Is revenue the prime concern?

Aug 21 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

WHEN they were first introduced, designated bus lanes sounded fine in theory. The reality, as so often happens, has proved rather different.

Every driver will know the frustration caused when heavy traffic is squeezed into a single lane to create a clear bus route.

That is doubled when impatient drivers take the law into their own hands and use the bus lane to gain a few minutes.

Bus routes can also be confusingly set out, suddenly appearing or disappearing and causing drivers to dodge in and out of lanes without warning.

Under proposals now on the table, however, council officials are to get tough on motorists who use bus lanes to skip traffic.

Cameras are to be placed at three locations in the city centre in a pilot scheme before a possible roll-out across Liverpool. This, needless to say, has provoked a mixed response.

The council’s Labour leader, Cllr Joe Anderson, said it would be seen as another tax and called for a review of bus lanes as they often "cause more problems than they solve".

However, the city’s largest bus operator, Arriva, said it was a "positive step" towards improving the city’s infrastructure, and would make bus travel an even more attractive alternative to the car.

The council stands to make about £230,000 a year from the three initial cameras, rising to more than £1m if the scheme is rolled out to an additional 10 cameras.

Many motorists will suspect this is the real motivation for such a scheme, rather than any concern over addressing the city’s pressing transport concerns. In some places, there seems little justification for designated lanes that are only infrequently used by buses, while reducing capacity for everyone else.

In others, it is the sheer volume of buses carrying only a minuscule number of passengers which contribute to the congestion. As such, council officials will have their work cut out persuading the public that this is anything other than a moneyraising scheme.