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Derek Hatton says Liverpool plan to scrap bus lanes will make cyclists less safe Liverpool's Liver Building (CC licensed by digitalurbanlandscape)

Derek Hatton says Liverpool plan to scrap bus lanes will make cyclists less safe

Still militant, but former bête noire of Tories now runs cycle to work business
by John Stevenson
Tue, Oct 01, 2013 14:04
5

Derek Hatton, the Liverpool politician who shot to fame in the 1980s as a member of the Miltant group in the Labour Party, has criticised Liverpool council plans to remove bus lanes because the change could put cyclists at risk.

Mr Hatton is a director of cycle to work scheme provider Bike 2 Work Scheme, but is famous as the deputy leader of Liverpool Council during the Thatcher years.

Now a keen cyclist himself, he was talking to Marc Waddington of the Liverpool Daily Post about the city council’s decision to approve a nine-month trial suspension of Liverpool’s bus lanes.

He said: “One of the biggest concerns we hear from employers on Merseyside is cyclists’ safety.

“This decision is going to do absolutely nothing for their safety.

“Evidence has come out of London that shows it’s not buses but lorries and cars that cause the biggest problems.

“Bikes are safe in bus lanes because they’re nowhere near lorries.

“All the evidence will show that this is a retrograde step.”

Council cabinet member for transport Tim Moore claimed the city was looking out for cyclists. He said: “The city is doing a number of things, investing in cycle lanes and cycle infrastructure.”

But Mr Hatton said he does not believe cyclists are a priority. “Here’s somewhere that’s already safe for cyclists and he’s getting rid of them,” he said.

Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson said that bus use was declining and the bus lanes were increasing congestion. Scrapping the lanes would cost the city £700,000 in fines, but “was the right thing to do”.

He said: “We’ve monitored them for six months and they’re going to be monitored for another nine months and if at the end of the review people say they need to be reinstated we’ll do that.”

Liverpool City Council
Derek Hatton
Bus Lanes
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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5 comments

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paulrbarnard | 11 years ago
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Liverpool council need to read this http://daily.sightline.org/2013/08/28/parking-karma/

Avatar
WolfieSmith | 11 years ago
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Don't get me started on my adopted home city. The 20 stone mayor has accepted £2.5m worth of Boris bikes for a mainly pedestrianised city centre that takes 15 minutes to walk across as a response to an increase of 20% of cyclists trying to struggle in each day along busy trunk roads and piss poor cycle routes.

Local councillors are starting to respond though and with their help we are going to be strong arming Peel Holdings to develop a dedicated northern cycle route and encourage Liverpool and Sefton councils to literally use joined up thinking for Liverpool as a whole. With no real hills to speak of and with a drier climate than Manchester, on paper Liverpool is the perfect Uk cycle city for cycling and it would take very little clever planning to make it the best cycle city in the UK.

It's good Degsy's weighed in as Moore and his friends haven't a scooby. They are still commissioning Q&A's for locals, who don't cycle, asking them whether they'd like a cycle path outside their house? And funnelling cash into Bike-ability training rather than knuckling down and talking to real cycle commuters. Riding a bike is easy. Riding next to lorries isn't.

If it wasn't for Manchester flaunting Vicky Pendleton on city ride PR junkets Liverpool decision makers wouldn't be giving a monkeys. They can't bear Manchester showing off and we're counting on simple pathetic vanity to see some results.

Avatar
mrmo | 11 years ago
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So bus use is declining, one of the advantages of bus lanes is that they make buses quicker.

Remove the bus lanes, buses are now general traffic and are slower because they have to wait for traffic rather than having clear routes to use. Then the buses cause congestion by pulling in and out of stops.

So the bus is slower than the car, so you drive!!!

What stupid logic.

So where are all the extra cars going to park?

Avatar
kitkat | 11 years ago
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Surely they should be looking at why bus use is decreasing not just encouraging more cars in to the city. While other cities are thinking about a less car-centric approach Liverpool wants to bring more in. Go figure!

Avatar
farrell replied to kitkat | 11 years ago
0 likes
kitkat wrote:

While other cities are thinking about a less car-centric approach Liverpool wants to bring more in. Go figure!

They're after a fresh supply of hubcaps.

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