Bus Lanes (Hansard, 30 November 1987)

§ 2. Mr. Couchman
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans he has to alleviate the traffic congestion in south-east London arising from bus lanes.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr. Peter Bottomley)
We shall shortly be issuing new advice on the design and assessment of with-flow bus lanes. Well designed but lanes should not increase overall delays to traffic.

§ Mr. Couchman
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that answer, which is more positive than I expected. Does he agree that it makes little sense to halve the carriage width of our most important radial routes into London—an extreme example is the flyover on the Old Kent road where four lanes merge into one — particularly when motorists seem not to understand how to use bus lanes, treating them as no-go areas for 24 hours a day instead of the period for which they are intended?

§ Mr. Bottomley
Yes, Sir. There is little dispute that most bus lanes work well. Some are under review and we are considering introducing more on trunk roads.

§ Mr. Simon Hughes
Does the Minister agree that the way to ensure that traffic flows well through south-east London is to police bus lanes to ensure that they are not used for parking, which causes enormous congestion? Does he agree that the second way is to ensure that London Transport has sufficient resources to run regular, efficient bus and other transport services to reduce the massive volume of private traffic and heavy lorries which clog up main routes, such as the Old Kent road in my constituency? We need improved public transport, not more private transport.

§ Mr. Bottomley
The hon. Gentleman's constituency and the rest of London need economic prosperity, but it is difficult to achieve increased prosperity, more jobs and environmental relief without some money being spent on roads. The hon. Gentleman will be pleased to know that trunk road capital expenditure in London this year is £85 million and underground capital expenditure £200 million. Most trunk road spending is on docklands and east London to help improve that area so that the rest of London does not benefit from all the economic prosperity.

§ Mr. Harry Greenway
Is my hon. Friend aware that bus lanes are slowing commercial traffic and increasing prices substantially? Is he further aware of the former Labour-controlled GLC's ban on heavy lorries? Can he say what the ban has cost in terms of the number of notices issued and the number of lorries banned?

§ Mr. Bottomley
I can give the factual answer to that, without giving a judgment on the lorry ban. Two thousand signs were erected and 20,000 permits with 10 pages each, making 200,000 pages of permits, were issued. The cost was £250,000 and I think that the GLC told us that four lorries were banned.

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. Stick to the question please.

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
Will the Minister confirm that, at the moment, bus lanes save London Transport about £7 million? Will he further confirm that if those lanes were properly policed they would save up to £48 million and that that would help considerably to lower fares, get the public on to buses, decrease congestion on London's roads and do something serious about the general state of congestion in London?

§ Mr. Bottomley
It is worth repeating that most of the bus lanes are not controversial. My right hon. Friend expects boroughs to give priority to public transport vehicles over other classes of traffic when that is justified on overall economic grounds. That should be acceptable to both sides of the House.