Action Briefing Apr 2005 - May 2005
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Bus lanes: NOW do you get it?

A petition in support of the Tyburn Road bus lane signed by 2000 number 67 bus users was presented to Birmingham City Council's full council meeting on 5th April by Birmingham Friends of the Earth, Bus Users UK and Transport 2000.

As you will recall, Cllr Len Gregory, Cabinet Member for Transport and Street Services, saw fit to prolong the temporary suspension of the Tyburn Road bus lanes with a view to making the suspension permanent (see Action Briefing Feb-Mar 2005). As a result, passengers on Route 67 have had to suffer late and sometimes cancelled buses as the once free-flowing bus lanes became choked with traffic. No-one had thought to ask the passengers how they felt about this until we joined forces with Bus Users UK and Transport 2000 West Midlands to launch the petition. Travelling on the 67 buses with our clipboards and talking to passengers, we uncovered overwhelming support for bringing the bus lanes back; most 67 bus users were only too glad to sign.

On the morning of 22nd March, armed with placards and a giant bus ticket proclaiming 'bus lanes are just the ticket', we presented the 2000-signature petition to Cllr Kath Hartley (Labour, Ladywood) who sits on the West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority and gave our campaign her full support. After posing for local press photographers at the 67 bus terminus on Corporation Street, we mustered our placards and made our way to Birmingham City Council’s annual Transport Summit to see what else Len Gregory had up his sleeve. The issue of bus lanes cropped up several times, one of the most contentious issues of the day.

Following our action, the petition was formally presented to the full council meeting by Cllr Hartley. Copies of the petition have also been sent to Secretary of State for Transport Alistair Darling, his Liberal Democrat and Conservative counterparts, and Centro. A decision will be made about the future of the Tyburn Road bus lanes later in April.

No lane, no gain
Our worry is that the Tyburn Road shenanigans could be merely the thin end of the wedge: dark mutterings have been issuing from the Council about allowing cars carrying more than two people (high occupancy vehicles or HOVs) and/or heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) to share the bus lane, and Cllr Gregory has promised to 'review' bus lanes in other parts of Birmingham. Will we see more bus priority measures compromised elsewhere in the City?

Allowing high-occupancy cars and HGVs into bus lanes would undermine bus priority and create operational conflicts (buses have very different movement patterns to HGV’s and cars). Such a system would do little to ease congestion or pollution and be impossible to police, especially along the Tyburn Road; if a simple bus lanes cannot be adequately enforced, how can we expect HOV lanes to be? Transport for London enforce hundreds of bus lanes using cameras, which works quite well.

We hope the City Council will reinstate the bus lanes on the Tyburn Road and introduce yet more bus lanes and bus priority measures on other routes. Properly enforced bus lanes within existing road space, along with bus priority measures at junctions, will help the City breathe more easily and cut our greenhouse gas emissions. Bus lanes benefit everybody, not just bus users; other towns and cities across the country realise this and are reaping the rewards. So why can't we?

Martin Stride

Take action
Write to your local councillor at the Council House, Victoria Square, B1 1BB, emphasising the importance of and your support for properly enforced bus lanes within existing road space; ask your councillor what their position is on this issue.

In addition, you could ask which roads will have traffic calming measures removed as part of the 'Blue Route' strategy. Copy your letter to Cllr Len Gregory and let us know if you receive a reply. You can email your councillor from www.birmingham.gov.uk/members