My local cycle campaign group in North London did a couple of cycle counts on one of the roads where the pilot scheme to allow motorbikes in bus lanes from January.
We counted cyclists and motorbikes in the bus lane (currently illegally). There were around 300 cyclists and 39 motorbikes. We also counted the number of cyclists waiting in an ASL and the number of motorbikes that illegally entered the ASL after the red light was showing (essentially red-light jumping). We counted 181 and 56 motorbikes. The count was for an hour and a half from 8.00am to 9.30am.
We also observed that on a few occasions the motorbikes had positioned themselves in such a way to block access to the ASL for cyclists. This was not done deliberately but did prevent legitimate users from entering the ASL.
Now I am aware that on here and elsewhere there has been much discussion about the efficacy or otherwise of ASLs, and quite frequently they are little used by cyclists either because they cannot safely get to them or because they have jumped the lights.
However I feel that there is a danger that if we do not make legitimate use of the space on the road given over to us, then we will lose it to other users such as motorbikes. I feel that we need to make sure that we fully occupy the ASL when we can safely do so, rather than jump the lights.
This is not a discussion about redlight jumping but more about the need to preserve our space on the roads.
We counted cyclists and motorbikes in the bus lane (currently illegally). There were around 300 cyclists and 39 motorbikes. We also counted the number of cyclists waiting in an ASL and the number of motorbikes that illegally entered the ASL after the red light was showing (essentially red-light jumping). We counted 181 and 56 motorbikes. The count was for an hour and a half from 8.00am to 9.30am.
We also observed that on a few occasions the motorbikes had positioned themselves in such a way to block access to the ASL for cyclists. This was not done deliberately but did prevent legitimate users from entering the ASL.
Now I am aware that on here and elsewhere there has been much discussion about the efficacy or otherwise of ASLs, and quite frequently they are little used by cyclists either because they cannot safely get to them or because they have jumped the lights.
However I feel that there is a danger that if we do not make legitimate use of the space on the road given over to us, then we will lose it to other users such as motorbikes. I feel that we need to make sure that we fully occupy the ASL when we can safely do so, rather than jump the lights.
This is not a discussion about redlight jumping but more about the need to preserve our space on the roads.
often obstructive because they block access for cyclists.
