Bus Lanes

Coventry council is reviewing bus lanes in the city with the intention or removing those which "cause undesirable congestion or pose hazards".

Bus lanes also serve as useful cycle lanes, ensuring that drivers allow sufficient space when overtaking cyclists. So if any are removed consideration should be given to providing a wide cycle lane as a replacement.

On some single carriageway roads there's a bus lane in only one direction, with the rest of the traffic squeezed into two narrow lanes (one for each direction). Such narrow lanes pose a hazard to cyclists travelling on the opposite side of the road from the bus lane as motorists cannot safely overtake without encroaching into the oncoming traffic lane. Motorists are often wary of doing this and are tempted to pass cyclists too closely.

Whilst recognising that bus lanes often allow bus passengers to avoid the worst of the congestion caused by motorists, there are places where they are not much use. Just as a number of things labelled "cycle facility" don't really benefit cyclists, it would not be a surprise to me if there were a number of useless bus priority measures.

Send any comments for the bus lane review to
trafficmanagement@coventry.gov.uk