Brisbane bus drivers’ dangerous habit makes me see red

Walking regularly through Brisbane’s CBD, it has become clear the Queensland Police Service’s entire operational budget could be covered if officers issued a fine every time a bus runs a red light.

Now, by and large, Brisbane’s bus drivers are quite simply the best in the country. Perhaps that’s why thanking them as we disembark is considered such a “Brisbane thing”.

Brisbane City Council buses run red lights with alarming regularity in the CBD.Credit: Chris Hyde/Marija Ercegovac

But even the best can occasionally come undone by a minority under pressure to keep services running on time.

Red-light running is common, constant and downright dangerous.

To give a little context, my walk into the Brisbane Times office takes between 15 and 20 minutes. It is no exaggeration to say that almost every work day, I see a Brisbane City Council bus run a red light as it turns from orange – or even more blatantly.

The associated risk to public safety is problem enough, but so is an apparent lack of data held by authorities.

According to the council, 19 bus drivers received fines from January to the start of July. Last year, there was a total of 30. In 2022, there were 31. Twenty-two bus drivers were fined in 2020, and 24 in 2019.

Small numbers, to be sure, when you consider the 3.1 million trips every year, but they don’t really tell the whole story. The bus I saw whoosh through a red light at the intersection of Ann and Wharf streets (on the very morning I’m writing this sentence) didn’t set off a red-light camera – there’s no camera there to set off.

The CityGlider going through the Adelaide Street pedestrian crossing when I was getting lunch this very same day was not recorded by a police officer.

Any regular pedestrian in the CBD could attest to how often this happens. The number of fines simply does not correlate with the frequency of the breaches.

The Department of Transport and Main Roads also did not have any data, but a spokeswoman did have a warning.

“The penalties for bus drivers are the same as all other drivers. Bus drivers who disobey red or yellow traffic light rules face a fine of $619 and three demerit points,” she said.

Brisbane’s bus drivers mostly do a fantastic job and deserve the thanks they get, but something is clearly amiss in the city.

Last week, Rail, Tram and Bus Union assistant state secretary Tom Brown said there was undue pressure on drivers to meet route timelines.

“The running times that the drivers are expected to do – they are given 50 minutes or an hour to come in from Bracken Ridge, when the actual trip takes an hour and 10 minutes,” he said.

Public transport advocate Robert Dow, from Rail Back on Track, says that explanation is probably on the money.

“It gets back to the fact that driving a bus in traffic is a pretty stressful sort of business, really. They’ve got to think about a lot of things,” Dow said.

“There’s a factor with drivers wanting to maintain the timetable as best they can, and that can push them a little bit in terms of taking risks that they perhaps should not take.

“I think sometimes they do actually get caught at lights, that can occur, but instances of drivers deliberately running a red light is a bit concerning – that shouldn’t happen at all.

“It gets back to the fact that there’s a lack of bus priority.”

Dow said there was already some traffic light priority for emergency services, which could easily be extended to buses in some areas.

“We don’t like to see bus drivers running red lights, but we think there are things that can be done to make it less likely that that can occur,” he said.

“When you think that buses are carrying the equivalent of 50 cars, it would not be unreasonable to give them traffic light priority, in the sense that if they’re at an intersection, the light doesn’t turn against them until they’re through.

“With technology today, that’s not that difficult, and it certainly makes for a safer environment.”

The TMR spokeswoman said some intersections already had priority flow for buses, such as the corner of Ann and Gotha streets.

“At these intersections, buses may proceed … if there is a white ‘B’ light, even if other drivers are required to stop due to a red traffic light,” she said.

“These intersections are clearly marked with bus lanes and ‘B’ lights, and they’re typically located along high-volume bus routes.”

Dow said more bus and transit lanes would also help drivers keep to timetables.

“The bus drivers get under a bit of time pressure and take risks, so if that can be relieved by properly looking at traffic light priority and giving buses better priority on the road network, I think it’s a safer environment and a lot more encouraging for people who use buses,” he said.

In the meantime, a plea to bus drivers: I know you’re under immense pressure, but please take care in areas of high pedestrian traffic. We don’t want another tragedy.