TfL to make trial 24-hour bus lanes permanent
Transport for London’s trial which saw bus lanes on the TfL Road Network 24-hour last year is to be made permanent.
TfL claim they made bus journeys quicker, and this was felt particularly “in central and inner London, especially in both the mornings and evenings and throughout Sundays.”
The 24-hour trial does not cover the vast majority of bus lanes in south east London which are on borough managed roads and not the Transport for London Road Network.
Around 95 per cent of roads in London are borough-managed. In Greenwich borough, for example, very few roads are TfL Road Network.
Of those roads, even fewer have bus lanes.
In Greenwich borough roads that are impacted include Academy Road, Well Hall Road and Eltham Road in Eltham.
Across London 85km – or around 50 miles – of bus lane went 24-hour. They are more extensive in the centre and other parts of the capital.
The trial saw Blue Badge parking and taxi access retained.
What could really boost London’s bus speeds in all areas are cameras equipped to the front of buses which could take images of cars parked and blocking lanes. This happens in other cities such as New York, and would help areas with chronic issues such as Plumstead. Greenwich seem unable or unwilling to enforce.
24 hour bus lanes are set to formally be introduced early in 2022.
This is just Kafkaesque. By their very nature, bus lanes are designed to allow the buses to move through traffic, notwithstanding Greenwich council’s inability to issue penalty notices. How is having 24 hour operation make it any easier at 3am in the morning?
Indeed absolute pain. To take one example, Eastbound Commercial Rd bus lane now just leaves a queue of cars intending to go straight (for which there is a green light) blocked by those turning right for the Limehouse Link tunnel (for which there is a red) – this happens at 10pm etc. when the bus lane is otherwise empty. Result: a queue of stationary traffic at 10pm or so and an empty bus lane; congestion created by idiocy.
I thought buses already had cameras fitted on them, but as they don’t, then it definitely would be a good idea to equip them.
I have often seen drivers hurtling down bus lanes (particularly both sides of Blackwall Lane) because they can’t be bothered queuing like the rest of us and sometimes there is a bus following behind them. Obviously if there is no bus camera then that is why they do it.
I think buses are equipped with front facing cameras, but a driver would probably only use it to report a vehicle blocking the lane.
I stopped using the bus lanes when the 24 hour operation was announced.