The Use of Bus Lanes by Motorcycles

This leaflet revises guidence given in the ‘Local Transport Note (LTN) 1/97’ which recommended that motorcycles should not be permitted to use bus lanes.

The Government’s Motorcycling Strategy, published in February 2005, seeks to facilitate motorcycling as a choice of travel within a safe and sustainable transport framework.

Since 1995, several authorities have made permanent a number of experimental Traffic Regulation Orders allowing motorcyclists to use bus lanes. Various monitoring and
research projects have been carried out to determine the effects of these schemes on both motorcyclists and other road users. The research does not lead to clear conclusions, but suggests both potential benefits and disbenefits. As with any scheme, the decision to allow motorcycle access to bus lanes should be taken with care to mitigate foreseeable and avoidable risks.

The Strategy gave an undertaking to review the advice given in Local Transport Note (LTN) 1/97, on the use of bus lanes by motorcycles. Local highway authorities are able to permit classes of vehicles other than buses into bus lanes. However, because of concerns about safety and lack of any evidence at the time, LTN 1/97 recommended that motorcycles should not normally be permitted to use them. This Traffic Advisory Leaflet now revises the guidance on that point in LTN 1/97 and encourages a more objective assessment to be made.