Hi all,
To give context, I was driving to Kingston on the morning of Sunday 22 October to take part in the Kingston Half Marathon. My first half marathon. I was obviously already nervous, but had planned my route and intended to turn into St James Road, after travelling down Kingston Hall road to get to Eden Walk carpark where I had already pre purchased carparking through discounted rates for runners in the race.
I turn into St James road to find it is completely blocked off about 1 quarter way down with construction works meaning I couldn't proceed and had to turn around and go back. I do this and sit at a traffic light for what must have been over 4 minutes before realising it was faulty. Now having wasted over 5 minutes of time and getting close to the 1 hour pre race cut off to get race packs/bag drop/use toilet etc I was getting anxious so made the call to drive through the light as there was no other way of getting out of this road.
My sat nav redirects and I drive through the back way along Eden Street to finally reach the carpark.
I thought nothing more of it until I receive this PCN. Having grown up and driven in London for 20 years I am generally very good at spotting bus lanes and adhering to the rules. So was really surprised to see this.
My thoughts are- I faced two obstacles nearby preventing me from following my planned, set route with construction work completely blocking both sides of an entire through road and then the traffic light issue. Upon looking at the bus lane, I can see the lane coloration is very faded so at the start of the bus lane which I entered- the dark red colour had all but faded. The actual written signage on the road has also been repainted over at least once, making the current words less clear against old faded words.
I truly feel it was because of this, it was not immediately clear to me it was a bus lane as at the start, it was predominantly the grey concrete road colour not red.
I would be so grateful for any further thoughts on this. Thankyou.
