According to Motorcycle News, a leaked report on a three-year pilot programme in London states that vehicle collisions fell by 42% on routes where motorcycles were allowed to share bus lanes. The figures sound compelling, but we obviously need to await official confirmation of such apparent facts.
Certainly the Government has reviewed its thinking on the subject over the years. Its Traffic Advisory Leaflet of September last year revised previous advice that motorcycles should not be allowed in bus lanes and encouraged ‘a more objective assessment to be made’.
Of course, bikers are already allowed access to bus lanes in certain areas– eg the whole of Essex, Bristol, Reading etc. However, probably the best-known example of bikes and buses rubbing shoulders remains the M4 bus lane running eastwards from Heathrow.
The issue is now a hot topic among the London Mayoral candidates, with Boris Johnson very much in favour of opening up the capital’s bus lanes to bikers, stating, “I want to encourage people to get out of their cars and using other forms of transport. This would be a key element in that goal.”
It seems we are set to hear a lot more on this subject in the coming weeks.
