Drivers illegally using bus lane to undertake on 20mph road

Since Paynes Road in Shirley was made 20mph last year, Roy Jennings said numerous impatient motorists have tailgated him and illegally undertaken his Dacia SUV using the bus lane.

This came to a head on Wednesday last week when three cars in succession carried out the dangerous manoeuvre, captured on his dashboard camera.

 The 60-year-old said: “It’s an accident waiting to happen.

“I’ve had my driver’s licence for 44 years and it’s always been clean, and I’d like to keep it that way.

“I must have been undertaken seven or eight times on that road since September when motorists know they’re going over the speed limit and into a bus lane to do so.”

Having previously spent a decade as a driver with First Bus, Roy is familiar with how impatient road users can be.

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He said: “Although those cars eventually undertook me, I was being tailgated before that – the Highway Code says you should be about two seconds behind the vehicle in front, but it was probably about six inches.”

To combat the issue, Roy has called for a SMART motorway-type system to be implemented – reducing speed on the road at certain times of day – or for the council to bring back the 30mph zone.

He added: “When the speed limit was 30mph, we never had these types of problems.

“From what I’ve seen many motorists just don’t want to adhere to driving 20mph, or simply don’t know, which seems unlikely.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Southampton City Council said: “The Council is completing a review of the existing 20mph limits in the Shirley/Freemantle area and will be soon advertising a Traffic Regulation Order on roads that have been identified for potential change.

“This section of Paynes Road from Waterloo Road to the A33 slip road has been part of the early review phase and signage in the area is planned for an alteration to revert to the previous speed limit.”