Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to provide an update on the changes to the Private Hire Vehicles in bus lanes trial following the decisions taken by the Traffic & Transportation Committee on the 13 December 2021. The report details the changes and the justifications for these amendments.

 

It is recommended that the Cabinet Member for Traffic and Transportation:

 

(i)             Approves a trial to allow access for Portsmouth City Council Licensed Private Hire Vehicles to use a limited number of five bus lanes in Portsmouth for a minimum of 3 months including;

 

Cavell Drive,

Marketway,

Mile End Road,

Bishop Crispian Way,

and Queen Street.

 

(ii)           Has delegated authority to immediately cease any or all of the five trial locations if safety issues become apparent;

 

(iii)         Delegates authority to the Director of Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Traffic and Transportation and the Section 151 Officer to release funding to undertake the monitoring and evaluation of this trial as the details are developed, this will be funded from the Parking Reserve;

 

(iv)         Notes that consultation and engagement will continue with the Licensing Committee and working group as the trial develops;

 

(v)           Notes that a report will be brought back to Traffic & Transportation within 6 months of the trial launch to provide an update on the trial progression and next steps.

DECISIONS

 

The Cabinet Member for Traffic & Transportation:

 

(i)             Approved a trial to allow access for Portsmouth City Council Licensed Private Hire Vehicles to use a limited number of five bus lanes in Portsmouth for a minimum of 3 months including;

·       Cavell Drive,

·       Marketway,

·       Mile End Road,

·       Bishop Crispian Way,

·       And Queen Street.

 

(ii)           Has delegated authority to immediately cease any or all of the five trial locations if safety issues become apparent;

 

(iii)         Delegated authority to the Director of Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Traffic and Transportation and the Section 151 Officer to release funding to undertake the monitoring and evaluation of this trial as the details are developed, this will be funded from the Parking Reserve;

 

(iv)         Noted that consultation and engagement will continue with the Licensing Committee and working group as the trial develops;

 

(v)           Noted that a report will be brought back to Traffic & Transportation within 6 months of the trial launch to provide an update on the trial progression and next steps.

 

Councillor Lynne Stagg moved this item to the start of the agenda.

 

She agreed to accept some written information from Mike Dobson which was in addition to his verbal deputation on this agenda item.  The start of the meeting was delayed by ten minutes to allow Councillors and officers the time to read the papers.

 

Paul Darlow, Traffic & Network Manager introduced the report.

 

Peter Sutherland and Mike Dobson gave deputations against the recommendations.

 

Councillor Lynne Stagg noted that a written deputation from Cycle Gosport against the recommendations had been submitted.

 

In response to questions from Councillors, Felicity Tidbury, Acting Assistant Director, Regeneration and Liam Norman, title?, Paul Darlow, Traffic & Network Manager, Denise Bastow Office Manager, Parking, Erica Styles Engagement Officer, Michelle Love Safer Travel Manager and Nickii Humphreys, Licensing Manager clarified the following points:

 

Consultation was carried out with shareholders at the appropriate points in order to formulate the recommendations.  The team liaised with the bus trade and Aqua to seek their agreement to provide data so that the council can monitor the trial.

 

Shareholder engagement was always planned after this meeting, once decisions have been made on the proposals so that they could engage with proposals that are less likely to change.

 

The team has tried its best to look into the safety concerns that had been raised and reviewed comments that had been submitted previously.   

 

All the bus lanes in the city were looked at and those with monitoring equipment initially selected.  Their accident data and road speed were then considered to try to avoid accident hotspots in the city.  One was removed from the shortlist because of potential confusion due to unloading and loading which would have made it difficult for the team to monitor the trial as planned.  This left the five bus lanes that have been proposed in the report.

 

The bus lane in Winston Churchill Avenue and the north bound lane in Hilsea from the Coach & Horses to the Hilsea roundabout were discounted because they do not have available monitoring infrastructure.  Winston Churchill Avenue did have an enforcement camera but it is proposed that it be moved.

 

Following the decision that was made on 13 December 2021 the team wrote to all the Highways Authorities asking whether they allowed private hire vehicles in their bus lanes.  Two responded; Reading Borough Council undertook a trial in 2013 but the bus travel time savings and reliability benefits affected the use of the bus lane and therefore the private hire vehicles (PHVs) were removed.  However, subsequently they have allowed a limited number of bus lanes to be used.

 

Southampton City Council and Brighton & Hove both allow PHVs to use bus lanes.

Hampshire County Council and West Sussex County Council do not allow PHVs to use any of their bus lanes.

 

The key performance indicators that will be used are:

·       Accident data provided monthly by Hampshire Constabulary. 

·       Information from the bus service companies before and during the trial. 

·       The journey times on routes.

·       Junction performance.

·       The number of contraventions issued before and during the trial.

·       Air quality on these routes.

 

Quite a high number of Penalty Charge Notices are issued in the Bishop Crispian Way area usually for one-off vehicles where the drivers are using it as a cut through.  It has relatively light traffic, other than buses.  Buses trigger the signals, so the impact of this on journey times would be monitored.  A bus route with PHVs crossing a main route could potentially disrupt other traffic

 

Following a review of the accident data, London Road was originally discounted due to the number of incidents at that location.  The number of contraventions will be looked at as part of the trial monitoring.  Although there is some confusion with Bishop Crispian Way, it is not a safety concern.

 

The five bus lanes selected cover a good variety of bus routes and the data from the trial could be extrapolated to inform a decision on whether to extend the pilot.

 

As a result of the concerns raised at the External Review Panel in July by stakeholders including Mr Dobson, the trial was postponed.  The proposal was greatly adjusted to take into account of the concerns and subject to the decision today, the panel will be reconvened with more stakeholders to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to air any concerns again.

 

It is proposed that the baseline data will be captured in September, the trial start in early October and in November the data collected so far will be compared with the baseline data.  An interim update would come to a future portfolio meeting. 

 

If a cyclist is travelling in front of a bus then if at all possible, according to the Highway Code the bus would need to leave 1.5m when overtaking.  However, the onus would be on the bus driver to hold back, when necessary.

 

Only PHVs registered in Portsmouth would be permitted to us the bus lanes as stated in recommendation 2.1.

 

The bus lane in Northern Road was discounted because of the lack of monitoring equipment e.g. cameras or data from blue tooth monitored routes.

 

Uber and Bolt were invited to attend the External Review Panel.  Uber declined the request to provide data which use assess the situation before the trial goes live.

 

There were two stakeholder objections to the last report brought in December.  The bus companies did not make any representations regarding this trial.

In the last two years there were no fatalities caused by PHVs.

 

Action

The following information will be sent to the Cabinet Member and Opposition Spokespersons:

·       The list of bus lanes that were not chosen and the reasons.

·       A list of the stakeholders who were invited to the working group.

 

Councillor Lynne Stagg made the following comments:

 

The original aim of the bus lanes is to create less congested routes for the buses.   The council was awarded £48m recently for work that includes improving bus journey times. 

 

It is better to run a trial with five lanes properly than with 53 badly.  It is within the council's capability to monitor them.

 

She would encourage all road users to drive carefully.  There were ten fatalities in the city over the last year; nine of which were nothing to do with the infrastructure.  

 

The council is doing its best to improve cycle infrastructure in the city.

 

Action.

·       The Licensing Chair, Vice Chair and Councillor Heaney will be added to the working group.

·       The interim report will be brought back before purdah next year. 

 

Councillor Scott Payter-Harris commented that he as Licensing Chair he had spoken to the Vice Chair and they both welcomed the fact that consultation would continue with the licensing group and working committee.  He was not overly enamoured by the fact that this trial will only be for five bus lanes.  It felt doomed to fail because of an insufficient data set; four out of the five lanes are in the South of the city and the one in the north is not used much by drivers.

 

Councillor Graham Heaney reminded everyone that Councillor Stagg is the decision-maker.  He had some concerns about the scope of the trial being limited and that more representative routes should have been included.  However, he felt that trying this out was probably the best way forward.

 

The cycle forum's concerns regarding PHVs using bus lanes were understandable as Portsmouth has one of the highest cycling casualty rates.  There are no proper interconnected cycle routes, so cyclists must use the roads which are sometimes narrow, with insufficient separation from other road users.  He noted that PHV drivers' livelihoods depend on them being good drivers, so they are not going to go out to cause problems and bad drivers will lose their licence.

 

It would have been helpful to involve the Portsmouth Cycle Forum and e-scooters company in the consultation earlier.

 

DECISIONS

The Cabinet Member for Traffic & Transportation:

(i)             Approved a trial to allow access for Portsmouth City Council Licensed Private Hire Vehicles to use a limited number of five bus lanes in Portsmouth for a minimum of 3 months including;

·       Cavell Drive,

·       Marketway,

·       Mile End Road,

·       Bishop Crispian Way,

·       And Queen Street.

 

(ii)           Has delegated authority to immediately cease any or all of the five trial locations if safety issues become apparent;

 

(iii)         Delegated authority to the Director of Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Traffic and Transportation and the Section 151 Officer to release funding to undertake the monitoring and evaluation of this trial as the details are developed, this will be funded from the Parking Reserve;

 

(iv)         Noted that consultation and engagement will continue with the Licensing Committee and working group as the trial develops;

 

(v)           Noted that a report will be brought back to Traffic & Transportation within 6 months of the trial launch to provide an update on the trial progression and next steps.