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Bus lane "traps" generate millions of dollars across Britain, says AA

Xinhua, September 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

Motorists on Britain's road faced fines of up to 117 million U.S. dollars in one year alone for encroaching into bus-only lanes, figures from the Automobile Association (AA) revealed Monday.

The AA, one of the country's leading motoring organisations said camera enforcement of bus lanes appears to be overtaking parking tickets as main complaint from drivers.

Complaints of entrapment from drivers in London, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff and Bristol top the list.

In Glasgow, one short stretch of bus-lane at a junction in the city generated more than 4.6 million U.S. dollars in fines, said the AA, with a bus lane in Lambeth, London appearing to be another top money spinner.

The organisation estimates the bus lane on Clapham Park Road has generated over 9.2 million U.S. dollars in fines over the last few years and has been highlighted in complaints from AA members.

Quoting figures from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, covering 2013, the AA said 554,733 fines were generated in towns and cities outside London, and 242,541 in the capital itself.

Drivers illegally using bus lanes receive an 80 pound ticket (123 U.S. dollars) in the provinces rising to 130 pounds (200 U.S. dollars) in London. Discounts are given if fines are paid promptly.

The AA said in its report on Monday: "The number one complaint appears to be drivers wishing to turn left who often inadvertently merge left into the bus lane early for safety reasons and are then caught on camera in the bus lane before they are allowed to be. We have also received complaints from drivers pulling over into bus lanes to allow emergency vehicles to pass receiving tickets."

The AA says it believes when an individual camera is raking in millions of dollars a year there must be something wrong with the signing, the road layout or the junction engineering.

"Highway authorities should apply more discretion or give warnings when thousands of drivers are apparently getting it wrong. They could then use their camera data to identify the problems," suggests the AA.

Edmund King, AA president, said: "Whilst we support the use of bus lanes in the right places, functioning at the right times, we are totally opposed to 'entrapment' cameras on poorly designed or poorly signed bus lane junctions." Endit