BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Seems like a great newspaper story (re: 4-foot passing rule)

Helmet cam footage turns this into a civil suit against Port Authority. I don't have anything against the organization as a whole, but a few bad apples are ruining their reputation among the cycling community.

@mpm, +1

some of those pat drivers are nasty they cut me off to and im driving a bus like they are its just not a pat bus

His reaction is downright terrifying. Anyone who would actually say that shouldn't be allowed to drive any vehicle, let alone a bus full of people which may include the elderly and young children.

I wish that had been recorded. I'm really considering a helmet cam more and more nowadays.

Let us know how it goes.

There are enough cameras on PAT buses that would have captured this. Hopefully they're taking it seriously enough to pull the footage. I'd love to see the side camera views of a <1 foot pass.

I know of five cameras. Four of them monitor the inside of the bus, one monitors forward. But two of those interior cameras point sideways out the front and rear doors, so there would be those vantage points, too.

Around 2005 the driver of that bus got out of his bus at McFarland and Washington and told me he'd see you next Tues.

Get a helmet cam. I don't think there's much point in those things in general but you ride that route every day and that driver is going to pull the same stuff every day.

I reported an attempted hit and run by a bus in 2005 in Mt Lebo and go nowhere with the Port Authority. I hope Bike Pgh's hard work has changed attitudes as much as I feel like they have.

I've heard the contract with the bus driver's union forbids the use of those cameras to discipline the driver under ordinary circumstances.

Fact or fiction? I don't know.

It would be hard to believe they don't review the footage in the case of an accident.

Would the union would let the drivers be punished for the stuff people complain about every day? I'm guessing not- otherwise that stuff would stop.

I've caught 2 sketchy PAT bus passes with my helmet cam on Liberty... both sent to PAT complaints. Neither of which I've heard of any action being taken. I think the only time it would make a difference is if one was actually hit.

Mick: confirmed...well, confirmed enough. They are mainly there to protect PAT in cases of a lawsuit against PAT.

Disclaimer: I have never seen any version of the labor contract, other than what got summarized in the newspapers.

I know this has been covered relatively extensively in earlier threads, but PAT Police are a private police force. Such organizations exist to protect the organization, not the public (nor the customer), don't they?

many years ago i was riding on 5th ave approaching chesterfield street and a pat bus came up beside me on my left. my natural reaction at the time was to try to get as close to the right hand curb as i could so that the bus could continue to pass me safely. but instead of passing me the bus kept inching further and further right, closing the gap between the bus and the curb that i was occupying until there was no room at all for me and all icould do was make an emergency foot plant onto the sidewalk (at speed) to haul myself and my bike to safety! had i not lunged onto the sidewalk when i did i would certainly ended up under the wheels of that bus. these days i don't let buses pass me in my lane. if i hear one behind me i take the lane and if they want to pass they have to get into the left lane and if it's only a single lane of traffic, too bad they have to wait behind me. i usually drop them the first time they stop at a bus stop anyway.

Depending on the situation, sometimes when I see a bus in my mirror, I'll just pull over and let the him pass.

Wow, if my workplace cameras caught me almost killing somebody, my boss would likely do a little more than have a polite chat with me about it. Ditto for every employer I've ever had or heard of. Not sure why on earth that union was allowed that in the contract, as it puts the company itself at disadvantage.

I'm starting to think bankruptcy and complete re-structuring of the whole PAT system (including 100% regime change from top down) might be the only way to get any issues addressed in a meaningful way.

ejwme I'm starting to think bankruptcy and complete re-structuring of the whole PAT system (including 100% regime change from top down) might be the only way to get any issues addressed in a meaningful way.

There's something to be said for that. The cost is likely to be a strike by current transit unions for PAT employees, supported by most other unions, to the exttent that they legally can.

I've heard the guys at the very top are doing a good job given the constrainsts on them, but I don't know personally.

Everyone's either tight-lipped or scripted during labor negotiations, always. But the crowd in Harrisburg knows they have ATU85 where the hair is short; they've been looking forward to this for a long, long time, at least since the 1992 strike, maybe since another nasty strike around 1980. If a de-nutting of the union is going to happen, it will happen now. Bland & Company have been through this before, and they know how to play hardball. Remember 2008, when management was ready to impose a contract on 85 whether they liked it or not? It took national level negotiators to settle it.

I'm content to wait & see what happens. I don't think anyone wants the 35% cuts to happen, if only because that would further bloat the retiree-to-employee ratio that's causing a lot of the financial trouble. As counterintuitive as it may seem, PAT might have been in better shape if they hadn't pared back so much in 2001 and 2002.

Oh - I realized my comment could be misconstrued as anti union or anti mass transit. I'm neither. I'm anti sh*t-that-impedes-functionality.

It's just ridiculous the way that PAT treats its customers - for whatever reason. They're not expendable. They're the (ever receding) bottom line (either directly through fares, or indirectly through use-based public funding - I would hope).

What we need is Transit, not Tit-for-Tat. Not petty bs. Affordable A-B multi-people movers.

I use to have problems like these all the time, but not in several years. I think my on-bike stubbornness has grown to a level that can be detected visually from a distance.

Well, no follow up from the Port Authority since Friday. The police did say they would review the video from the bus, and would let me know the outcome this week. They called back a second time to ask me if I would be willing to testify. You bet your ass I would!

And the worst part...I HAVE a helmet cam. But I forgot to charge it from the day before, so it sat on the charger all day.

I'll wear it again next week, and I'm sure it won't be long before I'm buzzed again. Maybe one of the news stations would like to have the video.

When I called the lady who wrote the front page article about the 4 ft passing law I got a call back ASAP from them.