Is Primelines finally dead?

[JoNi]

The incoming leader of Coventry city council has put forward the proposal to remove all bus lanes in Coventry.
Read the article and give your vote.
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-bus-lanes-could-scrapped-11364655

[S570]

So to reduce pollution, they want to force polluting buses to sit in the traffic jams as well. Makes sense ???

[markcf83]

He would be merely following the example set by Joe Anderson,the Mayor of Liverpool,who despite a campaign by Stagecoach and Arriva went and removed most of the bus lanes in the City. At best it's idiotic,at worst illegal.

[Ally]

There are some bus lanes that I agree are pretty pointless, but ones like Foleshill Road are not. They claim that it's bus lanes causing all the congestion, but have they ever tried leaving the city via Holbrooks in the peak time? They'll find that the congestion is very much caused by the unsignalled roundabout at the end of Burnaby Road because everyone is coming off the A444 and going down there meaning nothing leaving the City via Holbrooks can move. Usually it only backs up to around the Mercia Venue, but I've had it as far back as City Engineers before.

It also doesn't help that there seems to be some kind of mystical forcefield around the Foleshill Road area where as soon as people drive in to it, they fully and completely lose the capability to drive. I've only ever seen 2 full on police car pursuits, both of which very nearly had head ons with me and both were on Foleshill Road.
I do agree with the one of the comments made about Taxis! Most of them are in a horrendous state, I think they need more of those crackdown operations they did a while back.

I do like the comments on how the buses are inconvenient (with most services running around every 10 minutes in their combined areas), empty (clearly never seen the 21, 11/11U/12X, or the Foleshill Road buses depart the City before) and best of all, expensive... The equivalent journey distance of Coventry to Birmingham on the 900 in nearby Warwickshire would cost you around £5 single, if not more! Expensive my a**e. If only people understood how much it costs to actually buy a brand new bus and get it on the road for a day.

Getting rid of Bus Lanes won't fix congestion issues, it'll split the line in 2 and then because people won't use alternative side routes (i.e. Eagle Street to avoid the City bound final stretch of Foleshill Road), they'll then join the dual lines which will make those longer and the buses will also join the back of the queue, therefore, the congestion has been made worse and a lot more people have been inconvenienced.

Only yesterday did I spot an unusually large amount of traffic on Foleshill Road, City bound - I suspect it had something to do with traffic diverting on Harnall Lane West where I spotted a 6 turning out onto Foleshill Road. The line had backed up to the large temple, but after the Harnall Lane lights, there was nothing at all.
Thanks to the bus lane, I was able to shoot past the large majority of it all.

If they're so desperate, why don't they try a motorway style active traffic management where bus lanes can be opened up at really busy times to all traffic (I'd still oppose this, but it'd be a compromise of both sides at least).

Or failing that, turn every junction including M6 J2 & 3 into shared space junctions, make every road thinner, remove all traffic lights and double yellow/red lines but have a blanket no parking. Extend what they keep doing in the City Centre to put people off driving there across the entire City, then nobody will want to drive and we can have cheap, convenient and frequent buses for all, with bus lanes everywhere! Hussah!

I seem to remember the last time this was mentioned in the press, they claimed Ball Hill and Toll Bar were the main culprits... Both of which do not have bus lanes...

[JPC]

A quick summary of another corridor, the 6/6A out to Tile Hill:
Exiting Croft Rd buses struggle to give way to not just the roundabout but other traffic exiting Croft Road as well (except those going right).  The Ring Road to Albany Rd bus lane was removed to supposedly assist diverted Friargate traffic but that will probably never get put back in now.  The Herald Avenue gate has been "broken" for what must be a year now, green light is currently combined with main carriageway meaning Tanyard Farm buses have to negotiate hazardous lane changing if they use the gate.
In the reverse direction The Village Hotel/Hearsall Common bus lane ends in the middle of the common so is only really a bit beneficial during extreme traffic congestion and the Broad Lane spur doesn't even have a regular bus route, then at the Butts the bus lane is sometimes useful when traffic is heavy, well until you come to the end and buses have to criss-cross lanes with other traffic.

[the trainbasher]

@Ally - have a blanket no parking you say? Many civil enforcement officers would happily buy you a beer for proposing such a glorious revenue making opportunity like that (or moan and go on sick leave) :)

[Steveminor]

The hand held terminals would soon fill up the memory & they'd have to return to base

[the trainbasher]

@Steveminor unless they are using Android based handsets with data sim as opposed to the Casio Windows based handsets

[Tony]

@Steveminor unless they are using Android based handsets with data sim as opposed to the Casio Windows based handsets

Our Inspector's PDA send the Standard Fare Charge information back immediately via 4G, surprised Parking Ticket machines aren't the same

[the trainbasher]

Our Inspector's PDA send the Standard Fare Charge information back immediately via 4G, surprised Parking Ticket machines aren't the same

Depends on what borough is controlling the Civil Enforcement regime and software supplier they use. Some are stuck in the 2000s with Windows based kits with an all data download at the end of the day. Some however have been running Android kits with live data transfer (for case information - photos wait until the end of the day download).

[Steveminor]

Solihull send the information straight to the office however the photos are stored on the hhc. They use chips idea for all data with casino hhc.  The preferred terminals for nsl.

[Ally]

@Ally - have a blanket no parking you say? Many civil enforcement officers would happily buy you a beer for proposing such a glorious revenue making opportunity like that (or moan and go on sick leave) :)

I did witness some classic Foleshill Road parking yesterday, a Ford Focus on double yellow lines, nowhere near the kerb, in a bus lane, at a bus stop... It was still there 9 hours later too!
Something caused a total standstill in the City around The Burges and surrounding areas for about 30 minutes yesterday at 17.30, I wonder if it was the Warwick Road Bus Lane! A few idiots did cut under the arches to get out of it, I just chuckled to myself and said "That's one ticket... that's two... three..."
The Whittle Arches would be a good bus lane to open up IF people actually knew how to drive or cross roads, as most don't know either, it'll just be death and destruction on a daily basis!

[Adam 404]

5 more bus lanes are set to go from tomorrow.
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/five-more-coventry-bus-lanes-13652641

[Twi]

foleshill road suspension is a very bad idea someone will die there stoney stanton road is a waste of time as its mostly blocked with parked cars