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Give us our bus lanes - Bob Pickett challenges the government to open up all bus lanes to bikers

Isn't it time the government realised the benefits and opened all bus lanes to bikes? When the Government's long-promised Strategy for Motorcycling was released in February 2005, one of the paper's failures highlighted was that bus lanes were still to be denied nationwide access to bikes.

Over a year later (Editorial note, this was first put on the site in April 2006), the situation remains the same. Why? Well according to Department of Transport minister Karen Buck, where bus lane access is allowed, accidents have increased. Or so she alleges. What a shame that her own department has generated figures that make a mockery of her allegations.

The DfT's statistics have been carefully examined by the BMF and the MCIA - and the results fail to back up Ms Buck's allegations. Using the three bus lanes in London that has been featuring in a long-standing trial scheme, accident rates have reduced by just shy of 20%. I am lucky enough to get the use of one of these lanes on a daily basis as I commute into/from London - and it is a godsend. Instead of being trapped in lines of backed up traffic, or risking life and limb filtering past (with the constant threat of an impatient car driver just pulling out in a bad-tempered display of frustration), I can make good progress. And should I get blocked and a bus need to get past, well I can make use of my bike's narrow profile and squeeze into the line of traffic and allow him on his way.

Other cities have taken an enlightened view - Bristol and Bath amongst others successfully allow access for bikes in their bus lanes and have done so for years. But still it is down to the individual authority, rather than a nationwide decree.

Getting back to fact for a moment, even the DfT's own policy on bus lanes states that "The evidence so far suggests that there are no apparent safety disbenefits from allowing motorcycles to use bus lanes" - in government speak, that is tantamount to yelling the good news from the rooftops.

So what possible reason can there be to keep us out of bus lanes, struggling to find space in amongst an ever more congested road network? Do we block the lanes? Hardly. As I said above, our narrow profiles make us ideal partners in the bus lane, as we can easily get out of the way. Do we tear-ass along them? Well in my daily ride down a bus lane, my fellow biking commuters seem to stick to the limit. There has been some opposition from the cycling lobby, but there is certainly enough space for the pair of us to co-exist in there, along with buses and taxis.

Is it jealousy? Jealousy of our being able to ride along unencumbered while the car driver (and think carefully here about how the bulk of MP's get to work each day) sits steaming in a pool of their own frustration?

I cannot think of any other reason for preventing motorcycles from - as the DfT's own intention to make motorcycling a "Safe, enjoyable experience for those who choose this mode of transport"*

So I challenge Ms Buck to take a look at her own department's figures and statements and at least widen the bus lane trial to all lanes and then take a look at the results - I think she might be surprised by what she finds.

* Page 7 of 'The Government's Motorcycling Strategy' published by the Department of Transport in February 2005.

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