Afternoon:
10°c
Suddenly London's cycle routes are crowded again. Year-round bicycling commuters like me tend to view the hordes of ill-attired sunshine cyclists as a bit of a pain: they're often slow or timid, blocking up that gap between a bus and the kerb. But give me a flock of puffing summer cyclists any day instead of the noisy competitors for space that Boris Johnson has in mind: motorcyclists.
Swapping his bike clips for a leather jacket, the Mayor is pushing ahead with his wheeze to let scooters and worse use bus lanes. He claims this is safe, following an experiment in that teeming metropolis Bristol, and two similar pilot schemes in Finchley and Brixton. The idea seems to be to encourage more drivers to switch to motorbikes.
There are two problems here. First, he's doing this on the basis of flimsy evidence - pilot schemes on just two London streets. Nationally, cyclists are three times more likely to killed in collisions with motorcyclists than with cars, and twice as likely to be seriously injured. Figures for these cyclist deaths in London aren't available but those for pedestrians are similar to the national picture - they're proportionately three times more likely to be killed or seriously injured by a motorcyclist than by a car. In 2004, that left 114 pedestrians dead or badly injured.
It's a statistic that will concentrate my mind as I power down the bus lane in Beaufort Street, Chelsea, on my way home tonight. This city has shamefully few dedicated cycle lanes; in their absence, the expansion of bus lanes has made a huge difference. For large parts of my route to work, bus lanes are the only relief from heavy traffic. Queenstown Road, in Battersea, doesn't look quite like Amsterdam yet but the thickets of bicycles there are proof of Londoners' growing willingness to get on two wheels.
And this is the second problem with Johnson's plan. He says he wants to quadruple the proportion of journeys made by cycle. Yet opening up the bus lanes to motorcycles will discourage cyclists and would-be cyclists, especially the timid ones. At the same time, increasing the number of high-speed routes for motorcycles will encourage more commuters to buy them, given petrol prices. It's going to make his cycling target pie in the sky.
I've got nothing against motorcyclists - in the saddle, I actually view them as more kindred spirits than I do thoughtless drivers or dozy pedestrians. But if you let them share the bus lanes, Boris - well, you'd better make sure you're wearing a helmet.
Reader views (8)
I hope motorcyclists aren't allowed in bus lanes in London. Here in Bristol they are, largely as a result of 'inside' campaigning by bikers in the council who then went and let them in bus lanes without any consultation. I witness motorcyclists speeding and even racing each other in bus lanes. It's an open space, so they go full throttle. Strictly speaking, bikers are only allowed in bus lanes which display a white motorbike symbol on a blue sign. But I've seen them use contraflow bus lanes where it explicitly says buses and cycles only. Furthermore, this mixture of ignorance and arrogance means that bikers now think that every square inch of red asphalt is their territory, so they ride in dedicated cycle lanes and barge their way (illegally!)into the Advance Stop Line (ASL) intended for cyclists only at junctions. Motorcycles are just two-wheeled sports cars and should be kept out of bus lanes.
- Mark Naisbitt, Bristol, 13/06/2008 21:09
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Charlie Lloyd,
If more people are tempted onto two wheels, whether motorised or not, that can only be a good thing for the environment. More people on bikes of either kind means fewer people in cars. Which means less pollution (contrary to the highly biased spin repeated by the writer of this article, modern motorcyles pollute far far less than cars and use much less fuel.) And the studies are comprehensive in their evidence that cyclists will benefit too, so there will be more cyclists as well as more motorcyclists.
- Niall, London, 13/06/2008 13:30
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Mick said that 'allowing motorcycles into bus lanes isn't about encouraging more use of motorcyles' however the inevitable consequence is that more of them will be attracted on to all the London roads. That's one reason why we need to consider the pollution, noise and discomfit caused across all London as well as the safety implications.
The safety studies so far are woefully inadequate, any conclusions drawn are dangerously unreliable.
- Charlie Lloyd, London, 12/06/2008 19:18
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Gee - trust the LCC to give cyclists that rabid image once more. To me the biggest problems for cyclists in bus lanes are taxis and buses, the latter with such poor spatial awareness it's not funny. Motorcyclists (of which I am one) are very sensitive to cyclists and I cannot see what could possibly be different from the situation in a normal road without a bus lane. It strikes me that there will always be cyclists who hate other road users, who are in effect big wusses, and don't like sharing with the "big rough boys" as they perceive motorcyclists. I think Boris is bringing a refreshing adult approach to life in London after the adolescent attitudes of Livingstone and his buddies.
- Mark Sharon, London, 12/06/2008 18:03
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Regarding the title of the article, surely bus lanes were made for buses?!
- Harry, Wimbledon, 12/06/2008 16:08
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What a ludicrous article. Motorcyclist and cyclists generally co-exist perfectly well - both want to get from A-B as quickly and safely as possible; with the least amount of risk to their person. Putting the two together in bus lanes generates no greater risk than we currently have - in fact if reduces the risk to motor bikers who will not have to filter on the outside lane.
Both groups suffer the same risk - both are knocked off because people "fail" to see them - i.e. don't pay attention
Bus lanes are certainly wide enough to allow both groups to operate safely - as all the research clearly indicates.
- Rupert, London, 12/06/2008 13:18
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Andrew -- message to you and all cyclists who want more dedicated cycle lanes: pay for them! Car drivers and motorcyclists pay far more in vehicle tax that it takes to maintain the highway. Cyclists pay nothing.
- Philip, London, England, 12/06/2008 10:16
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Allowing motorcycles into bus lanes isn't about encouraging more use of motorcycles, it's about a sensible use of road space which is often devoid of buses or cyclists. Cyclists will be safe in the bus lanes because motorcyclists will expect them to be there and can see them. It's all very well quoting statistics on collisions between motorbikes and cyclists but these are clearly not happening in bus lanes as motorcyclists aren't allowed in them. Dismissing the two London experiments as "flimsy" evidence won't wash--these trials have been going on for years. The greatest danger for cyclists (and pedestrians, and motorcyclists) is when they mix it up in the main streams of traffic. In the broad spaces of the bus lanes, we can all interact safely.
- Mickgj, London, 11/06/2008 17:20
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