- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
Cardiff Bus (licensed CC-BY-2.0 by Jeremy Segrott on Flickr).jpgWales could let lorry drivers use bus lanes to ease congestion
The Welsh Government is considering letting lorry drivers use some bus lanes in the country in a bid to improve the flow of traffic, reports BBC News Wales.
Cyclists are usually permitted to use bus lanes, and Sustrans Cymru has said that letting HGV drivers also use the lanes could worsen congestion since it would discourage people from using bikes as they would feel less safe.
The idea of permitting HGVs in certain bus lanes was raised in the first annual report of the country’s Traffic Commissioner, Nick Jones, last year.
Mr Jones, who took up his post in 2016, noted in his report that there had at times been “a degree of hostility” from the public to the introduction of bus lanes.
He wrote: “This is especially so if a bus lane has not been properly planned and where there is ineffective enforcement action in relation to those who transgress.
“Any new bus lane might sensibly include consideration as to the scope of vehicles that are entitled to use that specific stretch of road.
“In some parts of the country local authorities have allowed HGVs to use bus lanes where the roads are planned so that this is facilitated.”
He said that “HGVs are essential for the economy and the provision of services,” the alternative being “a considerable number of unregulated large vans thereby increasing congestion and causing far greater environmental damage.”
Mr Jones continued: “I am not suggesting that HGVs should use all bus lanes, I merely point out that each case should be considered on its merits and that there might be occasions when allowing HGVs to use a bus lane will improve traffic flow.”
The proposal has been welcomed by the haulage industry, with a spokesman for the Road Haulage Association saying: “Making better use of valuable road space by allowing trucks to use bus lanes not only eases congestion, but helps to keep delivery costs down and ensures food and other vital supplies arrive on time at our shops and homes, something that benefits everyone."
But Natasha Withey of Sustrans Cymru said: "To improve traffic flow, cities need to reduce the number of vehicles on the road through encouraging more people to use alternative means to get around, not discourage cyclists through making their dedicated infrastructure unsafe."
According to BBC News Wales, the Welsh Government plans to consult with highways and transport bodies ahead of making a decision on the issue next year.
The recommendation seems incompatible with an observation made elsewhere in the Traffic Commissioner’s report, however, where he wrote that he was “conscious that use of road space needs special care when it is used by both HGVs and bicycles.”
Mr Jones also suggested that there was a need for lorry drivers to receive specialist training on sharing the road with people on bikes.
“A number of excellent initiatives have taken place involving specialist training for HGV drivers to better understand the needs of cyclists, and vice versa,” he wrote.
“Specialist cycle awareness is not yet to my knowledge one of the modules for HGV CPC, although this might change in the future,” 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.
Latest Comments
- RoubaixCube 1 hour 1 min ago
I like how youre using a Mojito X to advertise an Mojito 3
- Basemetal 1 hour 22 min ago
The PU dip on the palm and fingers is over the knitted nylon so not chilly in use, and the material is thick enough to provide some cushioning. It...
- hawkinspeter 1 hour 26 min ago
Opinion piece on B24/7. I found it a bit placatory towards the people against LTNs, but then I'm just sick of motornormativity driving city and...
- Geoff H 1 hour 36 min ago
“jumped-up, arrogant” cyclists motorists causing “carnage” and posing a risk to pedestrians everyone else. Fixed it ..........
- chrisonabike 1 hour 46 min ago
Given that - at least in UK- we have a mostly flip-flop political system and parties in power eventually run out of credit with the electorate -...
- OldRidgeback 2 hours 49 min ago
If he'd been able to get hold of one of the rarer five speeds, it would've had a better choice of ratios. You can see it's got proper brakes, a big...
- David9694 2 hours 59 min ago
But whAT aboUT thE disable d? (Foreground left - pretty faded)
- belugabob 3 hours 7 min ago
If that's their bag...
Add new comment
33 comments
LOL
In fairness, have to admit that despite a bit of Google-fu, I couldn't find any RHA money going this chap's way. I guess sometimes politicians are capable of being dim without any assistance.
To think I used to believe the RHA were those harmless people who put on flower shows.
I can kind of see a logic to this. The people who don't need to drive are those in cars (selfishly talking about London here) as they could get public transport or cycle/walk. Fine to leave them stuck in traffice in the "normal" lanes all day long.
There is no other way to shift 100 tons of concrete to a building site so lots of HGV trips are unavoidable so why make them suffer?
On the flip side, obviously not a great step forward for cyclists / would delay buses / free up the "normal" lane for yet more cars.
But weren't we previously told that bus lanes speed up traffic. Sounds like an admission that bus lanes are wasting roadspace that others could be using.
Or maybe it's just part of the get cyclists off the road lobby.
Not that I recall - certain types of traffic maybe, like buses, PSVs, taxi-cabs, moto-/push-bikes and the like perhaps
Are they really this hard of thinking?
How does the Road Haulage Association have such an influence in the ear of governing bodies? Freight has multiple iterations of it's own infrastructure; primarily canals, then rail. If the HS2 budget was spent on building freight specific modern rail, the current network wouldn't take such a pounding so would becomme more reliable and there would be more road space for personal motor traffic and hmm, who knows, maybe even some half decent cycling infra.
It's starting to seem as if wherever a politican says something deeply stupid, you'll find RHA money is involved somewhere. They are the UK's answer to the NRA.
The RHA my not be as instantly polarising as the NRA, but I guess they do have similar potentials for lethality
now the question is, does the RHA hire them because they’re deeply stupid, or are they merely being paid to be deeply stupid?
talking of which, I initially (sic) interpreted it as the Royal Horticultural Society...
Step forward Charlie Elphicke MP, who proves it is possible to appear intelligent and do good stuff like investigate multinational tax dodging, while saying stupid stuff like saying the Charity Commission is anti-religious, and then be paid by the RHA to say more stupid stuff like the traffic cameras at Bank were set up to fleece drivers.
Rob Flello is just stupid and found a way to monetise it bigly.
Clearly Traffic Commissioner Nick Jones has top men working on this...
Top. Men.
Wouldn't this be provable to increase harm as a direct consequence, I'd say that that is an unlawful action. Needs taking to court to prevent it.
So where are these other local authorities that allow HGVs in bus lanes already?
I did a quick search and found Edinburgh allows motorcyles (not HGVs) to use them, and Norwich had a 12 month experimental TRO back in 2008 allowing HGBs that was limited to a freight consolidation centre - did this continue?
Interesting snippet on the article about the Norwich scheme:
I had a discussion one time with a bus driver who was irate that I was riding not right up against the kerb in a bus lane: I pointed out that there was no way in this universe that his double decker could overtake me without going out of the bus lane so what difference would it make *where* in the lane I was riding??
FWIW where the bus lane (or similar, e.g. the Portway inbound you'll know brooksby) is by the side of a normal road lane, I tend to move to the middle of the two lanes and wave them through if I think i'm holding up a bus, coach etc and I can safely do so - which is pretty much all the time. Makes logistic sense to me, is no skin off my nose and seems to engender a great deal of thankful waves and thumbs-up from the drivers - everyone happy. Perhaps that's not always possible where others are, but not found an issue yet myself.
Have to admit that I use the shared use path alongside the Portway... The bus lane I was in was that one going out of town toward Hotwells, sort of opposite the Great Britain.
You'll have more trouble with joggers on that path.
Nah - it's fine. I also use it most of the time Brooksby, nice surface, and always on the way out of town. There's a couple of slightly narrow-ish bits right in towards the Cumberland Basin but pretty much everyone i've met there plays nicely so we all get by with minimal reduction in speed. The road surface North-bound, on the other hand, is absolute shite, the cycle 'lane' appears and disappears and you're right next to folk doing 50-60 mph - just not worth it when there's a wide, smooth shared use path right next to it.
The bits of the Portway path I hate most are those textured paving stones they have by the Cumberland Basin: right angles to direction of travel on the pedestrian side and parallel to direction of travel on the bike side (and just the right width to grab a bike tyre...).
These gems ?
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4488054,-2.621858,3a,37.5y,243.54h,70.17t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sgw9gOXntSlyQimXeEbkNAQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Never quite worked out the logic of the surface patterning on those...
That's tactile paving to assist the visually impaired. I just looked it up and they are supposed to be that way round. Apparently, the transverse pattern is to deter cyclists from entering the pedestrian side.
I've never thought of them as hazardous - I like to aim my bike to just hit one groove; it's like target practise.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/fil...
Ah OK, tah - thought the cycle lane part was for that reason but hadn't figured the pedestrian bit - the deterent bit sounds logical now. I quite like the target practise game as well, although they can get a wee bit slidey in the wet if you hit the sides of them ..
Oh, is that what they're for?
I also try to aim for the rut, but since they're on a bit of the path which curves I always feel like I'm skidding and about to come off (see every comment about tramlines on here ever).
Most of the time I go over what I now know is the rumbly pedestrian side...
Not as much as you'd expect: gaggles of students (jogging club?) occasionally, but most problems I've encountered have come from the left/right side dance and the "I'm not on the road so I don't need lights " ninjas.
How fortunate that HGVs have such a good record of not killing many cyclists.
Of all the short term, stupid, idiotic suggestions, this has to be the worst, apart from all the others like banning cyclists from some roads because they can't keep up with the traffic. Is it just me, or are some people getting their anti-cycling measures in before the government inquiry into safer cycling?
If we allowed everyone to use bus lanes that would that ease congestion too?
It’s worse than that, how long after such a move would it take before smaller goods vehicles such as white van man and scaffold lorry drivers started using them as well?
About thirty seconds, like those “don’t pass me on the inside” stickers...
So introduce bus lanes to segregate traffic. Theory being if buses can circumnavigate towns easier they will be more punctual and encourage public transport use. Then let commercial traffic use those lanes, which 1. Makes the lanes more threatening for cyclists, 2. Probably results in reduced efficiency of bus services. So encouragement to use drops off. Basically you might as well not bother? Why not ban cars too? They are the real culprits in the hindrance of commercial traffic. Obvs really.
Pages