§ Mr.HammondTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will publish figures indicating the average usage, on an hour-by-hour basis, of the M4 eastbound bus lane between Heathrow and the elevated section, for the most recent period for which figures are available. [147388]
§ Mr.HillAs the hon. Member may be aware, the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has been monitoring the usage of the M4 bus lane for the Highways Agency. The most recent period for which TRL has provided figures of average usage on an hour-by-hour basis is the week beginning 5 June 2000. Those figures are as follows:
379W
Time of day Taxi Minibus Bus/coach Total 00:00 7 0 0 1 01:00 2 0 0 2 02:00 1 0 0 1 03:00 1 0 1 2 04:00 2 0 3 5 05:00 42 2 8 52 06:00 193 10 21 224 07:00 286 17 43 346 08:00 238 11 30 279 09:00 253 9 39 301 10:00 259 9 45 313 11:00 188 7 33 228 12:00 200 10 32 242 13:00 190 7 29 226 14:00 181 8 28 217 15:00 175 5 23 203 16:00 211 9 48 268 17:00 205 8 46 259 18:00 242 6 28 276 19:00 242 4 17 263 20:00 231 4 13 248 21:00 238 3 10 251 22:00 178 2 8 188 23:00 64 0 3 67 Total 3,829 131 508 4,468 On average, 3,700 vehicles per day used the bus lane during the first year of operation. It is worth noting that, while this represents an average of 7 per cent. of the traffic on the M4 in to London, the vehicles carried 21 per cent. of the people using the road. During peak periods, each bus has saved on average 3.5 minutes and each car has saved on average 1 minute. Journey times for all vehicles have become more reliable following the introduction of the bus lane.
A copy of a report entitled, "Monitoring of the M4 Bus Lane: The First Year" prepared by TRL for the Highways Agency covering the first year of operation from June 1999 to May 2000 is available in the House of Commons Library. A synopsis of the report with the same title is also in the Library and it is available on the Highways Agency's website.