Apparently, from 5th January 2009, it will be possible to operate a Powered Two Wheeler in a bus lane, without receiving a hefty fine for the privilege.
These bus lanes are those on the Transport for London Road Network (read that as red routes), but what the boroughs do with bus lanes operated by them (yellow routes) is still within their jurisdiction.
Althought the date has been set, there will be a move to phase out bus lane enforcement, starting now.
Good times…apparently 
Thanks for sharing this, Afro. If this is true, this is wonderful news 
Thanx for good news Afro.
I hope this is true Afro, im holding out judgement and opinion on Boris untill this promise materialises,
Does anyone know what the chances of the majority of local councils following suit and ceasing to issue fines to bike? or is that too much like wishfull thinking when dealing with such a lucrative business?
hopefully this wont just be restricted to London and includes us out in the great beyond, the land past the M25 but not including Herts cos they is weird 
Sounds like really good news 
lets hope they extend it out past the great M25 car park.
whats a yellow route?? :ermm:
is it the one that leads to the Wizard of Oz? :Whistling:
If this is true I will be buying macp and myself two t-shirts which have picks of Boris on me on the front hugging Boris Johnson with the caption saying…
“Man enough to admit Bojo was the way to go!”
If anyone wants one for a souvenir laugh, I’ll work out the cost, add £5 to it and all the profits will be going to the air ambulance…
Drop me a line… if you want one… BUT this is ONLY if we actually find ourselves legally riding in buslanes without fear of fine, retribution or being pulled by over-zealous police support officers every 5 minutes…
If this actually happen, I think I read something about Afro eating his hat or something of the sort… Got to go back to the thread about Boris but I think it is there somewhere unless you updated it already 
Thanks mate it’s very much appreciated - looking forward to it (assuming we get the go ahead of course) Size XL please dude!
Va chier!
:laugh:
I have also heard that it is definitely going to happen in January.
But I was also told that the privilege will probably be taken back from us in about 6 months time because of some people riding too fast and accidents, especially with cyclists and pedestrians, increasing in the bus lanes.
Never had a problem with this issue on my commute and its not just me that uses them. All said and done good news though.
So how can we tell the difference between TFL and Borough controlled bus lanes?
As now, you will need to read the blue signs. For example, those that read the signs know that Kingston, Westminster and some other places allow bikes in their bus lanes.
That’s the problem. There’s not many bus lanes in Westminster. But the big one in Park Lane is TFL.
Thats fine if it is, but then there will need to be demands on cyclists to be removed too, thanks to their incesent running of red lights and general ignorance of the rules of the road…
I don’t have a problem with Cyclists. Because when I am one, I break all the rules too. But I treat it just like on a motorcycle in that I try not to put myself in a position where I’m going to get hurt or **** other people off too much.
It’s easy to say cycles shouldn’t be allowed in bus lanes because they slow down the buses. But that’s a bit of a **** take!
I’m a cyclist too - but I don’t run red lights and I dont ride on the pavement and I dont generally act like we live in a lawless society. I personally have no issue with cyclists in bus lanes, it makes sense to me…and I don’t think they should be removed because they are slow, but the original point that bikes will be removed because they are ruining it by breaking the law, should also be applied to cyclists too…
all too often I’m watching as cyclists run red lights at major junctions causing cars to swerve or brake… what if they caused a car to swerve into me on my bike or caused me to brake so hard I dropped the bike? The cyclist might get a slapped wrist, but its not his no claims that he’ll lose if he caused an accident or his bike he’d write off, it would by the motorists…
As I said, I’m a cyclist too and I enjoy riding my bike, but its disappointing when you are sat at a set of lights and 40-50% of the bikes are running through red lights!!!
Bear in mind that lots of bikers are cyclists too.
I don’t break the rules when I cycle, and cus I race cycles I am capable of doing 30mph in bus lanes and can out sprint the buses.
Lots of the top motorbike racers train on bicycles too, in fact they often have articles about them in my cycling magazines.
We are all two wheeled warriors and should stick together. There are good and bad cyclists and the same is true of bikers, it’s true of all types of pursuits.
