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Letting electric cars use bus lanes dangerous to cyclists says CTC

National cycling charity responds to government drive to increase uptake of cleaner vehicles

National cycling charity CTC says letting electric cars use bus lanes will increase the likelihood of serious road traffic incidents involving cyclists.

As we reported yesterday, drivers of the vehicles are to be permitted to use bus lanes in Derby and Milton Keynes, two of the cities that are benefiting a share of £40 million in funding aimed at encouraging motorists to switch to less polluting vehicles.

> Cyclists to share bus lanes with electric cars in Milton Keynes and Derby

While rules vary between different locations, typically cyclists and taxis are permitted to use bus lanes during their hours of operation while other vehicles including private cars are not.

Sam Jones, campaigns co-ordinator at CTC, told road.cc: “For new and existing cyclists, being able to use bus lanes has a lot to offer. There's less traffic to negotiate and it also feels safer than riding outside the lane, between buses and general traffic.

“Opening bus lanes up to other traffic clearly undermines these benefits and is not good news. Add into the mixture largely silent cars and the chances of serious incidents look set to increase.”

 He added that while the government is keen to push the credentials of electric cars as a means of reducing pollution, cycling already provides a sustainable form of transport and one that needs greater levels of investment than is currently happening.

 “The government has justified its interest in Low Emissions Vehicles claiming they are expected to deliver very high value for money,” he explained.

“However, we already have a transport system which knocks all others out of the park in terms of value for money: cycling.

“Needless to say funding for cycling is pathetically low, and currently sits at around £1.39 per head outside of London.

“If the government is truly serious about reducing congestion and improving air quality by 2020, the best thing it can do is end its fixation with building more roads.  

“There needs to be a reallocation from the £15bn funding for roads towards cycling, and then the drive and leadership to see space for cycling rolled out across the UK,” he added.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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19 comments

Avatar
kitsunegari | 8 years ago
2 likes

It's utterly absurd. Another idiotic plan from a government that shows just how much they give a damn about cycling.

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harrybav replied to kitsunegari | 8 years ago
0 likes

Quote:

Sam... told road.cc

Great speech but really, preaching to the choir. I'd rather read that he'd told the Sunday Times or Sky TV or someone and that they were reporting it.

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SimonS | 8 years ago
0 likes

and of course, quite aside from the bus lane question a wholesale switch to electric cars presents another issue

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/26/engineers-warn-of-loo...

Not a lot of mention of non-fossil fuel generation there

 

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nickminshull | 8 years ago
2 likes

Yet another idea but someone in a government department that probably doesn't even own a bike! It is great to get in a bus lane like most people have said you have a bit of space and round by me most of the buses don't get above 25mph so don't really get on your case to get out of the way. If electric vehicles are allowed to start using these lanes it will result in more injuries as I think someone has said when your riding you use all your senses and chances are you wouldn't hear it coming. 

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burtthebike | 8 years ago
0 likes

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xla1/v/t1.0-9/12572982_1015...

Tried to post this as an image, but failed dismally.

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Simon E replied to burtthebike | 8 years ago
3 likes

burtthebike wrote:

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xla1/v/t1.0-9/12572982_1015... Tried to post this as an image, but failed dismally.

Use the img tag in square brackets:

//scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xla1/v/t1.0-9/12572982_10153230887746513_5705107006834185782_n.jpg?oh=1adda28b7d4e5c20261f65f57cd21ecb&oe=574123E1)

And it's spot on, of course. On twitter at https://twitter.com/copenhagenize/status/645955710589779968

The discussion should be less about oil powered v electrically powered cars but about how we should use fewer cars, especially in cities.

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chaos | 8 years ago
3 likes

I personally hate cycle paths and highways because they are often poorly designed; I feel more confident in a bus lane (more room, less unavoidable hazards and they get gritted when icy).

I use all of my senses to detect potential danger (I would never feel safe cycling with ear/head phones listening to talk/music). If electric cars are allowed to use bus lanes, death(s) will follow. As most cyclists will have experienced, pedestrians often do not hear bikes approaching. Cyclists will not hear electric cars approaching. Cyclists are moving faster and have lesser opportunity than pedestrians to look back (some cynics/realists would say too busy looking forward for pedestians and cars!).

Cars kill because they are big. Silent cars will kill more because they are big... and silent.

 

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alexb | 8 years ago
1 like

If these were electric cabs, I guess I'd be happy enough, but private cars? No way!

Bus lanes provide the only viable way for me to get into work every day. The bike lanes (where I encounter them) are pretty useless, but the bus lanes offer wide, safe and direct routes to where I want to go. It's bad enough when the bus schedules stack up and the buses queue for the stops, but if the lanes get choked with EVs they'll be unusable. Just look at the bus lanes around South Kensington for an example of the farcical rules that allow black cabs to use bus lanes, or rather queue for fares outside Harrods.

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burtthebike | 8 years ago
7 likes

This is a short term, short sighted, populist measure by a government which is environmentally illiterate.  Any space that the electric vehicles leave will be taken by more petrol or deisel powered cars, so the actual effect will be to increase pollution.  Allowing them in bus lanes will increase congestion and reduce the attraction of buses and cycling. 

The environmental case for electric vehicles is marginal at best, and if even a tiny proportion of cyclists are deterred, then the effect will be negative.

Does anyone remember the "greenest government ever" or the "cycling revolution"?  This government is  so bad, it has gone way past a joke and is deeply into ideological insanity.

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Dnnnnnn replied to burtthebike | 8 years ago
2 likes

burtthebike wrote:

The environmental case for electric vehicles is marginal at best

Well, there's the issue about how the electricity is generated but that can be addressed (and coal is to be phased out for a start). Beyond that, electricity seems to be the best hope for decarbonising car traffic. It helps with local pollutants, such as NOx too.

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oldstrath replied to Dnnnnnn | 8 years ago
2 likes

Duncann wrote:

burtthebike wrote:

The environmental case for electric vehicles is marginal at best

Well, there's the issue about how the electricity is generated but that can be addressed (and coal is to be phased out for a start). Beyond that, electricity seems to be the best hope for decarbonising car traffic. It helps with local pollutants, such as NOx too.

Suppose we can skip over  the hard questions about exactly how we plab5 to produce  all this low carbon electricity.

And the issue about manufacturing  the cars. And the isdse about disposal and recycling burdens. And the issue  about the social costs of replacing  the entire UK fleet of private cars.

 

But yes, if we are so obsessed by cars that we must keep privately owned ones in existence  then  electric vehicles probably are the least shit option. But quite why we'd  want  to is beyond  me.

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arowland replied to Dnnnnnn | 8 years ago
1 like

Duncann wrote:

Well, there's the issue about how the electricity is generated but that can be addressed (and coal is to be phased out for a start). Beyond that, electricity seems to be the best hope for decarbonising car traffic. It helps with local pollutants, such as NOx too.

The point about pollution in our high streets is an important one. But saying that 'how the electricity is generated ... can be addressed' would make more sense if the Tories weren't hell bent on undermining all attempts to move to a low carbon economy. They have removed incentives for solar and wind power at short notice so businesses cannot plan and have no continuity, placing thousands of jobs in the sector at risk. They are seemingly committed to forcing through fracking against every shred of common sense. Not to mention doing dodgy deals with the Chinese to build more nuclear power stations, when we still do not know how to deal the waste and will be paying to do so for thousands of years.

Avatar
jasecd replied to burtthebike | 8 years ago
3 likes

burtthebike wrote:

This is a short term, short sighted, populist measure by a government which is environmentally illiterate.  Any space that the electric vehicles leave will be taken by more petrol or deisel powered cars, so the actual effect will be to increase pollution.  Allowing them in bus lanes will increase congestion and reduce the attraction of buses and cycling. 

The environmental case for electric vehicles is marginal at best, and if even a tiny proportion of cyclists are deterred, then the effect will be negative.

Does anyone remember the "greenest government ever" or the "cycling revolution"?  This government is  so bad, it has gone way past a joke and is deeply into ideological insanity.

 

The Tories are a joke and when it comes to the environment and their record is appalling.

However, the environmental case for EV's is far better than marginal when fuelled by renewable sources even when you factor in the full costs of manufacture. You also have to consider the reduction of particulates in urban centres, which is killing tens of thousands of people a year. This is a pretty definitive accredited paper on the subject: http://www.pnas.org/content/111/52/18490.abstract

I actually think that allowing EV's to use bus lanes in the short term is a valid measure given their environmental credentials, however I have one big caveat; this should only be allowed if polluting private vehicles are removed from bus lanes - i.e. taxis. Given the numbers of taxis in London this would amount to a net reduction of traffic in bus lanes and not impact cyclist safety. 

As EV's become more popular the right to use bus lanes would have to be reversed but in the intervening years it would lead to an acceleration of uptake of EV's and as we increase renewables we would start to see a fall in emmissions and those particulates that are doing so much damage.

I think there is a case for rebranding bus lanes as low emissions lanes and as EV's become more popular and advanced the criteria for qualifying to use these lanes could become ever more strict, meaning that small less polluting EV's could continue to do so while an electric Range Rover or Ferrari would not. 

Hopefully by that time we might have some decent joined up cycle infrastructure as well.

 

Avatar
oldstrath replied to jasecd | 8 years ago
2 likes

jasecd wrote:

burtthebike wrote:

This is a short term, short sighted, populist measure by a government which is environmentally illiterate.  Any space that the electric vehicles leave will be taken by more petrol or deisel powered cars, so the actual effect will be to increase pollution.  Allowing them in bus lanes will increase congestion and reduce the attraction of buses and cycling. 

The environmental case for electric vehicles is marginal at best, and if even a tiny proportion of cyclists are deterred, then the effect will be negative.

Does anyone remember the "greenest government ever" or the "cycling revolution"?  This government is  so bad, it has gone way past a joke and is deeply into ideological insanity.

 

The Tories are a joke and when it comes to the environment and their record is appalling.

However, the environmental case for EV's is far better than marginal when fuelled by renewable sources even when you factor in the full costs of manufacture. You also have to consider the reduction of particulates in urban centres, which is killing tens of thousands of people a year. This is a pretty definitive accredited paper on the subject: http://www.pnas.org/content/111/52/18490.abstract

 

 

Two things about that paper 

i) even though they are explicitly addressing 'light duty' transportation, they did not consider walking or bikes, electric or otherwise, as alternatives. So they almost certainly missed the biggest possible wins.

ii) their ''best' (in this restricted set) solution involves electricity generated from wave, wind and solar. You might like to consider how far we are from being able to generate enoigh power by these means to replace the energy used by internal combustion.

 

You might also like to consider the additional public health gains that would accrue from replacing cars by active transport, all of which should lead you to conclude that pushing EVs is a sub-optimal solution, driven by politics rather than thought or geneuine concern for the environment, public health and, indeed, the economy.

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Rhode_Long | 8 years ago
5 likes

I completely agree with the CTC on this. Despite owning an electric car I do not think I should ever be allowed to drive in bus lanes.

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hennahairgel | 8 years ago
2 likes

In Bristol you can cycle in most bus lanes. Not that it prevents the bus driver coming up behind you blaring their horn. Aparrently the clue is in the name.

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ragtag | 8 years ago
7 likes

I'm actually agreeing with the CTC.. 

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kitkat replied to ragtag | 8 years ago
4 likes

ragtag wrote:

I'm actually agreeing with the CTC..

I was thinking the same, CTC just echoed it for me and I was suprised in the other thread on Road.cc that this point wasn't raised. The point of 'bus' lanes is a queit lane that lets mass transit and non-congesting traffic to pass easily...and for cyclists, safely.

Sticking cars in it just because they don't emit gasses into the local environment makes no sense. What happens when the ownership of low emission vehicles rockets?

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JonD replied to ragtag | 8 years ago
5 likes

ragtag wrote:

I'm actually agreeing with the CTC.. 

 

Whadderyer mean 'actually' ?

Their internal  charity-turmoil shenanigans aside, which other cycling organisation has been doing push-back on changes to the highway code, for example ? British Cycling don't appear to have given a flying one about anything outside racing until the last few years.

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