I’m a bit confused, when the debate was ‘opening bus lanes for motorcycle users’, i assumed this meant opening all the bus lanes for motorcycle use, the clue’s in the title is’nt it?. I did however drive through london today and did not see many sign’s changed to include the motorbike image. Can i assume all bus lanes within the city centre are open for our use and that Tfl have yet to get around to changing the signs? or is it just a select few that are open and if the signs not there then dont enter? I’ve looked at the maps on the link above and it seems there are only a few sections open or is it just red routes with bus lanes?
You must check for the signs as you can easily be caught out as not all red routes are open to bikes. For example, there is a TFL Red Route Bus Lane running along the A219 Morden Road from its Junction with Merantum Way to its junction with Merton High Street at South Wimbledon Tube.
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.412203,-0.190244&spn=0.011563,0.02547&z=16
This route has no bikes on the bus lane signs from the junction with Jubilee Way (ie on the A24 before you get to Merantum Way) and this section of road is not on TFL’s list and is not shown on the TFL bikes in bus lane maps.
I have no idea why this road has been exempted from the scheme, unless it has just been overlooked when drawing up the order. It is a very busy road that is always congested so a lot of bikes will be tempted into that bus lane.
This will be very cofusing as all the other A24 bus lanes are open to bikes and this road is effectively a straight line continuation of an open bus lane.
BTW. i noticed this morning on the A24/A3 that several bus lane signs have been re-sited so they are hidden behind other signs, and one in Kennington has been placed to hide a speed camera!
All we gotta do now is convince Boris it’d be ok to run a red light when turning left at a junction… If cyclists can do it…