Bylaw on bus-lane use to be relaxed

Auckland City Council is moving towards relaxing its jealous guardianship of bus lanes, to allow prison vans and taxis carrying disabled passengers to use them.

The Taxi Federation, although pleased with a thaw in council opposition to any new category of vehicle entering the lanes, is concerned a recommended bylaw change may take too long and is pleading for urgent action.

A decision by the council's transport committee to support in principle the use of the lanes by prison vans and authorised special needs groups such as those carried by "total mobility" taxis echoes a similar resolution 18 months ago under the previous council.

At that time, a staff report acknowledged that delays to prison vans from having to wait in line with general traffic increased security risks, both for guards and the public.

But transport chairman Richard Simpson, while unable to explain why his predecessors' resolution made no apparent progress, said yesterday he had been assured a review of the bylaw governing the city's 24.5km of bus lanes would be complete by December.

His committee has decided to support a relaxation of the rules - which now allow only buses, bicycles and motorbikes to use the lanes during their hours of operation - as long as this does not compromise effectiveness and safety.

Mr Simpson said the committee remained opposed to the general use of the lanes by taxis and high-occupancy vehicles. His committee was also concerned about the safety of cyclists if they had to compete for space with extra vehicles.

But he said it accepted a need to reduce security risks by allowing fast passage for vans carrying prisoners, and to give disabled people unable to use public transport a fair alternative.

Asked how council enforcement staff could tell if taxis were carrying disabled passengers, he said such cabs would probably have to display special tags.

Taxi Federation executive director Tim Reddish said his priority was to gain access for 73 vehicles registered for carrying passengers reliant on wheelchairs, but he acknowledged many others were able to take people with lesser disabilities under "total mobility" subsidies.

These are paid by the Government and Auckland Regional Council through its transport authority subsidiary.

Mr Reddish said taxis carrying about 2000 children with special needs to school each day faced particular difficulties if held up long in traffic.

He said taxis were allowed to use bus lanes in other countries such as Australia.

But council principal transport planner Denis Mander said in his report last year to the previous transport committee that most Auckland bus lanes were only about 3.1m wide, which was about 1.2m narrower than recommended across the Tasman.

He said the council had therefore promoted a code of conduct for their shared use by buses and cyclists, which he believed would be compromised by opening them to the region's 3500 to 4000 taxis.

The existing bylaw prevents the use of bus lanes by vehicles with fewer than 13 seats, other than two-wheelers, under threat of a $150 fine.