Forum Topic

Bus lanes to be reopened

Good to hear that bus lanes in Northolt are to be opened up in non peak hours. Hoew about doing the same to the 24hr bus lane running from Ealing Common to Acton. Never understood why it's 24hrs..madness.

David Archer ● 7163d9 Comments

You seemed to be allowed to park on the Ealing Common to Acton one on Sundays but not drive along it.  My brain hurts!

Philippa Bond ● 7163d

That was because the previous Council administration got it wrong -  waiting AND LOADING restrictions should always, as a minimum, reflect the operational hours of the accompanying bus lane. In the Ealing Common - Acton case drivers automatically infringe the bus lane in driving into it to park, though it would perhaps make an interesting court case if the Council stuck to its guns in persisting with trying to extract a fine from any victim who challenged it.Ealing Council wasn't the only London authority which cocked up in this way - for example there was -  and so far as I know still is -  an ultra short stay dropoff/pickup parking bay outside Baker Street station within a 24 hour bus lane, on a Red Route for which TfL is responsible. Worse, in that case the (unsegregated) 24 hour bus lane lane follows on directly from a limited-hours bus lane upstream  -  extremely bad practice likely to mislead and entrap the innocent driver.

Chris Veasey ● 7163d

I haven't had any experience, good or bad, of the bus lanes you mentioned. But as a fairly frequent bus traveller in London - west end and the City - I'm so pleased that there are numerous routes with long bus lanes...getting around since they've been installed is a delight! I'd like to see yet more.  ;-)

Gerry Tan ● 7163d

Have to agree, even though I'm a motorist who only uses buses when/where I have to. Fact remains that in its present state bus travel is slow, uncomfortable, physically demanding, frustrating, humiliating, and for many personally insecure. It'll take a lot more than bus lanes to change that  -  getting the basics right with ALL bus stops having adequate (or preferably more than adequate) shelter, seating and real-time bus arrival displays would be a start; together with less uncomfortable and passenger-unfriendly vehicle designs and operational practices, a more comprehensive service network and a single fare or oyster fare decrement for journeys involving changing buses en-route.

Chris Veasey ● 7163d

Yes I agree that bus lanes are a good idea but they can also cause huge and unnecessary congestion.  A place I've seen this recently is the road off the roundabout past the old Queen Charlotte's onto King Street in Hammersmith.  Nearly all the traffic wants to turn right towards Chiswick Roundabout - and you want to turn left - the bus lane is empty for the whole of the road - but you can't use it because of the restrictions.

Philippa Bond ● 7163d

I agree that the justification for some bus lanes on sparsely served bus routes is often questionable. Perhaps provision of a bus lane should be tied to a high minimum frequency and duration of bus service along it, but I can't see TfL willingly tethering itself in that way.

Chris Veasey ● 7163d

Well, 2 years after raising the subject of 24hr bus lanes, Ealing Council are to trial from August this year the reduction in hours to peak times and for a uniform end time of 7pm to apply. At last!

David Archer ● 6347d

You got me going there David, I thought Gerry was back.

Peter Wright ● 6345d

I think what we are seeing here is the rolling back of the dogma that dominated Ealing Council under the previous administration. They honestly believed that by restricting the flow of traffic they would reduce the number of cars on the road. This was the ideological justification for the tram. Several years into the experiment it became obvious that it wasn't working that way - something that most people pointed out would happen. Now the current Council have the task of going through all the changes to check whether they were designed to improve or restrict traffic flow.As a regular bus user I don't think standardisation of bus lane hours or the shortening of some lanes will have a negative impact on journey times.

Andy Jones ● 6343d