The Green Party are calling for more evidence before 20 years worth of bus lanes are scrapped.
The cabinet are set to approve a report calling for most of Liverpool’s bus lanes to be abolished. Greens will argue that the report being scrutinised by Regeneration Committee today does not adequately make the case for permanently removing the bus lanes.
The main data that was measured during the trial were journey times. This showed that most bus users ended up with longer journey times, and most car users ended up with shorter journeys.
Claims are then made that this will lead to freer flowing traffic and less congestion. The link between the claims and the evidence is not explained.
The report also provides figures for the effect the trial had on air pollution. However this wasn’t measured but instead estimates were made based on a number of assumptions.
The report is just a real time snapshot and doesn’t take into account the effect of promoting car use over bus lanes in the long term. It also doesn’t describe how the road system will cope with the expected population growth in the city. If many extra journeys are done by car this will impact on both congestion and air pollution.
At 600 pages, this is a very long report, and Regeneration Committee has only had 4 working days to digest it. This is not long enough to ask the right questions to be sure it is the right decision. We are calling for the bus lanes that are identified for reinstatement be brought back into use urgently. We are also demanding that the cabinet extend the trial rather than agreeing now to permanently remove the bus lanes. More observation is needed and more time is needed to properly scrutinise the data.
It’s a big decision that that no other leading city in the world has taken. It sends a strong message to the world about what Liverpool values, and where it is going. It is worth taking a bit longer to make sure it is a decision we can all be proud of.