10 March 2008 - At today's meeting of the County Council Cabinet, Green Councillor Andrew Boswell will challenge the County Council to suspend its experiment in allowing some freight consolidated Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) to use bus and cycle lanes.
This follows the decision on 10 January 2008 by the Norwich Joint Highways Agency Committee to introduce an experimental Traffic Regulation Order allowing certain HGVs to use the Newmarket Road bus and cycle lanes.
The Greens say that the decision is contradictory to safety guidelines from the Department for Transport which says that roads should allow a safe distance for HGVs overtaking cyclists at 30 mph of 5.1m whilst parts of the bus lane on Newmarket Road is only 3.0m with a speed limit on 40 mph.
Councillor Andrew Boswell believes that if the NHAC committee members had known this data, they might well have taken a different decision.
Andrew Boswell, Green Party County Councillor for Nelson ward, said: "It beggars belief that the Council did little, if any, research on how wide lanes need to be for mixing HGVs with cyclists before making the decision. I understand also that no consultation was carried out with bicycle user groups who could have provided vital information. It will be very concerning if the Cabinet is unwilling to revisit this decision when people's lives are endangered by it.
"The Council should be doing all it can to encourage people to cycle but I am concerned that this experiment will put people off cycling on Newmarket Road."
The experiment is to allow freight consolidation HGVs to use the bus lane to try to reduce the number of HGVs coming into the city. The Green Party supports the principle of freight consolidation but believes that allowing these HGVs to use bus and cycle lanes is not an appropriate incentive.