news is, I have just received a rather positive reply from the bus company saying the driver will be identified and interviewed, and actions taken may include retraining, monitoring and observation... Plus a big fat apologies. Well I guess that's result!

I want to complain about the local buses around here generally. My morning and evening commute is mainly along a long, flat single carriage-way. The road is fairly narrow which does make it difficult for lorries and buses to get past me. On three occaisions now large double-decker buses have overtaken me closely, only to pull into a bus-stop within a hundred yards.

The worst occurance was on a short downhill section with the bus-stop half way down. I'm riding fixed so spinning fast but this is a wider section of the road with a cycle lane on the inside which I can't use as there are parked cars in it, and a central reservation. The bus comes past me quite wide and fast before veering accross my line, indicating and braking to pull into the bus stop. My option was the brake and swerve into the road without a clue what was coming up behind. I narrowly miss hitting the back of the bus and could have easily been hit by other traffic coming from behind. The other two occurences weren't as severe because I wasn't travelling as fast but both caused me to take mergency action to avoid the slowing and stopping bus. Surely it's Bus-driving 101 if you're approaching a stop you don't overtake cyclists.

And in the town a smaller, single-decked bus overtook me at a junction. I was cycling down a long and very wide road with bus-lanes either side. At the end of the road it ends in a sort of elongated roundabout. Looking back I should have been more aggressive and took the lane earlier, but I didn't think I would be overtaken: the bus and normal lane merge and traffic filters onto the roundabout (which has a narrow single lane) in single file. The bus overtook me going inside the road furniture at the junction, then swung left and then right with me on the inside getting squeezed into the curb. I was hammering on the side of the bus as I was getting alarmed. I think the passengers were getting so too. The way the buses move around when turning is difficult to predict, one of the times I have felt most unsafe on a bike in my life.

I didn't take individual details of any of the buses, perhaps I should start doing so, but I want to highlight to the council.bus company the systematic poor and dangerous driving by their drivers and ask what sort of training they have to deal with cyclists. I don't know whether its worth going to the local paper with it as well.