Banned from bus lanes despite fall in crash rate

Transport planners decided to scrap a trial of motorcyclists in bus lanes despite concluding it led to a fall in their collision rate.

Motorcycles are blamed for a rise in pedal bike collisions – even though there haven’t actually been any crashes between motorbikes and cycles.

MCN revealed last month how Ealing Borough Council had decided to scrap its trial after concluding: ‘Whilst there were no direct collisions between a motorcycle and a pedal cycle, it is suggested that there must be a causal link given that the only change between the data-sets was the motorcycle experiment.’

Now the council has finally supplied the accident data two weeks after MCN’s initial request for it.

The data shows the motorcycle collision rate fell, but has also been criticised for failing to measure how much motorbike use increased in the trial.

The report shows the number of motorbike collisions in bus lane routes rose from 12 in 2008, the year before the trial started, to 15 in 2009.

It concludes: ‘The total number of motorcycle collisions in Ealing in 2008 was 139. This increased to 195 in 2009. Hence the rate of collisions in bus lanes went from 8.6% to 7.7%.’

The British Motorcyclists Federation’s Jeff Stone said: “What they have given isn’t a rate. It’s just the number of collisions in bus lanes as a percentage of all motorcycle collisions in the area.”

The council said in a written statement: ‘Our over-riding concern is for the safety of all road users,’

Read more in MCN, on sale tomorrow.