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Should Private Hire Vehicles be Allowed in Bus Lan...

Should Private Hire Vehicles be Allowed in Bus Lanes?

Portsmouth City Council are considering allowing mini cabs (officially called Private Hire Vehicles) to use the bus lanes in the city. The lanes are currently open to use by buses, taxis (Hackney Carriages) and cyclists. Portsmouth Cycle Forum have today published their response to this possible transport proposal with some statistics that show this could be a dangerous prospect for cyclists in Portsmouth:

“Portsmouth City Council is considering allowing Private Hire Vehicles to use bus lanes. To use technical terminology, a Taxi is a Hackney Carriage, and a Minicab is a Private Hire Vehicle (PHV). A Hackney Carriage licence allows the driver to pick up fares on the street, and a few other perks, for example, in Portsmouth, Taxis may use bus lanes, but PHVs ay not. Recently it has been proposed that PHVs should be allowed to use Bus Lanes. In addition to buses and taxis, bicycles are also permitted to use bus lanes.

You may know that Portsmouth has more cycling accidents per capita than most other cities, but it may surprise you to learn that (according to PCC figures) Taxis and PHVs are responsible for a disproportionately large number of cycling accidents. Taxis and PHVs represent just under 0.9% of registered vehicles, but are involved in 8% of all reported cycle collisions: and whilst cyclists make up only 4.7% of traffic in Portsmouth, they account for 21% of Taxi/PHV related casualties. Disturbingly, the most common contributory factor is the “driver failing to look properly”.

Allowing PHVs into cycle lanes would result in more occasions when cyclists and PHVs are in close proximity, and thus increase the likelihood of cyclist casualties in the one place where they currently have some protection from general traffic. Portsmouth Cycle Forum therefore conclude that in its current form this proposal is a terrible idea.”

You can read the full, detailed response from Portsmouth Cycle Forum HERE.

Let us know your thoughts on this.

Portsmouth Cycle Forum


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  1. Neal Layton

    16 January

    Private hire vehicles are businesses out to make money. Why should they profit from putting cyclists lives at risk?

    -and as anyone who cycles in Portsmouth knows, the PHV’s are not careful drivers. Sad to say but I am not suprised to learn that they are involved in a disproportionate number of cycling accicdents.

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