Skip to main content

Independent review says most bus lanes should go

An independent review of Liverpool’s bus lanes is recommending that the majority be removed, but four in the city centre will be retained. On a number of other routes, measures such as bus detector loops are recommended. The city’s 26 bus lanes were suspended in October 2013 to monitor and analyse the effects on congestion and traffic flow. Transport consultant Mott MacDonald has carried out the review and their work was supported by groups of elected members, bus operators and the partners.
October 28, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
An independent review of Liverpool’s bus lanes is recommending that the majority be removed, but four in the city centre will be retained. On a number of other routes, measures such as bus detector loops are recommended.

The city’s 26 bus lanes were suspended in October 2013 to monitor and analyse the effects on congestion and traffic flow.

Transport consultant 1869 Mott MacDonald has carried out the review and their work was supported by groups of elected members, bus operators and the partners.

The bus lane review is part of a wider city transport plan which is to be concluded in February 2015, which aims to: Shape the future transport needs of the city; Forecast future demand for all modes of travel; Improve gateway routes, public realm and pedestrianisation; and improve all public transport infrastructure.

Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, said: “I want to make sure that travelling through the city is a quick as possible for all road users. It’s vital for business, for residents, for visitors and I wasn’t convinced our routes were working as well as they could.

“Now for the first time we have robust data about the effects of bus lanes, rather than people’s opinions about how useful or otherwise they are. As a result of this thorough and independent review there a clear recommendations that the majority of bus lanes should be removed which I will honour.

“A number of issues that have emerged during the discussions include the level of indiscriminate parking on some of our key bus lane routes which disrupt traffic flow and we will take measures to prevent this including applying to the 1837 Department for Transport for permission to introduce red routes.

“There have also been discussions about how best we can provide facilities for cyclists. We are spending £80m on upgrading our main gateway routes over the next eight years and we will be looking at cycling measures as part of that.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New York's award-winning traffic control system
    February 28, 2013
    A comprehensive ITS strategy in New York built on a system of key building blocks has been crowned with an IRF award for the city’s Midtown in Motion adaptive control system. Jon Masters reviews New York’s ITS modernisation plan as the city looks to the next phase of expansion. In January this year the International Road Federation (IRF) presented TransCore and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) with the IRF Global Road Achievement Award. This was for deployment of New York’s Midtown in
  • Algorithm ‘can predict train delays two hours ahead’
    September 11, 2015
    A new mathematic algorithm that can predict commuter train delays up to two hours in the future has been developed in Stockholm, Sweden, by the city’s commuter train operator, Stockholmstag, and mathematician Wilhelm Landerholm. The ‘commuter prognosis’ uses big data to visualise the entire commuter train system two hours into the future, simultaneously calculating how the delay affects other trains in the system and automatically providing the information to traffic control centres, enabling them to in
  • COMMENT: Lessons from Bloomberg’s brush with danger
    July 4, 2022
    It’s not often that the ITS sector intersects with the art world, but Bloomberg is having a brush with danger. To explain: during 2020-21, Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Asphalt Art Initiative gave grants to dozens of cities to add a splash of colour to their roads in the form of intersection murals, crosswalk art, painted sidewalk extensions and so on.
  • London’s cycle superhighways get the go ahead
    February 5, 2015
    London’s streets will become more accessible for cyclists now that the Transport for London (TfL) Board has approved plans for the construction of four new cycle superhighways and upgrades to the four existing cycle superhighway routes as part of the Mayor’s Cycling Vision. The schemes, which will cost around US$243 million to deliver between now and the end of 2016, will help treble the number of cycle journeys made over the next ten years and transform London’s streets and spaces to places where cyclis