Despite being pro-bicycle, Boris announced yesterday that motorcycles will be allowed to share bus lanes with buses and cyclists. Making good on his campaign promise, the mayor has made his decision based on trials run in Bristol as well as on East India Dock Road, Streatham High Street/Brixton Hill/Brixton Road, and Finchley Road. Boris claims that not only has the change not made the roads any more dangerous, it will actually lead to a reduction in motoring-related fatalities.
The London Cycling Campaign isn’t pleased. The LCC has been campaigning against this measure for sometime now, and contradicts the mayor’s claims that the roads will still be safe if those on "powered two wheelers" are allowed into bus lanes. According to research they cite by the CTC, motorcyclists and others of their ilk are 1.5 times as likely as cars to be involved in a crash with a cyclist and three times as likely to kill a cyclist in a crash.
This bicycling Londonista isn’t thrilled either, as there are already regular examples on the road of those on motorbikes who swerve into bus and cycle lanes and take up space in the bicycle-designated areas at traffic lights (no, not all motorcyclists do this, but not all cyclist wear Lycra and jump red lights either). But, with the new law, perhaps the principles of sharing the road will help diffuse some bitterness. Though you have to wonder how bus drivers feel about this.
Image courtesy of McTumshie via the Londonist Flickrpool.
