Brighton and Hove City Council have recently started a trial in selected bus lanes to have motorcyclists using them too. Are you looking out for them?
This week is Motorcycle Awareness Week, and to mark this campaign, Brighton & Hove City Council are reminding drivers at key junctions on the Lewes Road to check their nearside mirrors for motorcycles in the bus lanes before turning left into side roads.
The council is staging an 18-month trial permitting mopeds, scooters and motorbikes in the A270 Lewes Road. They will be allowed in the bus lanes between the Vogue Gyratory and Stony Mere Way near Sussex University. The signs are part of a wider awareness campaign addressing all road users and their message will be reflected on electronic message boards across the city this month.
The trial began on the 6th of May, with officers from the Sussex Police Roads Policing Unit escorting members of the Brighton Motorcycle Action Group and riders from the blood and organ motorcycle courier charity Serv Sussex along the length of the bus lanes to raise public awareness.
The trial follows the successful introduction in 2014 of motorcycles into two other main bus lanes in the city – on the A23 London Road and the A259 Rottingdean Road.
The council stresses only these three bus lanes are open to motorcycles. They are marked with special signs depicting both a motorcycle and a bus. Riders should stay out of all other bus lanes in the city. Junctions have been given distinctive red markings warning drivers to expect moving traffic in bus lanes. Lane changing behaviour, speed and safety impacts will be monitored throughout the trial, with an emphasis on motorcycles, cyclists and pedestrians.
