The Council has been allowing PHVs to use the bus lane along the Walsall Rd, A34, bus lane since Nov 2007 as a twelve month experiment. Similarly, motorcycles have had use of the Alcester Road, A435, bus lane.
The Council asked Push Bikes to submit our views as part of the consultation process, which we've done (below).
PHVs = private hire vehicles, there were 8000 in the West Midlands in 2006. They are less distinguishable from private cars than black cab style taxis. So, motorists might mistakenly think that the bus lane is open; cyclists may not realise a PHV can enter the bus lane and try to pass on the left, within the bus lane, only to get a nasty surprise.
The London Cycling Campaign is organising a petition to stop this happening in London. The arguments are here.
It would be interesting to know what "evidence" the experiment has produced. Probably statistically non-significant numbers like number of accidents, complaints etc.
Overall, a possible small & transient gain to motorised traffic at the cost of discouraging cycling and a possible increase in the risk to cyclists & pedestrians. You have to wonder if the Council is serious about the 'Cycling Strategy' or just responding to the need to tick a box?
In London, cycling levels have risen by 83 per cent since 2000 while in Birmingham it's low and declining. The positive TfL stategy, and resourcing versus inertia might explain it.
Push Bikes' Response
Increasing the volume of motorised traffic in bus lanes will be seen by cyclists, and more importantly potential cyclists, as making them more dangerous places to cycle. The perception that cycling on roads is dangerous is the major reason why more people, especially children, don't cycle.
The much larger TfL experiment showed no safety benefit for motorcyclists and a tendency to increased risk to pedestrians & cyclists. Other evidence from national statistics supports this.
Increasing the volume of traffic in bus lanes would invalidate their possible role as part of the Strategic Cycling Network outlined in the Cycling Strategy. Shared bus lanes should not be part of such routes: cyclists won't use them.
The gains in allowing PTWs & PHVs in bus lanes are negligible. As noted above, there is no safety benefit to motorcyclists. Any gain in travel times by reducing the congestion in the rest of the thoroughfare are likely to be small unless the volume of traffic diverted into the bus lanes is significant, which would make bus lanes pointless. Further, by decreasing reliability of bus schedules, it would encourage people to use their cars rather than the bus!
The number of accidents in the experiments are unlikely to be large enough to produce statistically significant results and cannot address the issue of the effect of a larger rise in the volume of motorised traffic in bus lanes. The risk is unlikely to rise linearly with traffic volume.
It is unclear whether the 'experiments' would be interpreted as tests of allowing either PTWs or PHVs into bus lanes or both together. Logically, they can't address the latter scenario.
The environmental impact of transport would be:
- reduced by increasing cycling
- probably little changed by increasing motorcycling (unless it reduces cycling, which is possible)
- damaged by increase the volume of HPVs, which tend to be large 4wds. The driver is not passenger and the 'wasted' journeys between pickups make them worse than equivalent sized cars.
