John Rowland wrote:

Seems dangerous and unneccessary to me. I've never driven a motorbike, but
their ability to overtake all stationary traffic means they effectively
carry their own bus lane with them anyway. Putting them in bus lanes will
encourage them to do 60mph, skidding into the side of all the idiot car
drivers who pull out of side roads ignoring what is in the bus lane and
what speed it is doing. A bus lane is a very dangerous place to be unless
you are driving a heavy vehicle such as a bus, London-style taxi or HGV.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7811062.stm


Technically speaking it is an 18 month trial - actually, being specific, it
is an "experimental traffic order" which "must remain in place for a minimum
of six months and a maximum of 18 months" - here is the relevant TfL
webpage, which in turn links to a fairly comprehensive PDF of questions and
answers:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/fine...ons/10151.aspx

Here is a special page about the scheme on the BikeSafe-London website,
which includes a code of practice for motorcyclists and makes clear that an
increase in accidents during this trial period may lead to the withdrawal of
this privilege:
http://www.bikesafe-london.co.uk/buslaneriding.html

It should also be noted that this change only applies to bus lanes on red
routes, because they are the only roads that TfL has direct control over -
the others are the responsibility of the Boroughs.

I am a cyclist, and I too am not and have never been a motorcyclist though
friends are and I've ridden pillion with them many times. I cycle in London
regularly, though perhaps not as much as I should and as I have in the past.
I am going to take the perhaps somewhat unorthodox position from a cyclist's
stance of having an open mind on this one.

I've never had any particular trouble with motorbikes when cycling, at least
nothing I can recall. I've often been at traffic lights at the cyclists
advanced stop position ahead of the traffic and shared it with motorcyclists
who technically shouldn't have been there but their presence didn't cause
any problems. If motorcyclists can make use of the bus lane responsibly and
give cyclists a wide berth then perhaps this can work too

I understand that this initiative comes as a result of a study done by TfL
into the experiments on stretches of the A13, A23 and A41 which allowed solo
motorcyclists to use bus lanes - as well as better traffic flow the other
contention was that it would actually increase safety for motorbike riders
and hence for other road users. Here's a November '04 progress report on
these experiments (PDF):
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...04-results.pdf

I only glanced at it quickly and there's likely to be other documents on the
TfL website relating to this too. (It's interesting to note that the
document says LB Richmond and LB Kingston were also conducting similar
trials on their own Borough roads.)

I haven't followed this issue that closely, but one of the things Boris'
camp were saying during the election was that Ken was suppressing a TfL
report that concluded allowing motorbikes in bus lanes was indeed a workable
concept. I don't know the details of this supposedly suppressed document
however, and stuff said in the heat of an election campaign should of course
be taken with a bag of salt anyway.

If however the essence of that was correct, and Ken had got cold feet on the
whole idea, then there is of course another side to this debate - that of
cyclists and their perception. The past 10-15 years has seen a vast increase
in the number of people cycling in London, with a particular upward trend in
recent years - it's not at all hard to imagine that many of these cyclists
would treat the notion of motorbikes being allowed into bus lanes with
extreme wariness (and indeed that very opinion has been strongly expressed
by many cyclists and cycling groups).

In this context changing the rules on motorbikes in bus lanes might very
well have negative connotations for encouraging cycling and increasing yet
more its take up amongst Londoners, especially when one bears in mind the
many new cyclists who inevitably lack some of the confidence and experience
that is gained by older hands. I would suggest that it would be these
concerns that the former Mayor may have given precedence to, if indeed he
had gone cold on the whole idea.

It's all a very interesting issue, and it is political in the most basic
sense - road space is a limited resource, and divvying it up - or rather I
should say working out how best to share it - between all the competing
demands is no easy task and inevitably requires a degree of compromise, as
well as that of leadership (i.e. get out the car and on to the bus/ your
bike/ your motorbike etc).