What is a Bus Gate?

A bus gate is a short section of road that only buses, cycles and sometimes other vehicles (typically taxis) can pass through. They lack most of the signage of bus lanes and have the words "BUS GATE" on the carriageway instead of "BUS LANE". 

Why are they called "Gates"?

The first bus lane in the UK was created in 1968. Until 1975, local authorities needed special permission from the Ministry of Transport to use traffic signs relating to buses. Some local authorities avoided this, creating their own schemes without such traffic signs. 

Across short sections of carriageway they put a gate, which would open as a bus approached. The gate usually took the form of a red-and-white pole pivoted at one end. These are still used at some toll bridges (and in car parks) but not at bus gates. Here is one on Great Tower Street in the City of London in 2014:

Enforcement of Bus Gates

Pivoting poles were self-enforcing: they blocked the lane and, because of their red-and-white stripes, could be seen by motorists from a distance.

After it became available in 1975, local authorities could use the "Except buses" plate with No Entry signs to prohibit entry. Many stopped using pivoting poles on new bus-only schemes. 

Contravening the signs was a criminal offence (usually you got points on your licence), but enforcement depended on being caught by the police or a traffic warden. 

In the 1990s, rising bollards came into use as an alternative to pivoting poles as a way of making bus gates self-enforcing. 

Also in the 1990s, London saw the introduction of  civil enforcement for bus lane and parking offences. 

This meant that the local authority could issue Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs, aka "parking tickets") and claim payment without needing to use the courts. 

This was a new source of income for local authorities: previously, fines issued in magistrates courts had gone to central government.

In 2006, civil enforcement was extended in London to "moving traffic offences". CCTV images could now be used as evidence. No longer did someone need to observe the offence and issue a ticket then and there. 

From 2022, local authorities elsewhere in England could apply for civil enforcement powers for moving traffic offences. Most have now done so.

Traffic Signs and PCN Codes

From the early 1990s, new traffic signs started to be used for bus gates. The main traffic signs and their PCN contravention codes are shown below:

Local authorities' financial interest in PCNs leads them to identify the words "bus gate" with the blue roundel symbols shown. 

The term "bus gate" is now widely used to mean a section of road with CCTV enforcement of blue roundel traffic signs, wherever those signs appear. 

Many contraflow bus lanes now have a blue roundel at their start, even if the road marking is BUS LANE. Conversely, bus gates with a blue roundel which includes a motorcycle are enforced using the contravention code for bus lanes, regardless of the road marking.

DfT View of Bus Gates

The Department for Transport (DfT) produces The Traffic Signs Manual. It provides guidance to highway engineers about traffic signs and how to use them. It classifies bus gates as

• two-way: occupying the full width of a two-way road with bus restrictions applying in both directions;

• one-way: in one direction only, with normal traffic permitted in the other direction.

Two-way Bus gates

Bus gates which occupy the full width of a two-way road take three forms:

1. a complete street with bus gates at each end;

2. bus gates for both directions at one end of the street; this creates one cul-de-sac for prohibited traffic;

3. a single bus gate applying to both directions in the middle of the street; this creates two culs-de-sac for prohibited traffic.

The Traffic Signs Manual shows only the first type of two-way bus gate:

Bus Gate at Each End

Bargate Street, Southampton is a two-way street with a bus gate at each end:

The road marking BUS ONLY and the red surface dressing reinforce the upright signs to discourage other vehicles from entering.

Two-way Bus Gate at One End

This view is looking southbound from a mini-roundabout which was inserted in Bridge Street, Cambridge for the bus gate. 

Note the patch of red on the right side of the road: this is immediately before the start of the northbound bus gate. This does not catch northbound traffic unawares because the road is a Pedestrian Zone: at the southern end there is a sign prohibiting all vehicles except buses, cycles, taxis and for access. 

Two-way Bus Gate in Middle

This is a view of a two-way bus gate in the middle of Bedford Road, Aberdeen. The image is from DfT's Local Transport Note 1/24 and may be considered DfT's view of good practice.

The sign posts are on traffic islands which split the carriageway into three parts: cycle gaps on the outside, and a single two-way lane for buses in the middle. This makes the signs prominent, lessening the risk of inadvertent contravention.

For all except buses and cycles, this bus gate splits the road into two culs-de-sacs: one serves the campus of Aberdeen University (the building is the Library); the other is a local residential road.

More problematic for motorists are two-way bus gates such as this one on Bull Lane, Enfield:

It uses updated versions of the same signage as in Aberdeen, but the signs are placed on the footway. In its first year, to September 2024, Enfield issued 63,134 PCNs here and collected more than £4 million.

One-way Bus Gates

The Traffic Signs Manual shows only one form of one-way bus gate. It starts at a junction and its appearance there is very similar to the start of a contraflow bus lane. 

Traffic entering such a bus gate must turn into the road and cross the dashed white line and BUS GATE road markings. 

Where a bus gate is inserted on a road and prohibited traffic must turn to avoid it, three options can reduce inadvertent contraventions:

• priorities are changed so that the default is that for prohibited traffic;

• traffic lights or a mini-roundabout are installed so that there is a visible break to proceeding straight ahead;

• turning arrow road markings are placed.

Examples are shown below:

Changed Priorities

This is John Dobson Street in Newcastle. It is a two-way road, one end of which (past the Town Hall) had a two-way bus gate installed. After many protests, the suspension of the scheme for 3 years and a report by the Chief Adjudicator of the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, Newcastle changed the configuration to this:

This image is the second of two views which DfT used to illustrate bus gates in its Local Transport Note 1/24.

Visible Break to Proceeding Straight Ahead

Here is another view of Bridge Street, Cambridge, from further north than the previous one:

Road Markings to Emphasise the Turn for Prohibited Vehicles

This is on Regent Street, Cambridge. This is a one-way bus gate: the road beyond it is a contraflow bus lane as there are no restrictions on oncoming vehicles:

None of the Above

Here is an example with none of these: the one-way bus gate on Cumberland Road, Bristol:

The second road to the left (beyond the tree) leads to the SS Great Britain, a major tourist attraction. In its first 15 months of operation, Bristol City Council issued 67,128 PCNs here and collected £2.5 million.

Bus Gates as part of HGV Restrictions

As well as the types of bus gate shown above, there are other types, mostly dating from the early years of bus gates:

• central bus gates

• nearside bus gates

These were created not as bus-priority measures to help buses avoid traffic congestion. Instead, they are part of schemes to stop HGVs using a road. In most instances, width restrictions sufficed. But if a road was on a bus route, buses would not be able to pass through the width restriction. The solution was to split the road in each direction into two:

• a bus lane;

• a width-restricted lane for other traffic. 

Most such restrictions take the form of a single central two-way bus lane with width-restricted lanes at the edges of the carriageway.

Central Bus Gates

Here is an example from Headstone Lane, Harrow, where the original traffic order specified that the central lane had an electronically-operated rising barrier:

Two-way single-lane bus gates were also used across roundabouts. This is Beresford Road, Reading:

Modern bus gates across roundabouts are bus-priority measures. They have one lane per direction. This is across Heybarnes Circus, Yardley, Birmingham. Access to it is controlled by traffic lights which can be reached only from a long offside bus lane:

Nearside Bus Gates

Two locations are known where nearside bus gates were created next to width restrictions. They are similar to ordinary bus lanes in that buses use the nearside lane while other vehicles must move out. 

With central bus gates, buses which have passed through then merge with other traffic. They don't have priority, but nor does the other traffic. With nearside bus gates, buses emerging from the bus gate are required to give way to the other traffic: these are not bus-priority measures. When the road is congested, buses queue with other vehicles to reach the start of the bus bypass. 

Ordinary bus lanes have two types of advance signage:

• a rectangular blue sign 30m before the start, showing schematically the start of the bus lane and the vehicles permitted; 

• a diagonal dashed thick white line across the about-to-start bus lane, which guides other motorists out. 

At Cox Lane, Chessington, bends have been imposed along with priority changes. These mean that motorists who just follow the road find themselves going north or south rather than west or east:

At Camrose Avenue, Harrow, there are no priority changes and the road continues straight on. Apart from the signage at the restriction, there are no signs indicating that the nearside lane is for buses, cycles and taxis. The only road markings to guide motorists out are two curved arrows. Here is the view eastbound:

Motorists who follow the kerb realise too late that they are entering a bus gate. 

In the first year of CCTV operation, to July 2007, Harrow issued 9,704 PCNs here and collected £500,000. In 2023/24,  Harrow issued 21,493 PCNs here and collected £2.2 million. 

More Information

More information about the history and signage of bus lanes and gates is provided at these sub-pages:

• Bus Lanes

• Bus Gates

Written 9th November 2025; last updated 13th November 2025