Good afternoon everyone, I hope you are well,
I have appealed for a bus lane ticket, but my representation has been rejected:
For context, I have a wide bodykit conversion on my car which totals it's width to 6'8"; and my navigation (which has been set to avoid such routes) lead me to a 6'6" width restrictor, in Chalrton, South East London.
Also, the road I turned in from has zero Advance Warning Signs indicating this width restrictor is approaching (Which the council admits) so there is no way to know that this is approaching.
I simply used the bus designated lane, to the left of the width restrictors, for a total of 3 seconds in total and then moved right back into the primary lane, in order to avoid inevitable damage to my car and to the council's property.
I believed that performing a U-turn at that location was not the safest option and could have posed a risk to other road users, but according to the council, I should have turned into another road once I saw the width restrictors ahead, I find this invalid as if it was 7'0" restrictors I could have gone in without issue, but due to no advance warning signs I did not know what the size would be until I was approaching them directly,
Do you think this is worth a further appeal to the traffic adjudicator, or should I just pay the increased £160 charge now. Gutted as it was not a deliberate attempt to use the bus lane to try gain advantage etc. just a true attempt at trying to drive in the manner which was most suitable at the time,
Thank you!
