A two-mile bus and cycle lane, taking up half of a dual carriageway into Brighton, has been hailed a success by the city council who say bicycle and sustainable transport is significantly increased.
The road, which connects Brighton to towns and villages to the north east of the city, is a busy commuter route with frequent rush-hour traffic jams.
But the council says that since the new lane was built, the number of cars and lorries using the stretch between 7am and 7pm has decreased by 13 per cent, down from 18,377 to 16,035, as compared with the period October-November last year.
Brighton and Hove City Council spent £1.9 million and 10 months widening the bus and cycle lanes along the two mile stretch, with the work completed in September. The work saw half of the dual carriageway made into wide bus and bike lanes in each direction between the Vogue Gyratory and Falmer.
Cyclist numbers are up 14 per cent, with daily numbers of cyclists increased from 2085 to 2383.
Bus passenger numbers are up 7 per cent, but despite increased numbers, both operating companies in the city report better punctuality, and taxi use was up 40 per cent.
Despite a decrease in the amount of room for private cars on the road, the council says each car journey is only taking an average of a minute or so longer, although this has been disputed by a number of frustrated drivers.
Lead councillor for transport Ian Davey said: “It is still early days but already the scheme appears to be delivering exactly what we promised.
“More people are using buses, taxis and bikes to travel along this key route because it’s now safer and more reliable. And for those people who need to drive there has been only a small average increase in rush hour journey times.
“As word gets around I would expect more people to make the switch to cycling, buses and taxis.
“I’m particularly pleased that taxi numbers on the route appear to be increasing. Bus lanes provide rapid travel for cabs too so hopefully that’s helping boost their business.”
Brighton & Hove bus company is selling a week’s travel on the buses for £9.99, rather than £12.50 to celebrate the success of the scheme.
Have to agree about reviewing the footage as what att he time seems close can be very different on camera and thats what a court will see. it does...
Shock as £500k Ferrari SF90 crashes head-on into row of parked cars in Halesowen...
Cast is very brittle
What could be could be causing this flooding, is it the blocked drains? No, it's definitely that line of white paint near the side of the road!
I've not bothered to read the comments under the JV Emergency vehicle tweet but I guarantee there would be so many of them stating that without the...
This. Everybody needs a bike they're willing to leave locked outside the pub without worrying about losing it.
Might not be disingenuous at all. As I learned on road.cc "road safety expert" means "expensive self-publicist lawyer"....
Come on, Chris, I think you are smarter than this, and can do better....
By his logic on overtaking bikes they'd have to wait there forever - even if you could see the other lane was clear for miles ahead - until there...
Don't advertise and the trade will go elsewhere.