Pensioner: Belfast is not a compassionate place for drivers

I am a law-abiding pensioner from Carryduff.My sister, Maureen, is in the Royal Victoria Hospital awaiting heart surgery.Although I don't drive into Belfast now, shortly after she was admitted, I agreed, as an act of compassion, to drive my very elderly brother-in-law to the hospital to visit Maureen. (The taxi-fare is very dear, and he's not fit to take a bus.) Unfortunately, on the way home at rush-hour I must have inadvertently used a bus-lane, although I was endeavouring to avoid them.That whole drive was extremely traumatic for me, especially after visiting my seriously ill sister.Yesterday I received a £90 fine, with accompanying incriminating photo. I was very upset, but paid the fine at once, which reduced it somewhat. However, the whole thing left me with a very bad taste in my mouth about Belfast. It is obviously a place without any compassion towards unwary drivers; the cameras snap, and the law comes down with the weight of the Giant's Causeway! Such a sad reflection on the city that is striving to show its better side. Alas, Belfast is not the place it once was, when my grandfather, John Long, smilingly directed the traffic from his point on Castle Junction in the 1930s.Helen LongCarryduff
Belfast bus lanesBelfast bus lanes
Belfast bus lanes

My sister, Maureen, is in the Royal Victoria Hospital awaiting heart surgery.

Although I don’t drive into Belfast now, shortly after she was admitted, I agreed, as an act of compassion, to drive my very elderly brother-in-law to the hospital to visit Maureen. (The taxi-fare is very dear, and he’s not fit to take a bus.)

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Unfortunately, on the way home at rush-hour I must have inadvertently used a bus-lane, although I was endeavouring to avoid them.

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That whole drive was extremely traumatic for me, especially after visiting my seriously ill sister.

Yesterday I received a £90 fine, with accompanying incriminating photo. I was very upset, but paid the fine at once, which reduced it somewhat.

However, the whole thing left me with a very bad taste in my mouth about Belfast. It is obviously a place without any compassion towards unwary drivers; the cameras snap, and the law comes down with the weight of the Giant’s Causeway!

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Such a sad reflection on the city that is striving to show its better side. Alas, Belfast is not the place it once was, when my grandfather, John Long, smilingly directed the traffic from his point on Castle Junction in the 1930s.

Helen Long

Carryduff

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