Taxi Driver Online

Green light for minicabs in bus lanes

Next time you see a minicab whizzing up the road in the bus lane – don’t shake your fist.

If the private hire vehicle driver is coming into town from the east via Kings Road then he will be entirely within his rights to use the bus lane – for now.

Reading Borough Council cabinet agreed on Monday to an experimental scheme to allow minicabs to join the black taxis and buses in that bus lane for six months.

The experiment, which will start at the end of this month, can be conducted thanks to the bus lane enforcement cameras – the only ones in use in the country outside London.

The council agreed to install the cameras in Kings Road and Station Hill in December 2005 and these have been working successfully since then.

A new digital camera with even clearer images means the council can now distinguish between private hire vehicles and ordinary saloon cars which will continue to be banned from the bus lane.

Private hire associations have been lobbying the borough council for some time to be allowed to use the bus lanes.

Trials in Luton, Norwich and Birmingham are already underway to allow the private hire minicabs to use the bus lane along with the Hackney carriages.

The camera in Kings Road provides the council with an opportunity to allow an experiment to go ahead to see whether the wider use of bus lanes by minicabs would be practicable.

Lead councillor for strategic planning and transport John Howarth said private hire and Hackney carriages were doing “largely the same job”.

He said: “Now we have the enforcement cameras it is a good time to try this.”

Although the trial will be carried out 24 hours a day, council officers will be particularly monitoring rush hours to ensure the extra vehicles do not hold up the buses.

The council will receive a full review of the experiment after three months.

In the short term, officers will be putting up black and yellow signs on the approaches to the bus lane setting out which types of vehicle are allowed to use it.

The council will be seeking advice from the Department for Transport on more permanent signage if the experiment is a success.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Manchester have them, in fact many cab drivers have been given pcn notices. Watch out for buses and cycle lane only?

Regards

JD

Well done to the council, and to all those involved.

See it can be done without shouting your big fat trap off.

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IDFIMH