Ealing scraps motorcycles in bus lanes
Council blames rise in casualties for decision
EALING COUNCIL is to scrap their motorcycles in bus lanes experiment which they started in 2009.
Ealing council state there were significantly more motorcylist casualties, mainly caused by cars turning across bus lanes into side junctions. Original claims for the bus lane trials suggested there would be a 40% safety benefit to motorcyclists, by giving them access to bus lanes.
The council considered data from the London wide experiment on Transport for London roads and data from motorcycle crashes on Ealing roads. The increased casualties in Ealing were similar to those on the TfL roads.
Cycling groups have lobbied against motorcycle access to bus lanes since day one and it seems that they may start to get what they're looking for if other councils follow suit. It's worth noting that in both trials cyclist casualties were higher than expected.
