[Article] Bus lane ban stays for bikers

markpb

Bus lane ban stays for bikers

MOTORCYCLISTS ARE to remain banned from bus lanes after the Road Safety Authority (RSA) found "little or no" safety benefit would be gained from changing the law. The decision follows consideration of a report from the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) hired by the RSA to study whether lifting the ban would lead to fewer crashes involving motorcyclists.

Motorcyclists have disproportionately high crash and fatality rates. There were 34,900 motorbikes licensed in 2006 accounting for just 1.5 per cent of vehicles on the road. However, in 2006, 29 motorcyclists died in crashes which is 8 per cent of all road deaths. More than 80 others were seriously injured.

Documents released to The Irish Times show the TRL report found motorcycles would be required to "mingle" with buses, cyclists and pedestrians when using bus lanes. It also highlighted complications associated with certain manoeuvres which may require motorcyclists to cross several lanes. The study found no compelling case from a road safety point of view for allowing motorbikes to use bus lanes.

A spokesman for the RSA said an expert group comprising gardaí, Dublin City Council, the Dublin Transport Office and expert motorcyclists, had been established to consider the TRL report and recommended no change. The spokesman added that a report was being prepared for the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey.

The decision has dismayed the Irish Motorcyclists Action Group (Mag), which lobbied hard for a change to the current policy. Linda Ó Loideoin, road safety officer with Mag, said she was "disappointed and surprised" at the decision.

"All the research, with the exception of the recent London bus lanes study, found it improved safety. In Belfast they have continued trials where motorbikes were allowed to use bus lanes," she said. Mag has been lobbying for a change in the law since "the 1990s", and would seek a meeting with the RSA to discuss its decision. Mag is the only Irish-based motorcyclists' representative group.

Following a similar review, Britain decided to allow local councils to permit motorcyclists use bus lanes on a "case-by-case" basis.

The Road Collision Facts for 2006 noted that the majority of motorcyclists are killed at weekends, and over two-thirds of deaths happen outside built-up areas, on roads with a speed limit of over 60km/h. In that year a motorcyclist was 13 times more likely to be killed than a car user, and three times more likely to be killed than a cyclist.

© 2008 The Irish Times

linky

I know there's a motorbike forum but I deliberately put this in C&T to see what non-leather-clad people think of this decision

Apparently this rule isn't all that well enforced anyway so maybe it's a moot point but it seems a bit weird. Using the national crash rate for motorbikes to decide whether to let them use bus lanes seems a bit perverse although I take their point that it may allow them to make some dangerous manoeuvres. I fail to see why they'd be mingling with pedestrians though, are people allowed walk in bus lanes now?

seamus

markpb wrote: »

I fail to see why they'd be mingling with pedestrians though, are people allowed walk in bus lanes now?

That confused me too. It's about as dumb as saying, "The roads are too dangerous for cars because you have to share it with pedstrians".

I can see the rationale to a certain extent. While using the bus lane is a massive help on some roads, on other roads it can be a nightmare.
The N4 for example is great - when the traffic is heavy, you zip up the bus lane.
Other areas, particularly in villages (Terenure for example), it can be safer to drive outside the traffic (i.e. head-on with the other lane), than to skip inside because of the number of drivers who will cross the bus lane into side roads or driveways without making sure there's nobody in the bus lane.

The upside of this is that the RSA have now admitted clearly that bus lanes are too dangerous to be used by pedal cyclists, including bus lanes which have a cycle lane beside them. If motorcyclists can't be seen or heard, what hope do pedal cyclists have?

paulm17781

markpb wrote: »

I fail to see why they'd be mingling with pedestrians though, are people allowed walk in bus lanes now?

I'd say it's because people have to step off buses and the fear of a motorbike coming up the inside. I've nearly been hit by cyclists the odd time...

egan007

paulm17781 wrote: »

I'd say it's because people have to step off buses and the fear of a motorbike coming up the inside. I've nearly been hit by cyclists the odd time...

How thin is your bike!

seamus

paulm17781 wrote: »

I'd say it's because people have to step off buses and the fear of a motorbike coming up the inside. I've nearly been hit by cyclists the odd time...

That's the bus driver's fault. He shouldn't let you off except having pulled into a bus stop. If he's left enough room for cyclists (or motorcyclists :eek:) to come up in the inside, then he hasn't pulled into the bus stop.

I've encountered a couple of occasions where busses have just opened their doors to let people out onto a cycle track when they're nowhere near a bus stop.

So now I cycle on the other side of stopped busses.

Zoney

Documents released to The Irish Times show the TRL report found motorcycles would be required to "mingle" with buses, cyclists and pedestrians when using bus lanes. It also highlighted complications associated with certain manoeuvres which may require motorcyclists to cross several lanes.

Is it a great idea for ordinary cyclists to mingle with buses and pedestrians? Surely the "complications" requiring motorcyclists to cross several lanes apply to cyclists too - they too have to get through junctions. Indeed, bus lanes in their current form are pretty pathetic and unsuitable for buses even, as they enter the bus lane sections just to have to merge back in far too often.

Mind you, even when I visited Cambridge, UK, where it nearly seemed like more cyclists than cars or pedestrians, and they had obviously worked a lot on cycle lanes and lights for cyclists at junctions, it still looked pretty pathetic for cyclists to get any kind of priority similar to motor vehicles (i.e. cycle lanes not really making anything better than cycling with normal traffic - and not even safer as mostly you are beside traffic anyway just as you would be cycling without a separate lane).

How are you supposed to accommodate special arrangements for motorcyclists when they haven't sorted out buses, cyclists and pedestrians yet? Letting motorcyclists use existing bus and cycle half-measures is surely just going to make them into even more of a disaster?

markpb

Zoney wrote: »

How are you supposed to accommodate special arrangements for motorcyclists when they haven't sorted out buses, cyclists and pedestrians yet? Letting motorcyclists use existing bus and cycle half-measures is surely just going to make them into even more of a disaster?

I can't for the life of me think of any disadvantage (for buses) in letting motorbikes use bus lanes. It's not like they're going to hold them up

From a cyclists point of view, I could understand some cyclists not liking it but personally I don't have any problem, there's plenty of space for a bike and motorbike in a bus lane and still leaving plenty of space in between.

paulm17781

egan007 wrote: »

How thin is your bike!

Pretty damn thin but I've still never hit myself.

Bus drivers fault or not, I would think this is the reason. I can't see how else motorcycles and pedestrians would both be in the bus lane.

cyclopath2001

markpb wrote: »

I know there's a motorbike forum but I deliberately put this in C&T to see what non-leather-clad people think of this decision

I've no big problem with them in bus lanes, but I wish they'd stay out of the cycle lanes.

I've often been stuck behind motorcyclists trying to ride bikes the size of a Nissan Micra down cycle lane already reduced in width by parked cars encroaching from the left and buses, taxis and security vans driving with two wheels in the cycle lane on my right.