On Friday, I was on the A1231 loop, to join the A1.

I was in the left hand lane, trying to merge into the middle lane, to carry on the A1. I was running alongside 7618, an Arriva MAX Gemini. It appeared to be running light from Belmont to pick up its usual duties on the X12 to Durham for Middlesbrough, with the destination set as such. I wasn't in a position to speed up, to get in front of the bus, as there was a car in front. Likewise it wouldn't have been particularly safe to slow down to allow the bus to go into the left hand lane, as I had a queue of traffic behind me.

As we were making no progress, given that the driver of the bus wouldn't slow down to give me a gap to get in front of him, the driver decided to merge left with me running parallel to him.

I was forced to slam my brakes on - as did the drivers behind me - and I felt quite lucky to come out of that situation without a single bump. The driver seemed to be of the mindset that he could do whatever he liked, because he was in a big bad bus.

I forgot to send an e-mail to Arriva, but find their Customer Services team is appalling anyway, so don't usually bother. Andreos1's complaint reminded me of the experience.