§ 9. Mr. Peter Bruinvelsasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the Government's policy towards the introduction of bus lanes.
§ Mrs. Lynda ChalkerBus lanes must be shown to give a net benefit to the community and their total local impact taken into account.
§ Mr. BruinvelsI thank my hon. Friend for that answer. Is she aware that bus lanes are a totally useless facility for the motorist, totally counter-productive, cause snarl-ups, and achieve the opposite to what they are supposed to achieve. They delay motorists trying to get to their place of work, and in council and city areas such as Leicester and the GLC they are supposed to deter motorists and encourage buses, although they achieve neither result.
§ Mrs. ChalkerI agree with my hon. Friend that where bus lanes have no net benefit to travellers across the area they cannot be in the interests of those travellers. That is why it is clearly not sensible to install bus lanes in a doctrinaire fashion. They must be properly designed and conceived if they are to succeed.