Peter Forrest, Conservative GLA Candidate for Enfield-Haringey today supported Conservative new proposals for bus lanes to be opened up to more users other than buses. The new policies, debated but voted down by Labour in the House of Commons on Tuesday as amendments to the Traffic Management Bill, would allow vehicles with two or more adult passengers to use bus lanes, and for any vehicle to use bus lanes at night or in the late evening if no bus services were operating.

Peter Forrest explained:

“Rather than hammering the motorist with ever higher taxes, we should be adopting sensible, practical measures to improve the flow of traffic across roads in Enfield-Haringey and cut journey times.

It’s time to end the farce of half-used bus lanes, like the notorious M4 bus lane. We should let vehicles use bus lanes at times when there aren’t any bus services operating, and allow vehicles with two or more adult passengers to use the lanes. This would encourage people to work out car-sharing arrangements with their neighbours, without exacerbating the school run.

By contrast, the Government is planning to extend the aggressive use of CCTV on bus lanes to make it easier to fine motorists who use bus lanes. As ever, the Government appears more interested in using drivers as a cash cow than actually getting traffic in Enfield-Haringey moving.”

Notes to Editors:

The Traffic Management Bill was considered by the House of Commons on Tuesday 10 February 2004. The Government’s proposals in the Bill have already attracted controversy for its plans to levy a range of new fines on motorists.

The Conservative proposal, tabled at the Committee stage of the Bill, stated, “any motor vehicle with 2 or more passengers shall be entitled at any time to use any carriage way marked out as a bus lane.” The proposal will apply to England and Wales. A separate amendment was tabled to allow bus lanes to be used at times when no bus services are operating locally.

Allocation of road space is a matter for local highway authorities. According to Government transport ministers, the Department for Transport does not maintain a central register of the length of bus lanes (source: HC Debs, col. 919W, 19 November 2003).

Currently, responsibility for enforcement of bus lanes rests with the police or local authorities with civil enforcement powers. Civil enforcement of bus lanes in London is by London local authorities and Transport for London. Such enforcement is increasingly being carried out using bus mounted cameras, roadside cameras and closed circuit television cameras. In 2001-02, 290,231 penalty charge notices were issued by London local authorities and TfL for bus lane contraventions. According to the Government, regulations enabling “civil enforcement” of bus lanes by local authorities outside London is currently “in preparation” (source: HC Debs, col. 140W, 28 October 2003).

ENDS.