Night Bus with a Faded Lane Line and a Cyclist Ahead
You are driving a category D bus, 12 m long, 2.55 m wide, on an unlit two-lane road outside the settlement at 23:40. The road is dry, visibility is about 150 m on low beam, and there is no oncoming traffic. The right-hand edge line is worn away for a 60 m stretch, and the shoulder beyond it is soft, unpacked gravel. Your route schedule gives you 8 minutes of slack over the next 40 km. Ahead, at roughly 90 m, you see the dim red rear reflector of a cyclist riding about 0.5 m inside the carriageway, moving at an estimated 15 km/h. Your speed is 70 km/h. A passenger is standing in the aisle despite the rule requiring seated travel. The bus is empty of luggage in the rear hold, and the tyre pressures were checked at the depot 3 hours ago.
1. What speed and lateral-clearance decision do you make as you close on the cyclist, and what does the 8 minutes of schedule slack have to do with it?
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At 70 km/h you cover about 19.4 m per second, so the 90 m gap closes in under 5 seconds - too little time to brake smoothly with standing passengers if the cyclist swerves. The correct judgement is to reduce speed early (to roughly 40–50 km/h) while the gap is still large, then pass only when you can leave a lateral clearance of at least 1.5 m outside settlements; if the soft shoulder and the worn edge line make that impossible, you wait behind rather than squeeze past. The 8 minutes of slack is decisive: it removes any justification for pressing on at 70 km/h, because a delay of 30–60 seconds is absorbed by the schedule. Choosing to slow is therefore both the safe and the operationally correct answer - the schedule is not a lawful reason to pass closely or at speed.
2. How do you handle the standing passenger, and can you continue the trip as planned?
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Carrying a passenger standing in the aisle while the bus is moving is a violation of the passenger-transport rules, and the driver is responsible for not starting or continuing the journey in that condition. The safe sequence is: slow down, stop at the first safe place (not on a curve or on the gravel shoulder), and ask the passenger either to take a seat or to leave the bus; only then continue. Continuing 'because we are almost there' is the wrong judgement call - the risk is a fall inside the bus during emergency braking, which the driver would have caused. The answer must combine the immediate action (stop safely, resolve the standing situation) with the recognition that the driver's duty to ensure passenger safety overrides schedule and passenger convenience.
3. What is the significance of the worn edge line and the soft shoulder for your positioning on this stretch?
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The edge line is a marking, not a physical barrier, but its absence for 60 m removes the visual cue that tells you where the carriageway ends. On a 2.55 m wide bus, drifting right onto unpacked gravel at speed risks loss of control and a roll-over, which is far more dangerous in a bus than in a car. The correct positioning is to keep a steady line within the carriageway, using the left-hand lane position only when it is safe and legal - here, with no oncoming traffic, moving left to give the cyclist clearance is acceptable, but only after slowing and confirming the road ahead is clear. The shoulder must be treated as non-driveable: it is not a refuge and not a passing lane.