Illustration by John Sadler www.johnsadlerillustration.com

• BUSES often get stuck in traffic, we all know that.

If they didn’t get stuck, all our journeys would be twice as fast. Why do they get stuck? Sit on the top deck at the front and you can see what’s happening.

Other vehicles are blocking the bus lanes. Delivery vehicles, and others, park in the bus lanes. And vehicles in the outer lane overlap into the bus lane to the extent that the bus cannot get through.

Either way, what this means is that there’s a wide-open bus lane ahead but the bus can’t reach it. So, we passengers sit and wait, and wait…

Each day hundreds, probably thousands, of bus passengers are inconvenienced in this way. An economist could calculate how many millions of pounds are lost to the United Kingdom economy by this wasted time.

Why do we just accept this? If penalties exist for delaying a bus they certainly aren’t enforced. We never hear of fines being imposed on drivers of massive cars who are incapable, or too lazy, to stay in their own lane.

Here’s an idea: buses could have cameras fitted that capture the cause of each hold-up. There could be an automated system to report and fine the bus lane-blockers.

We put a lot of effort and money into enforcing parking rules. There is a whole system of wardens to stop people parking in a spot reserved for residents, or for parking too long in the same spot, infringements which cause minimal inconvenience to very few people.

Yet we just accept that drivers can block the progress of huge numbers of bus passengers, with no penalty at all. Transport for London, sort it out.

R WALFORD, N1