Author Archives: Cheryl Brown

Government’s response to the Motorcycles in Bus Lanes Consultation has been published

The safety benefits of allowing motorcycles into bus lanes are not clear. Where data is available, the evidence varies. The response rate to this consultation from local authorities and stakeholder organisations was low and did not provide a robust evidence base to amend current policy.

To form the evidence base for a change in policy, further research would be needed into the:

  • safety impacts of allowing motorcycles into bus lanes
  • impact on bus services

As a result, there is little justification for moving away from a position of local authority choice to one in which allowing motorcycles to use bus lanes is the default.

The consultation did highlight issues of uncertainty in urban areas where permissions change frequently at borough boundaries. We will work with local authorities to achieve greater consistency in these areas.

Find out more at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/motorcycles-in-bus-lanes

European Council: ‘Motorcycle Safety Must Be Part Of Road Safety Procedures’

The European ministers for transport have agreed to reform and strengthen road infrastructure management rules at a recent meeting held in Brussels.

The Council of the European Union agreed its position to strengthen road infrastructure management to reduce road fatalities and serious injuries.

The reform of the Road Infrastructure Safety Management Directive will extend the scope of the current rules to motorways and other primary roads beyond the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). This will contribute significantly to the improvement of road infrastructure safety across the European Union. The directive would also cover roads outside urban areas that are built using EU funding (which is something FEMA has been lobbying for extensively).

It will become mandatory to take account of vulnerable road users such as motorcyclists in road safety management procedures.

The proposal introduces a network-wide road safety assessment, which is a snapshot of the entire road network covered by the directive used to evaluate accident risk. Authorities will use the findings to carry out more targeted road safety inspections or take direct remedial action. It will become mandatory to take systematic account of pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users such as motorcyclists and other users of powered two-wheelers in road safety management procedures. These road users accounted for almost half of road fatalities in the EU in 2017.

To find out more visit: http://www.fema-online.eu/website/index.php/2018/12/04/european-council-motorcycle-safety/