We are campaigning to expand motorcycle access to bus lanes, but we need your help! The decision to allow bikes in bus lanes is down to local authorities, so we are looking for people from different regions to talk to their local councillors about this issue.

If you wish to help, please find out who is your local authority by entering your postcode here on the gov.uk website, you should be able to find out who manages the roads and pavements. Once you have found the contact information for your local councillor, please write to them outlining why you feel that motorcycles should be allowed in bus lanes. If you are unsure of who to contact, please contact us and we may be able to help.

Some things you may wish to include:

• How motorcycle access to bus lanes can help to reduce congestion in higher-traffic areas – you may wish to include your knowledge of local roads where this would be beneficial.

• Reduced congestion means lower emissions and less time spent on the road.

• Motorcyclists generally feel safer riding in a bus lane.

• Less confusion for riders and drivers – consistency between local authority rules will reduce risk of fines for riders, and keep everyone safer. For example, in London bikes are allowed in bus lanes on roads managed by Transport for London (TfL), but each borough has their own rules so inconsistency is a real issue.

• A trial run by TfL shows that motorcycle access to bus lanes does not correlate to any significant increase in motorcycle collisions, and in fact many motorcyclists reduced their speed (Please see Motorcycles in bus lanes final report for more info).

• A report on attitudes to the TfL trial illustrates that the majority of other road users either support allowing motorcyclists to use bus lanes, or were indifferent (see Motorcycles in Bus Lanes – Final Customer Research Report).

• Counties such as West Yorkshire are including motorcycles in their local transport plans (see page 39 of transport-strategy for more info).

Let us know how you get on, and if you need help do not hesitate to contact us.

Further information and useful contacts

Previous article Bikes in Bus Lanes – British Motorcyclists Federation

The petition raised by Dr Mirza Ahmad can be found here

Anna Zee – Political & Technical Services Director

Jim Freeman – BMF Chair

Written by Emily Rochester – BMF Government Relations Executive Trainee

Top image courtesy of MCN

In article image courtesy of Google images