Pest drivers break the rules here every minute
Understanding closures, diversions and temporarily created traffic order situations is often not the easiest task. It is not only the fact that we don’t pay attention to the changes that causes difficulty, but also the fact that we have to understand the modified traffic order, which we only have a few seconds to do.
The subway replacement
In Budapest, the renovation of metro 3 has been going on for years. We have just forgotten the years-long restrictions associated with the renovation of line 2, the closures associated with the construction of line 4, and then they started.
Would you believe that the renovation of the M3 line has been underway for more than 5 years?
Sure! Work started in November 2017. Of course, since then, the three sections were constantly changing, replacement buses always went elsewhere, and you had to transfer somewhere else. Now, at the beginning of 2023, we are already at the finish line. In the last stage – by the time this article is published – the Metro will run from Kőbánya-Kispest to Deák Ferenc tér. Then you have to take a bus all the way to Göncz Árpád City Center (formerly called Árpád Bridge).
Here we have arrived at the location of today’s material, but for the sake of completeness I will say that we can take the metro from here to the center of Újpest again. So there’s not much left, hold on, Budapest!
The articulated bus turns in a big circle
In the article, we stick with the name Árpád Bridge, on the one hand because I am “old school”, and on the other hand, because the description of Göncz Árpád City Center is a bit lengthy.
For buses coming from the city center on Váci út, bypassing the overpass, a level crossing was created so that it is convenient to get off at the bus bay in front of the pension disbursement. From there, they continue empty in the line of the overpass so that they can turn in a large curve to the opposite side immediately after the overpass.
By the way, you can enter the road parallel to the overpass from two directions: to the right from the Angelföldi section of Róbert Károly körút, and to the left from the Árpád bridge. From the latter direction, there are also two lanes, so that sometimes quite massive traffic flows on the road section.
The normal traffic order
In peacetime, i.e. when there is no renovation, the two lanes run alongside the overpass, in fact, there is no bus lane, because there is no reason to help traffic there. From the outer lane, you can drive straight to Petneházy utca or the service road of Váci út, and from the inner lane you can connect to the three-lane Váci út.
The Google Maps satellite view still shows this normal order, although the change was introduced in April 2022.
The new traffic order
The Budapest Transport Center will announce the following information about the reorganization in April:At the Göncz Árpád city center, metro buses heading towards the city center can cross the intersection on two bus lanes, therefore it will not be possible to turn left from Váci út to Róbert Károly körút from the north. From the south, you can still turn from Váci út towards the Árpád bridge.”
The two parallel lanes became the outer bus traffic lane. There is a designated pedestrian crossing, protected by a light, in line with the building of the pension provider. Prior to this, yellow-based signs indicating the temporary order of classification were posted on both sides, and after that, road markings were painted indicating that the outer lane must be abandoned because it will become a bus lane.
Here again there is a two-sided classification sign, and then the bus lane begins. The clear line is that nothing but buses and taxis can drive into the bus traffic lane, which is also protected by the closing line. Of course, the system is according to the normal bus lane traffic, if you want to turn right, then before the intersection, in accordance with the road markings, you can drive into the bus lane for a short distance, so as not to hold up the traffic on the road due to the right turn.
Well, I don’t know, but even if it wasn’t at first, seeing the stumbling of the motorists, a short instructional video could have been published about the driving order, even about all of them. I haven’t come across anything like that. (Of course, in principle, why, since everyone took the exam from KRESZ…)
And that’s what bothers almost everyone here
at least at first. Because being a forensic vehicle traffic expert, in April I just blinked and rattled in the bus lane, saying I was about to turn right. I was unruly.
In the second round, I was already prepared to understand more quickly how to drive here. If we look at the table indicating the order of the 3×2 classification and do not rely on our sometimes incomplete knowledge, it will immediately become clear:
Since there are a large number of buses here (every minute and usually in pairs during peak hours), a closing line protects their lane on the entire section, and you must not drive over it even if you want to go all the way to the right. but contrary to the custom, you have to go all the way in the inner lane, and then at the end go where we want to go. A traffic light was also installed here to control the traffic, since the buses would never in their life have the opportunity to turn back, not only because of the traffic on the service road, but also because of the traffic on the “big” Váci út.
Raging in the bus lane
It’s amazing that even after 9 months, I still see people driving irregularly every day, but the fact is that drivers who rely solely on habits have no chance of passing in an orderly manner. The fact that a traffic light has been installed, the inner lane is usually saturated and it is difficult to stop to disrupt the bus lane until turning right is also a temptation to disorderly behavior. Of course, this is only possible if the buses do not have to line up at the traffic light.
A car drives irregularly every minute
This is where the foul dominoes start
If we have already found ourselves in the bus lane, we collect a HUF 10,000 on-the-spot fine by default, and double this if we are reported. However, we cannot stop here, as leaving the bus lane would involve crossing the closing line. At the end of the lane, at the Petneházy utca intersection, people usually turn right. I think there is a legal gap here, because you wouldn’t be able to get there with a civilian car. You can’t actually go anywhere from here, because the lane itself turns the buses back onto Váci út, but it is signposted that turning left (thus turning around) is prohibited for everyone except BKK vehicles.
Stalemate! Of course, you have to go somewhere, and this can be considered as a violation of the mandatory direction of travel. There is one more twist: those who walk in the bus lane are subject to the lights displayed for buses. On the other hand, it is often red, or more precisely, the three horizontal dots can be seen on it. Obviously, it is impossible for the people there to take this into account at this time, so the lost drivers still go through the red light, so it would be possible to count.
This is how it becomes an accident
Those who drive legally will finally get to the intersection and proceed there to the green signal. If you drive to the right here and have understood the traffic rules, it is true that you can expect that there will be no vehicles coming from the bus lane, so you turn right. But suddenly a car pulls up there and boom!
There are those who lose their tantus and it is true that they are late, but they reorder, but just look at the red and white striped car grazing in the bus lane!
I haven’t seen a specific accident here yet, but I think it’s unimaginable that there hasn’t been a crash here in 9 months. I would be interested in the legal judgment of these cases. If there is a victim (or even a culprit) among my readers, feel free to contact me!
Is that okay?
With the temporary traffic order, of course, habits had to be forced a little, but then, necessity breaks the law. Many people criticize the new design, there are a lot of comments on social media that it is stupid, impractical, and that he is imposing this regulation from a high place.
All in all, it can be said that our task as drivers is not to criticize the established traffic order, the maximum speed, or to judge in any way, but to observe the rules.
“Fortunately” in this short year, I have never once seen policemen handing out fines, or people with cameras in public areas, nor, of course, traffic controllers helping the orderly flow of traffic.
Let’s train ourselves! When we see the creation of a temporary traffic order, we slow down and make sure of the new order in order to avoid penalties and especially accidents!
Just carefully!
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