A seafront bus lane that was introduced under an experimental traffic order is going to stay.
The bus lane was introduced by Brighton and Hove City Council in Marine Parade between Rock Place and Broad Street in March last year.
Last Thursday (8 May), the council said that the bus lane would become a permanent fixture after a six-month consultation as part of an experimental traffic order.
The lane was funded out of a £28 million grant given to the council by the Department for Transport for the Bus Service Improvement Plan in 2022.
Before the bus lane was created under the experimental order, almost 900 people responded to a public consultation held in May and June 2024.
Around half of all comments said that the bus lane should be made longer and a third of responders thought it would speed up journeys.
The lane resulted in the loss parking bays on the south side of Marine Parade and a loading bay restricted from 6am to 6pm and then used for taxies overnight.
More deliberately engineered congestion.
Thank you , BHCC!
Congestion is caused by too many people using too many cars when a perfectly good bus service exists. Personally, I welcome this initiative but would welcome cheaper fares.
Ah – the standard comment from pro-cycling, motorist-demonising, activists that we gave come to expect.
Could also say that VG3, with it’s obsession of pandering to groups such as Bricycles, is the problem.
I remember when the OSR cycle lane extension caused congestion and increased pollution and the cycling groups said it was the motorists fault and they should cycle instead. Thankfully that genius scheme got removed.
Will be interesting to see quantitative figures on how well cyclists use the new facilities and whether they give priority to pedestrians at crossing points.
For me it’s just more encouragement to drive elsewhere and only visit Brighton when I absolutely have to.
Actually if you look at the OSR cycle lane failure you will see now that there isn’t half as much congestion as there was when it was there so that is all the proof you need. Like the seafront the congestion is a lot worse now due to the cycle lane than it was before but that is what happens when you make a two lane road and one lane road. All the evidence is there but certain groups and councilor friends if those groups do not want to see it.
I wonder what the quantitative results of the “experimental order” was?
What was the feedback from road users?
Did the council have before and after monitoring of traffic flows, and did this achieve defined objectives?
Yet again a manufactured ‘consultation’ where we all knew they were not going to reverse the horrendously bad decision to create this ‘bus lane’, which has done nothing to speed up the buses that use that stretch of Marine Parade. Yet another waste of taxpayers’ money. Instead, the congestion has moved down towards and past Lower Rock, with traffic now trying to merge before they have to, causing actual delays in buses before they get to the bus lane. In addition, am often seeing additional delays in traffic turning right from Lower Rock, and we have on many occasions spent far too long trying to get along that stretch of road since the introduction of the bus lane – both in cars and buses. You are then having to contend with buses trying to get out of the bus lane to go into the right hand lanes, again, causing additional congestion issues. It is ill-thought out, badly done and once again shows this administration failing to listen to residents and businesses.