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The only motorway bus lane in Britain is barely enforced, it emerged today.
Only emergency vehicles, buses, coaches, motorbikes, and licensed taxis should use the £1.9 million lane on the M4 from Heathrow Airport to central London.
But thousands of motorists use the lane, opened by
then deputy prime minister John Prescott in 1999,
but only a handful of penalty notices are ever issued.
Just 14 £60 fixed penalty notices were issued last year and only six so far this year.
No cameras monitor the lane and the Met admitted policing it was not a priority.
A spokeswoman said: “We will always prioritise resources for activity that can reduce casualties.”
Minicab company Addison Lee — which is not allowed to drive in the lane — has now told its drivers to use it.
Its chairman and founder John Griffin said he was protesting at the fact that London Taxis were permitted to use bus lanes when minicabs are not.
Steve McNamara of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association said: “It's absolutely farcical. We've got a bus lane that no one enforces.”
Reader views (9)
John Prescotts baby ,
M4 Bus lane = Red Carpet route for dignitaries into London
No Buses use it,coaches use it and a few private mini-bus companies.
Make it a priority lane with £1000 fine for less than 2 people travelling and it will police itself!!
- Colin, London
You can not give a monopoly advantage only a black taxiit is against international law. In the past mini cab was not licencesed but now they are and drivers pay TAX and do the most usfull job and provide alternative service to the general public. Black taxi drivers don't seems to face any computation but that is almost immpossible in 21cen.
- Dany, London
I ride a Motorcycle in the bus lane every morning and never see less than 4 private cars or mini cabs in the lane. They seem to have no regard for the legal users of the lane and often pull out of stationary traffic to enter the lane which has led to a few near misses.
Someone needs to do something to enforce this bus lane or run the risk of explaining to my wife and 2 kids that I died due to lack of 'priority' as the police have recently been quoted.
- Tony Hill, Iver, UK
The most misunderstood piece of traffic engineering this country has ever seen. Just the mention of it causes motorists blood to boil. Once referred to as John Prescott’s private bus lane, it has now become the source of frequent rants from Terry Wogan and Jeremy Clarkson.
The idea of the M4 bus lane was actually a display of sheer genius by a lateral-thinking planner at the Highways Agency.
For many years the M4 heading into London, was a victim of a lack of joined up planning. It approached London from the M25 and Heathrow Airport as a standard three-lane motorway. But from an arbitrary point between junctions 2 and 3 it narrowed to two lanes, losing the hard shoulder just where the road gets to its busiest point, the dreaded Chiswick Flyover.
In a bid to avert this bottle neck the planner pushed back the point where the road reduced to two lanes to junction 3, where a large amount of traffic leaves the motorway. The transition to the flyover ceases to be a problem because there are a consistent number of lanes across the whole section. Instead of painting white chevrons in the third lane it was turn into a bus and Taxi only lane the first one ever on a motorway in this country.
To now allow mini cabs entry to this lane would simply set the clock back 8 years and make this another white elephant for the tax payer to pick up the bill.
- Thomas The Taxi, London, Harrow
It would be a stupid decision to allow minicabs in the bus lane .That would allow 60,000 extra vehicles in ,making all bus lanes useless.I think the objective is to get licensed taxis removed from bus lanes which will increase traffic .
- Brian, richmond london
I use the bus lane regularly on my motorbike, coming from Heathrow, and I have never seen a car using it. It's great - and makes a big difference to taxis. As a writer above notes, because the road narrows to two lanes anyway, opening the bus lane up would make very little difference to car drivers; it would just shift the congestion back a mile out of town. It makes perfect sense as it is. There are too many cars on the road - more road space is not the fix for that.
- Jon Williamson, London
A bus lane on a motorway. Now that's sensible isn't it. Just as sensible as reducing half of the Edgware Road's capacity with a bus lane. Bus lanes should only be introduced where there are already three lanes for normal traffic. If a bus lane was such a priority on the M4 then the hard shoulder could have been used as such.
- Peter, Harrow, UK
Why's it farcical? It's an excellent bit of lateral thinking in road design, and actually becomes *less* effective the more people use it (it would actually work best if *nothing* was allowed to use it, because it would avoid the pinch point where three lanes become two at Boston Manor).
I drive down there fairly regularly and can't recall seeing anyone driving down it who shouldn't, it's buses, cabs and motorbikes. Still, I'm sure this article will encourage people to use it, which should be a nice earner when the police cotton on.
- Tom, London, UK
You forgot to mention that Prime Ministers use the lane too, when they are in fear for their security, even though this is contrary to the rules.
Paint it black, as the Stones once sang, and let everyone use it again - legitimately.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one
