Motorcycles, Bus Lanes and the Mayor

I’ve never much liked Ken Livingstone – even when I was a paid up member of the Labour party. He is a supercilious, self-serving little creep who will snuggle up to some of the most obnoxious company if he deems it worth his political while to do so. His latest shenanigans tends to confirm my negative opinion of this unpleasant little man.

Despite the evidence that it is a good thing, he has vetoed the use of motorcycles in bus lanes for London. I’ll let the BMF explain (quoted from Rider Magazine – no online version, sorry):

The BMF has accused London Mayor Ken Livingston’s office of putting motorcyclists’ lives at risk by failing to authorise the use of London’s bus lanes by motorcycles. The BMF will now be making a formal complaint against the Mayor who is also Chairman of Transport for London (TfL)

A little bit of background to the whole thing; motorcycles in bus lanes has something of a precedent down here in Bristol. It has been about a decade since the scheme was trialled – despite vigorous opposition from cycling groups who argued at the time that allowing other vehicles to use these lanes would place cyclists at risk. The trial was a success and cyclists were not mown down willy-nilly by nasty speeding motorcyclists, and over a ten year period the two groups have coexisted alongside buses rather well. As a member of both groups (although I am temporarily without a bicycle), I am more than happy with the arrangement; it is good for vulnerable road users who are now in a lane away from most other traffic and it is good for pedestrians who can now see bikes that would otherwise be shielded from them when they try to cross a clogged road. Winners all round, in fact.

So, what is happening with the TfL report; what does it conclude?

The report (the findings of which have not been disputed) shows that accidents were nearly halved over a three-year period on two trial routes where motorcycles were allowed into bus lanes. In fact it found that when motorcycles were allowed access to bus lanes, it proved safer for all users including pedestrians, cyclists, car drivers and motorcyclists, with a 42 per cent fall in the overall rate of collisions

So… surely the Mayor would welcome this, no? No, indeed, it seems…

Commenting on reports that Mayoral staff have now ordered a re-write of the report to avoid a green back-lash from the cycle lobby, the BMF says that this is like living in a dictatorship where everything is manipulated to suit the state.

So let’s get this straight; the Mayor orders a report. The report findings do not suit his political prejudices so he orders a “rewrite”. Jesus, I thought this man was an obnoxious little shit, but this is like some banana republic, like, say, oh, I don’t know… Venezuela, perhaps…

It may be worth noting that other mayoral candidates support the use of bus lanes for motorcycles and are not going to be persuaded by the vociferous (and wrong) cycle lobby. Boris, for example:

I want to encourage people to get out of their cars and use other forms of transport but we must make it easier for them to do so. I want to get London moving and this is one of a raft of initiatives that I will take.

Kevin Ash also comments on this abuse of power by the tin-pot dictator in the town hall.

I don’t live in London and rarely ride there, so have no vote come May. However, if you do – motorcyclist or not – do you want to vote for a man who suppresses reports that provide the “wrong” answer? Really?

I’ll leave the final word to Jeff Stone – again, quoted from Rider magazine:

These findings match what we know from elsewhere and I find it bizarre that an expensive report set up to establish the facts has confirmed what we have been saying – but has been suppressed because it doesn’t suit. This smacks of political interference from the highest level.

Indeed.

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Update: There is a response from TfL on Kevin Ash’s article that is worth pointing out:

When an early draft of this report was put together we found that there were significant methodological issues as well as irregularities in the way data had been collected. This meant the validity of these early results was questionable. Further investigation of the data has now been carried out and the report is due to be published shortly. The Mayor will need to examine the full contents of the report and the trial results before taking a decision.

Frankly, I’ll be taking this with a huge pinch of salt. Firstly, if they got the methodology wrong, they are admitting to incompetence (as opposed to duplicity), a fairly standard NuLab trick of late. Secondly, the evidence remains overwhelming (a decade’s worth of it in Bristol). No matter what the methodology for data collection – bikes and bus lanes work.