Cycle lobby’s bus lane legal challenge

Cycle groups are planning a legal bid to have motorcycles booted out of bus lanes.
They are promising court action challenging our access to bus lanes, which they say should be their ‘haven’.

The Cyclists’ Touring Club (CTC) aims to scupper a trial of motorcycles in London bus lanes which is expected to influence whether other areas introduce the measure. 

The group says there is no legal basis for the scheme, which began as an 18-month trial last year and has been extended for a further 18 months. CTC is planning a court challenge along with the London Cycling Campaign (LCC).  

CTC says in its latest newsletter: ‘There is no legal provision for repeating an experimental traffic order once it reaches its 18-month expiry deadline.

‘Otherwise a highway authority could repeat their “experiments” indefinitely, without ever being required to conduct formal public consultation.

‘CTC and the LCC will therefore be seeking to challenge the new experimental order in the courts. Watch this space.’

The campaign newsletter, Cycle Digest, claims: ‘Well-enforced bus lanes are a much valued “safe haven” for cyclists in London, and their benefits need to be recognised as a key principle in cycle planning on urban main roads.’

CTC declined to expand on the nature of the legal challenge.
Read more on this in this week’s MCN, on sale now.