PTWs and PHVs in Bus Lane Consultation
PushBikes Response: Summary

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.

Motorcycles in Bus Lanes

Safety

The CTC paper states that:
... using data from the National Travel Survey and Road Casualties Great Britain, CTC calculates that, per mile travelled, PTWs (powered two wheelers) are about 1.5 as likely as cars to be involved in collisions which cause serious injury to cyclists, twice as likely to be involved in causing them serious injuries and about three times as likely to be involved in killing them. For pedestrian injuries, PTWs compare even more unfavourably; per mile travelled they are about 3.8 times as likely as cars to be involved in slightly or serious injuring pedestrians, and over 4 times as likely to be involved in killing them.

It is unlikely that a 12 month 'experiment' on a single road can provide any reliable statistics particularly on relatively uncommon events such as motorcycle/cycle accidents.

Indeed the report on the much larger TfL study states that:
Transport for London's Road Safety Unit utilised a robust analysis of the data, known as the "Tanner Test". This analysed the safety effects of allowing motorcyclists in bus lanes by combining accident data from a number of sites. It showed no clear evidence of safety benefits to motorcyclists and potential disbenefits to pedestrians and cyclists.

CTC: Increased PTW use would not show up in the limited trials which have so far been conducted of allowing PTWs in bus lanes, but is very likely to occur if PTWs were to be allowed into bus lanes more generally. We would also point out that, whilst these trials have so far not found any clear safety disbenefits, they have not shown any safety benefits either. What they have found is that cyclists feel endangered by the presence of PTWs in bus lanes.

It is likely that the risk rises, probably disproportionately, with traffic density. In an 'experiment' the number of motorcycles changing their route to use the facility is likely to be small compared to the increase in numbers if the number of bus lanes which allow motorcycles increases significantly.

Further, the most likely scenario is for traffic densities on arterial routes, which are the most likely to have bus lanes, to increase towards London levels. This will simultaneously make arterial roads more dangerous for cyclists and increase the number of motorcycles in bus lanes where this is allowed.

A major concern is that, while allowing motorcycles to use bus lanes at the (low) usage levels in the 'experiment' is not a major hazard, as traffic levels increase the risk will become significant. At that point, the horrible congestion will provide a powerful deterrent to reversing the decision to allow motorcycles to use bus lanes.

If the proposal is agreed, there should be clear, enforceable, criteria for banning motorcycles from bus lanes as traffic volumes increase.

Cycling England recently published a study showing that cycling by children had declined rapidly to the current low levels and that this was mainly driven by the perception that roads were dangerous places for cyclists. Adult cyclists also express the same fears about their safety on the roads.

The CTC says:
there are two ways in which encouraging motorcycling undermines efforts to secure the environmental and indeed the health, safety, congestion-reduction and liveability benefits of walking and cycling.
The first is a consequence of the safety impacts referred to above - motorcycling has a significant deterrent effect on pedestrians and particularly cyclists because of the disproportionate danger they impose.
The second relates to the inevitable fact that increasing the attractiveness of one mode are bound to reduce the relative attractiveness of other modes, including the more sustainable alternatives of walking, cycling and public transport.

Given that 1 in 5 cars on the road in the morning are taking children to school, adding to the perception that roads are dangerous for cycling is not a wise policy.

Allowing motorcycles into bus lanes can only make this worse and make it much less likely that the Council's aims, expressed in the Cycling Strategy, of increasing cycling to work and school will be achieved.

In particular, it is likely to seriously damage the Strategic Cycle Route Network proposal.

One way of mitigating this effect would be to guarantee that where motorcycles were allowed to use bus lanes, alternative low traffic 20mph parallel routes must be provided for cyclists - see Aylesbury Gemstone Routes.

Benefits to motorcycling?

CTC: It is often suggested that admitting powered two wheelers into bus lanes and cyclists advance stop lines (ASLs) would improve motorcyclist safety. In fact, an analysis of motorcyclist casualties shows that: 33% of serious motorcyclist casualties and 61% of motorcyclist fatalities occur on rural roads. Even for those motorcyclist casualties which occur in urban areas, just 11.2% take place at or near a signalised junction.

Congestion & Delays

The CTC notes that government research showed that:
allowing motorcycles to use bus lanes would lead to a 18% increase in motorcycle traffic on urban roads and a consequent increase in congestion delays.

Conclusion

The benefits of allowing motorcycles to use bus lanes are likely to be small and transient as traffic levels increase.

It is likely to provide a further disincentive to cycling which is a better way of reducing the environmental impact of transport and of increasing children cycling to school.

The minimum standard should be that motorcycles in bus lanes should only be considered where there is a high standard of cycle provision such that cyclists have an real alternative route, ie as direct & convenient, properly designed and signposted.

PHVs in Bus Lanes

PHVs are less conspicuously different from ordinary cars than taxis and using them in bus lanes is likely to confuse other drivers and increase the likelihood of unintentional violations.

PHVs accelerate faster and have a higher average speed over journeys with bus stops compared to buses, so HPVs are likely to need to pull out into the unrestricted lanes frequently: a risky manoeuvre.

Cyclists can often match a bus's speed between stops, particularly if stops are fairly close together, reducing the number of times pulling out to the right to pass is required. In contrast, PHV will 'need' to pass bikes more often and will be tempted to pass close the the cyclist to minimise the move to the right into the unrestricted traffic lane.

Cyclists will be uncomfortable sharing the bus lane with a fast vehicle under pressure to reach it's destination quickly.

Environmental issues

PHV are an inefficient and environmentally dirty means of transport:

Increasing the perception that cycling is unsafe

If enough HPV use the bus lanes, their usefulness to cyclists will be reversed at very little gain to the overall level of congestion.

It should be agreed that a bus lane with HPV or motorcycle access is not a cycle friendly route and should not be part of the planned arterial routes etc.

Numerous studies have shown that the major deterrent to increasing cycling in cities is the perception that cycling on roads is dangerous. Bus lanes are one of the few effective cycling facilities on busy radial roads. Increasing traffic in bus lanes is an excellent way of making the Cycling Strategy's Strategic Cycle Route Network proposal unworkable.

Benefits?

While heavy HPV use of bus lanes may have a slight effect on congestion, it is likely to have a negative effect on bus travel. Unreliable buses can only reduce the attractiveness of buses and favour car use.

The West Midlands Planing & Transport Sub-Committee Report in 20076 concluded:
"There appears to be no reason generally to allow PHVs to use Bus Lanes."

PushBikes can only agree.

We would also like the following information to help us comment :

  1. the number of buses, HPV, motorcycles, cycles and other vehicles per hour on the experimental routes in peak hours, especially the morning school run and at midday.
  2. the number of accidents observed in monthly periods to give an idea of the background variability, especially given the statistically non-significant results of much larger studies in London.
  3. is it proposed to extend these results to bus lanes in general or will each case be evaluated individually (how)?
  4. will an experiment of allowing motorcycles plus PHVs into bus lanes be conducted or will the current studies be used to "make"/guess this judgement?

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