Bus Lanes Review welcomed

9th June, 2016

The Bus lanes review led by Ross has been widely welcomed. We investigated how effectively the bus lanes are operating in Leicester, as there is not a consistent policy across the city.

All are enforced by the police but we have some city centre camera enforcement. And some are operated 24 hours and some are peak hours only.

The five-member group of councillors sought evidence to evaluate the success of the bus lane network, which has been the subject of major investment in recent years.

Its findings were supported by the city council’s Economic Development, Transport and Tourism Scrutiny Commission.

Our report concluded that Bus lanes provide benefits to bus travellers and other road users in Leicester – particularly in predictable and decreased journey times than there would be without them.

They help to make bus travel a more attractive option.

Arriva has welcomed the findings of a review into the effectiveness bus lanes across in use across Leicester, which showed they had been successful in improving journey times and reliability for bus users

The investigation, conducted by the Bus Lanes Task Group, found that the introduction of the bus lanes was having major benefits for bus passengers and other road users in Leicester, resulting in an increase bus patronage and improved safety conditions for the city’s cyclists.

Simon Mathieson, Area Managing Director for Arriva Midlands East, said: “Over recent years, congestion has been increasing at a rapid rate across the city, which is having a detrimental effect on not only on road users but also on the environment.

“At Arriva, we constantly strive to provide cleaner, greener, more efficient services which give people greater choice when making decisions about transport. We firmly believe that the introduction of the bus lanes in Leicester has helped make those decisions even easier, positioning public transport as a more attractive journey choice by cutting congestion by encouraging more people out of their cars.

“The findings of this review not only back our sentiments on the issue, but give us a platform from which we can work with our partners at the Council to continue building on this initial success.”

Arriva also noted that the support of their local authority partners had enabled greater investment into their Leicester network, resulting in an overall improvement to customer experience. later this year.

The City mayor also welcomed the review and promised an action plan to implement it’s findings.