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New bus lanes trial given go-ahead

However, as MCM reported last month, the Motorcycle Industry Association have been pushing for a permanent rather than trial usage of the bus lanes. The reason behind introducing a new trial instead of a permanent arrangement is because of findings by an independent report on the original 18-month trial.

Carried out by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), the report identified a slight increase in the rate of motorcyclist collisions, predominantly with cars turning into or out of side roads on routes where motorcyclists had access to bus lanes.

In the light of these findings, the new trial will run alongside a road safety awareness campaign aimed at improving drivers' awareness of motorbikes (and cyclists) in bus lanes. Motorcyclists on BikeSafe training will also have their courses updated to include extra training on awareness of vehicles crossing their path at junctions.

The British Motorcyclists Feder­ation (bmf) says if bus lane access was more widespread across the UK, drivers would become more aware and thus it would reduce accidents.

The report also found that there was a fall in the cyclist collision rate across trial bus lanes and despite 51% of motorcyclists switching to bus lane use, there were no fatal accidents over the period of the trial.

Mayor Boris Johnston said: “Motor­cyclists have made a consistent case to be able to use TfL’s bus lanes, and the initial trial has shown some positive results. The chaos that was predicted by some doomsayers has clearly not materialised and, as I suspected would be the case, we have found substantial support for the measure.”