Unfair Bus Lane penalaties are all too familiar so here is what to to to appeal.

Firstly a little background to help you understand the bus lane legislation and how to appeal. 

We all know what bus lanes look like but how is a bus lane defined in law?

Bus lane is defined in regulation 23 (2)  After 31st December 1996 "bus lane" in the signs referred to in paragraph (1) means a traffic lane reserved for

"Bus lane" in the signs referred to in paragraph (1) means a traffic lane reserved for -

      (a) motor vehicles constructed or adapted to carry more than 8 passengers (exclusive of the driver);

      (b) local buses not so constructed or adapted; and

      (c) pedal cycles and taxis where indicated on the sign shown in diagram 958 or 959 and pedal cycles where indicated on the sign shown in diagram 960, 962.2, 963.2 or 1048.1.

If is a bus lane in a road where there is a 30 mile per hour speed limit the following sign must be place at minimum of 30 metres before the Bus Lane starts.  Where the speed is higher it must be placed a minimum of 45 metres before the bus lane starts.  It goes without say that the sign must be visible and not obscured in any way.  Without this sign the bus lane is not legally marked!

Sign 959 below MUST be located at the beginning of a Bus Lane, i.e where the taper ends (see below for digram of bus lane layout) and immediately after each junction/side road and along the lenght of the bus lane.  There must be no more than 300 metres between each sign.

If you look at most bus lanes you will often find sign 959 missing. It should be mentioned that each side road entering a bus lane MUST have a separate sign before you get to the bus lane.

It must be placed at no more than 300 meters  at a maximum of every 300 metres along uninterrupted lengths. Quite often this sign is not present at all required locations and the Bus Lane is unenforceable.

In my experience a large percentage of bus lanes are non-compliant and therefore, the penalties issued unenforceable. The  taper should be no more than 1 in 10 so you have adequate time to move over to the right yet many are at much greater ratios - 1 in 5 say which in my view makes the bus lane unenforceable.  The place of the signs and lettering on the road is also crucial.  When I exposed one notorious bus lane on the "Dispatches" programme (where hundreds of tickets were issued each month) the council burnt off the original lines and painted new lines and moved the sign!

Unless the bus lane operates for 24 hours 7 days a week the times of the bus lane operation MUST be shown on sign 958 and 959 above.  If  the bus lane operates only during specific times or days and there are no times shown on the above signs the bus lane is not enforceable.

Side roads

Where a side road leads onto a buslane the sine below must be placed in the side road.  Its absence in my view invalidates the bus lane.

MORE TO BE ADDED SHORTLY!

MORE TO BE ADDED SHORTLY!

CONTRA FLOW BUS LANES:

These follow the above general principles but the signs are different.  They are shown below:

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