A Friends Incident - opinion request

[Hybridchemistry]

Hey folks, a month or more back a buddy of mine was in an incident in Oakland with the Emery-go-round bus system. He walked away with minor scratches and a few bent items on the bike.


youtu.be/eQKllrTCYBk

While I can easily acknowledge that splitting between two STOPPED buses isn't the safest practice, I can't understand how opening a bus door in the middle of a street is not fault causing in the eyes of the Emery-go-round system. Note that left bus is stopped behind traffic, right bus stops about the same distance forward, but no traffic in front of them.

Thoughts on who's at fault?

 

[Pking]

Glad your friend didn't get seriously hurt. I see bus drivers do that often to talk to each other so that's a normal thing they do. What's not normal is having a bike split between them at close proximity. Can't say if they were aware the biker was splitting or not since you can't tell from the vid.

 

[Lonster]

Sorry. No pity here. Splitting between 2 buses into a broken yellow turn only lane is stupid. This type of dangerous riding makes us ALL look bad.
And please spare me the 'I bet you have done dangerous things on your bike too' crap. This poor life choice was completely unnecessary. Good thing a person didn't come running out of the bus.

 

[ejv]

Racing incident to me. "Friend" racing to a red light and bus drivers racing to talk to each other.

 

[Enchanter]

A version of this applies:

The defense department regrets to inform you that your sons are dead because they were stupid.

Fault doesn't matter. The rider (that uploaded his video to your YouTube channel?) made a huge error in judgement. It was an easily avoidable event. The rider didn't even slow down prior to, or after, entering the dangerzone.

 

[Beanzy]

That bus driver "doored" your friend. Maybe not deliberately. But as the bus was in the left turning lane, with its left flasher on, the driver knew he was not legally allowed to open the door where no bus stop existed.

Just my guess.

 

[rcb78]

I think we can all agree that the rider should never have put themselves in that position, that said, how does this apply in this situation?

 

[afm199]

Stupid comes with high dues.

 

[ScottRNelson]

Sorry. No pity here. Splitting between 2 buses into a broken yellow turn only lane is stupid. This type of dangerous riding makes us ALL look bad.

This says it best.

It was a dumb move to split between two busses.

 

[Cabrito]

Max, that sucks for your friend and for the bus driver who might get in trouble for that.

I'm not assigning blame, but do have a few comments because I think this could have happened to me too, and I can relate.

I know that I get complacent when I ride a lot in the same areas. Risk assessment and good practice in general can suffer. It's easy to see in the video when I watch it over and over, but totally different in the moment.

This was mentioned earlier, and I also know that bus drivers often stop and talk through the window's and the doors. When he slowed and stopped he left a large gap in front of him that could have been a red flag to the rider. Hindsight is always 2020.

Same with splitting between large vehicles who aren't expecting a moto to come through. 2020 hindsight has me slowing way down or avoiding this maneuver.

I'm glad the rider wasn't hurt. I'm going to take this as a warning to be careful out there, and review situational awareness, and risk assessment.

Just because someone isn't supposed to open a door in that situation doesn't mean I'm going to bank on it not happening.

 

[HeatXfer]

Glad your friend didn't get seriously hurt. I see bus drivers do that often to talk to each other so that's a normal thing they do. What's not normal is having a bike split between them at close proximity. Can't say if they were aware the biker was splitting or not since you can't tell from the vid.

I see this often

I think we can all agree that the rider should never have put themselves in that position, that said, how does this apply in this situation?

I don't think that applies to passenger bus & school bus drivers; I couldn't find anything about opening transit bus doors other than for passenger pick-up or drop-off.

In any case, a little caution would have prevented this incident.

 

[budman]

The split between the buses is something I would not do, but I don't ride in the City. Likely he has done it before and the bus driver as seen moto's do that before.

So bad decision plus driver foul led to your bud being put down.

I see it as the bus drivers fault, but can see Enchanters post being applied.

 

[DucatiHoney]

That was a pretty easy one to avoid for the rider--hold up or, as a last resort, pick a side. Don't go between two long vehicles. For short distance jaunts in town, chill riding is a lot safer and only adds a couple of minutes to the trip.

I guess if someone put a gun to my head and ask me who was at fault, maybe the bus driver? What was he doing opening his door? Then again, I don't know of any laws saying that someone can't open their door any ole time they like. As a rider, what your buddy did....whoa. I wouldn't have done it. And for exactly what you saw. Two buses coming up along side one another and one of them randomly stopping? I have a life-long membership in the Dumb Riders' Club--I might have been nominated as Secretary one or two years. What the rider did in that video might have gotten him a seat on the Board.

Glad to hear it wasn't too bad. Emery Go-Round is a free bus service (or at least it used to be when I lived there), helping to take all sorts of dummies off the road, making riding just a tad less awful for the most part. I sure hope the buddy isn't considering suing, as I would hate to see the Go-Round system (and us) suffer for something that really appeared to be equal parts poor judgement and lack of awareness on both sides.

 

[dravnx]

22517.
No person shall open the door of a vehicle on the side available to moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe to do so and can be done without interfering with the movement of such traffic, nor shall any person leave a door open on the side of a vehicle available to moving traffic for a period of time longer than necessary to load or unload passengers.
Seems pretty clear to me the bus driver violated this CVC. Still doesn't make the rider's decision to split there a prudent thing to do. As riders, it's not about who is right but who survives.

 

[Lonster]

You can put as much blame on the bus driver as you want, but one fact remains: the only reason this wreck happened was because there was a motorcycle where it didn't belong. If the rider had NOT split the buses, then the driver opening the bus door would have no negative impact. Peace and serenity would prevail across the land, and we would be talking about something else.

 

[afm199]

When you're riding on the street, the law doesn't protect you. We've all seen that. We have to protect ourselves. The rider was a fool for splitting two busses. Was the bus driver complicit? Yes, he should have expected a fool to do something foolish but he felt protected by his vehicle. We motorcyclists don't usually depend on the wisdom of others, we count on their foolishness to survive. When we forget that rule, we get hurt.

 

[Beanzy]

Recently I had to take an expensive ($200) class on attitudinal driving that was imposed by the local traffic commissioner for my getting caught speeding. The class taught me as a driver and a rider that I like to take risks in my pursuit of having fun while behind the wheel and riding.

Now had I been the rider in the video, and as much as riding between buses might have seemed genuinely different and kind of inviting, I also know that riding between 18-wheeler trucks is a definite no-no don't do it it's sure death kind of thing. So knowing me, I might have ridden slowly between the buses instead of stayed back and honked my dinky horn a bunch of times. So maybe I might have not been caught by the opening doors but instead only been trapped behind them.

As riders, we flirt with death and serious injury every time we get on a bike. Your friend, OP, may have learned a lesson. But perhaps the biggest lesson he learned might have been yes, it was a novelty to ride between two seemingly parked buses but in the end was worth it?

I'd have to say, No, it sure wasn't, considering the consequences.

Glad your friend made it out alive. Let's hope he from now on instead of risking it, opts not to. And to slow the hell down too.

 

[cheez]

If it were a car who'd doored the rider, nobody would blink, the car driver/occupant would be clearly at fault. A bus doors the rider, splitting through two lanes of traffic- not the curb side, or anything foolish like that- and ya'll blame the rider?

Sorry folks. The rider was in the right; the driver was in the wrong for opening the door into traffic, regardless if bus/car/whatever vehicle.

Agreed that the rider could have been more prudent with how they approached that situation, but it's really, really easy to armchair quarterback after the fact, especially with the distortion that wide angle video adds to our understanding of the situation.

 

[dravnx]

Nobody is disputing that the rider was not in the right and the driver was wrong to open the bus door.

 

[Lonster]

Nobody is disputing that the rider was not in the right and the driver was wrong to open the bus door.

arty