Bye bye M4 bus lane

Oh NOEEESSSS!!! I love the bike lane I mean bus lane...
The joys of trundling along past lanes of non moving cars - gone!

Kind of dangerous though when some Addison Lee pr1ck decides he doesn't want to sit in the traffic any more and lurches into the bus lane. I like to sit behind a taxi for this reason when lanes 1 and two are at a standstill. I've seen people filter between stationary traffic and taxis!!
 
Lets be honest... a BUS LANE on a muther****ing MOTORWAY????

This could only be dreamt up by a total and utter vegetable. Oh wait, it was John Prescott, my statement is verified!!

Honestly, what an utter ****face.
 
So why was it there? Apart from to disrupt the traffic flow to make the car less attractive and horrific public transport solutions seem slightly more pallatable?

It isn't pathetic to abandon a failed policy that has no evidential support whatsoever...

To remove the chokepoint where three lanes filtered into two. It wasn't designed to disrupt traffic flow, the complete opposite in fact. The study done afterwards claimed it reduced average journey times, despite a reduction in the speedlimit.

So what are they going to do now? Just cone it off and leave it empty or put the chokepoint back in?

I just can't understand celebrating getting rid of it, even if the bus lane didn't work. Now you'll have an extra lane for 3.5km before having to merge (and we know how good the UK public is at merge in turn don't we..) back into 2 lanes again anyway.
 
Didn't it just move the choke point not get rid of it? With the bus lane in place you still get 3 lanes going into 2 just further away from London.

Serious question

Why don't they make the bus lane peak hours only or is it I can't remember. To speed up taxi and bus journey times during peak hours.

Or

Why don't they convert the hard shoulder into a bus/taxi lane. Haven't they done this through Birmingham? (though it just acts as a 4th lane to exit at junctions doesn't it)
 
They should have made it like other bus lanes in London with variable times so at least you could use it during certain times. I certainly shan't be missing it.
 
It is good to see other people posting the link too. the M4 bus lane is an elegant solution to the congestion caused by the 2 lane flyover. It's just a shame that the bus lane's inception and now dissolution was politicised.

After reading this article, how many of you think it might now be a good idea?

getting rid of the bottleneck all together would make more sense, but that costs far too much money, and would annoy hippies.
 
Again

Doesn't this just move the congestion point further away from London and not actually resolve it. With the bus lane in place you still at some point move from 3 lanes to 2 lanes for regular traffic just further away from the flyover, and in doing so actually create two points of congestion instead of one.

Without the bus lane
Single congestion point where the 3 lanes merge into 2 lanes at the fly over.

With the bus lane
First congestion point where bus lane starts and regular traffic moves from 3 lanes to 2 lanes
Second congestion point where the bus lane merges back into the 2 lanes of regular traffic

Also why not allow private taxis and motorbikes to use the bus lane which would further reduce regular traffic flow on the 2 normal lanes?
 
Sort of, its reduced by the fact the 3rd lane leaves at a junction where a lot of traffic is leaving the motorway anyway.

As for private taxis, you've sort of already answered that? The more traffic that uses it, the more traffic that has to merge back in. It'd be best if no one used it at all.
 
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