Riding home at approx 5.30 pm heading west along Dandenong Rd, I had just turned onto the main road from the service lane, there were 2 cars and a bus approaching from behind in the left most lane, but they were a fair distance back.
The two cars went past, although the second driver slowed right down and crawled past, the “Quinces” bus — Victorian registration ###-### — pulled in towards me as he went past, scraped along my pannier straps and as I threw my right hand out, brushed along my knuckles. The driver was looking at me in the mirror and appeared to be either laughing or smirking.
I followed the bus to the Quinces depot in Atkinson Rd and went into the office to make a complaint — the guy (Steve) in the office seemed quite upset and promised to look into it first thing after easter.
Followups:
- : I received a call from Steve and he said he had spoken to the driver. The driver claimed I had darted out from the side road without looking and swerved into the middle of the lane in front of the bus. I said that this was not how the incident had appeared to me and was told that “we have spoken to all our drivers and reminded them that cyclists are legitimate road users.”
- : I was riding back to uni at lunch time along Blackburn Road and there was a semi-trailer parked on the lawn and leaning into the left lane, as I went past, the bus that had just caught up to me pulled out completely into the next lane to overtake. I laughed when I saw the number plate — same bus, same driver.
