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 gate in the UK was created in 1964 (see Early Years). That's four years before the first bus lane. It didn't have a gate and wasn't called a bus gate. It was called a "Buses only" lane. That's also what bus lanes were called four years later (for good reason: the road marking BUSES ONLY was used at the start of the lane).

So where did the "gate" come from? The answer is that physical gates (actually pivoting red-and-white poles) were means of making what we now call bus gates self-enforcing. Bus gates are often short-cuts (or allow buses to go where other vehicles used to be able to go but which they must now make a long detour to reach). 

Until 2006, enforcement of bus lanes and bus gates required the contravention to be witnessed by police or traffic wardens. That meant there was little chance of being caught. The risk-reward ratio favoured transgression. Physical gates prevented that.

Buses could be equipped with transmitters which would trigger an electronically-controlled gate to open. Emergency services vehicles, dust carts and others could be issued with transmitters or there could be a numeric keypad which would open the gate when the correct code was entered. 

Pivoting red-and-white poles are still used at some toll bridges (and in car parks) but not at bus gates. Here is one on Great Tower Street, City of London in 2014:

Why Should I Have to Know That?

The short answer is: BUS GATE consists of two short words which highway engineers used as jargon.

The road marking BUS LANE has been used since 1972 on bus lanes. It has always meant that the relevant area of road can be used by the vehicles shown on an adjacent sign. Until 2016 it could only be used on "proper" bus lanes, not on bus gates.

Most traffic signs and road markings are defined in Regulations, usually referred to as TSRGD with a year number; the current Regulations are TSRGD 2016. In addition, non-standard traffic signs and road markings can be authorised by the Department for Transport (DfT). 

Since 2011, DfT has published such special authorisations at Traffic authorisations. Before that, who knows what was authorised and what was just done by a local authority contrary to the Regulations? The road marking BUSES ONLY was used widely at bus gates. Before 1975, an ambiguity in TSRGD 1964 meant that this was lawful if the words had a straight-ahead arrow immediately beyond them. It's also possible that the road marking was specially authorised for general use without an arrow.

TSRGD 2002 introduced a new road marking for bus gates: BUS // TAXI & // <cycle symbol> // ONLY (with vehicles removed where they weren't permitted). This was admirably clear and meaningful.

Road markings such as BUS // TAXI & // <cycle symbol> // ONLY are regulatory: they can only be placed where there is a legal requirement to do what it says. The law requires them to be placed within the regulated section of road. In practice, many local authorities placed the road marking before the bus gate as advance warning of it.

For the 2016 Regulations, DfT was pulled two ways: 

• local authorities complained that the road marking BUS // TAXI & // <cycle symbol> // ONLY wouldn't fit into short bus gates; 

• there was pressure to add solo motor cycles to the mix.

DfT's solution was to make it unlawful to place the BUS // TAXI & // <cycle symbol> // ONLY road marking and require the use of the BUS GATE road marking inside the bus gate. Some local authorities flout this and continue to place BUS ONLY road markings where buses are the only permitted vehicles. Others place the BUS GATE road marking before the bus gate as a warning or because it won't fit.

Instead, DfT could have added a motorcycle symbol to the BUS // TAXI // etc road marking and made it informatory. This would have allowed local authorities to use it both inside the restricted section of road and before its start (typically just beyond the last junction before the bus gate).

That's why you need to know what BUS GATE means.

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. 

When the first signs for bus gates were introduced in 1975, they were primarily for the start of contraflow bus lanes. As these weren't usually wide enough for buses to overtake cycles, cycles were prohibited. A No Entry sign was used with the plate "Except buses". This was appropriate to bus gates which used pivoting poles: they spanned the full width of the lane and would descend on anyone tailgating.

When rising bollards came into use in the 1990s, cyclists were again usually excluded on safety grounds. The image below shows Bridge Street, Cambridge in 2014. Cyclists have separate cycle bypass lanes beside the bus gate, which extends either side of the central traffic island.

In the 1990s, London saw the introduction of civil enforcement for bus lane and parking offences. Traffic wardens could issue Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs aka "parking tickets") and claim payment without needing to use the courts. 

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. London councils enforced bus gates using their new powers.

In 2010, the Oxford Bus Gate case established that bus gates were bus lanes as far as civil enforcement was concerned. This meant that councils outside London could enforce bus gates using the civil enforcement powers which they already had for bus lanes.

From 2022, local authorities elsewhere in England could apply for civil enforcement powers for moving traffic offences. Most have now done so. They now enforce bus gates as moving traffic offences except where solo motorcycles are permitted, in which case they use the bus lane legislation.

cHANGE FROM Red Traffic Signs to Blue Roundels

By the late 1980s, bus lanes had become ubiquitous and their signage was well understood. There were rectangular blue signs (the numbers are those on the image below):

• 653: warning sign that there's a contraflow bus lane on the other side of the road

• 654: sign placed where a bus lane starts or after a break for a junction with a side road;

• 812.1: warning sign before the start of a bus lane;

and road markings :

• 1010: a dashed thick white line on a taper on the approach to the start of a bus lane;

• 1014: an arrow which accompanies the dashed line of the taper, encouraging you to move out;

• 1048: the words "BUS LANE" in the lane;

• 1049: the thick white line which separates the bus lane from the rest of the carriageway.

Local authorities which were using "Except buses" plates pressed the Department to allow other vehicles to use contraflow bus lanes and bus gates. Rejecting larger "Except plates", the Department proposed blue roundels with symbols for different types of vehicle. One example was already in use in the UK: that showing a cycle. 

Blue roundels were also widely used in continental Europe. There they had a subtly different meaning. They were mandatory instructions to the road users indicated (pedestrians as well as drivers of vehicles) that they had to use the specified lane, cycle track or footway. This was in accordance with the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals. 

The UK is a signatory to the Convention, but has not ratified it. When the UK signed the Convention, the blue roundel showing a cycle was a mandatory instruction to cyclists to get off the carriageway and use the adjacent cycle track. This ceased in 1981, when the sign acquired its current meaning: it informs cyclists of the existence of a segregated cycle track.

The Department carried out trials of blue roundels in the early 1990s and satisfied themselves that they would work. They were introduced in the Regulations in 1994. Because the Regulations weren't changed to allow plates such as "Except buses and cycles" below a No Entry sign, local authorities were forced to switch to blue roundels if they wanted to allow anything other than buses to use contraflow bus lanes and bus gates. 

In this way, the signage for bus gates was changed from a red sign to a blue sign. Psychologically, that is an enormous change. Red is associated with prohibition and restriction. Blue is associated with information. While the use of symbols for different types of vehicle was inevitable, the absence of red from the solution was not. The signs below show some options:

The first two are signs which are currently valid (the plate "Except buses and cycles was introduced in 2016). The other two use both red and blue, to express permission for the white-on-blue vehicles with prohibition for everything else. 

The final option places the blue roundel on a red backing board. These were originally separate sheets of metal onto which signs could be fixed; now the sign and the backing board are manufactured together from a single sheet of metal. They are usually a neutral grey or bright yellow, to make the sign more prominent. Red is not a permitted colour

To see the effect of the change which was made, compare the top two images on this web page, which show bus gates whose signage was approved before 1994, with those below, which use blue roundels.

Some local authorities have retained their old signage for bus gates and even create new bus gates using No Entry signs. Local authorities which used rising bollards at bus gates needed special permission to install them. They had to submit detailed plans of the scheme, including all the signage, and then received special permission for the signage, which typically used No Entry signs. These local authorities recognised that No Entry signs had far greater impact than blue roundels, avoiding the disruption when a hapless motorist got stuck at the bollards with a bus behind them.

Motorists today face substantial financial penalties for passing a blue roundel inadvertently. 

Advance signage for Bus Gates

If they are fortunate, on the approach to a bus gate motorists see the following signs:

Did you spot the deliberate mistake? The last sign is my own creation. It's based on the Finnish road sign for No Through Road Except Cycles. The red bar of the conventional No Through Road sign alerts road users that there is a prohibition ahead. Unlike the first sign, it doesn't require motorists to know what "Bus gate" means. It also informs them which vehicles are allowed through the bus gate.

PCN Codes

The main traffic signs at bus gates 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, where a blue roundel includes a motorcycle, enforcement always uses the contravention code for bus lanes, regardless of whether it's a bus lane or a bus gate.

DfT View of Bus Gates

The words "bus gate" do not appear in legislation or in The Highway Code. In response to a request from the court in the Oxford Bus Gate case in 2009, the Department for Transport (DfT) produced a statement about its understanding of the law relating to bus gates. 

Most of the Department's material about bus gates has been in guidance to local authorities, notably Local Transport Notes about bus priority measures from 1/91 to 1/24. Another key source is The Traffic Signs Manual, which provides guidance to highway engineers about traffic signs and how to use them. Section 9.7 of Chapter 3 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:

Note the sign at the bottom left. This provides advance warning of the bus gate and advises traffic which is not permitted where it should go. 

In this example, the two-way bus gate has been inserted in a section of a straight road. The diagram shows the priorities such that traffic approaching from each direction is turned away to the side road. 

Although it is not stated, we may infer that the Department is advising that where a two-way bus gate is inserted into an existing road, it should run from one junction to another and that at each end of the bus gate, the priorities should be changed to channel traffic into the side road. 

Bus Gate at Each End

Bargate Street, Southampton

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

This view is taken from a mini-roundabout between Bargate Street and a main road. As Bargate Street is perpendicular to the main road, drivers naturally continue straight across the roundabout. The road marking BUS ONLY and the red surface dressing reinforce the advance signage and the upright signs to discourage other vehicles from entering.

Corporation Street, Preston

Corporation Street is classified as the A5071 and runs north-south through the centre of Preston. It is a substantial thoroughfare with a carriageway 10m wide and footways 2.4m wide. It is laid out as two wide lanes.

A bus gate has been inserted between the junctions with Heatley Street at the south and Marsh Lane at the north. Although this section is now a bus gate, no attempt has been made to reduce the perceived width of the carriageway or differentiate it from the preceding section of road.

From the south, the road appears to continue straight on through the cross-roads with the minor road, Heatley Street:

A preceding advance direction sign indicated that the left turn was a dead end and that the right turn led to Hill Street car park. There was no indication where "Other traffic" should go. Nor is there such an indication when traffic reaches the junction.

Ahead, the road has blue roundels, the road marking BUS GATE and red surface dressing. But what are other motorists to do?

The answer is that "Other traffic" should do a 180° turn and go back the way it came. This message is shown on advance direction signs by a separate panel at the bottom with the words "Other traffic" and a sign to turn round at the roundabout ahead. 

Lancashire County Council could have inserted a mini-roundabout at the junction with Heatley Street. See Visible Break to Proceeding Straight On in the section Discouraging Contraventions for "before" and "after" views of where this has been done. 

Here is a view of the junction with Marsh Lane at the northern end of the bus gate:

This is a good example of a bus gate which is bad because it has been implemented with little thought. 

At small cost, it could be improved for all road users:

• a nearside cycle lane and an advanced stop line would allow cyclists to avoid having motorists turn left across their path when the lights turn green;

• the Bus lane cameras sign beneath the advance direction sign duplicates that below the blue roundel. It distracts attention and should be removed;

• the No Right Turn sign just beyond the advance direction sign duplicates the latter's No Entry sign. It should be removed;

• at the traffic lights there should be two additional pseudo-lights:

  • a Turn Left sign to the left of the green light;

  • "Except buses, cycles & taxis" in black on a white background to the left of the amber light;

• a sign with the words "Other traffic" and a chevron pointing left should be installed on a post just in front of the oblique corner to the left of the blue roundel.

The revenue from PCNs is required to be used on road schemes. In the first six months of enforcement, 36,135 fines were issued, generating more than £1 million. To the south of Heatley Street there are nearside cycle lanes on both sides of the road. Some of the income from penalty charges could be used to extend the cycle lanes and place a blue roundel on a central traffic island on the south side of the junction, directly facing motorists.

As the Statutory Guidance to local authorities about civil enforcement says:

Poorly designed schemes can undermine enforcement overall and give rise to public perception of revenue raising. 

Two-way Bus Gate at One End

Bridge Street, Cambridge

This view is looking southbound from a mini-roundabout which was inserted in Bridge Street, Cambridge (this is the opposite end of the bus gate with rising bollards shown in the second section, Enforcement of Bus Gates). 

Cambridge's bus gates show their history (and their careful design under special authorisation from the Department). Whereas the bus gate in Southampton shown above is placed at the exit from the mini-roundabout, Cambridge's are placed back from the junction. This is because they were designed for rising bollards at the exit from the bus gate (see the image in the second section, Enforcement of Bus Gates). 

Each bus gate is the length of a bus with space for another bus between the bus gate and the preceding junction. The bus gate lies between the nearside kerb and an extended traffic island: this prevented vehicles from bypassing the bus gate on the offside. Two buses waiting for the bollards to descend do not block the junction. The "BUS GATE" road markings are placed before the bus gate (the Regulations require them to be placed within the bus gate) so that they are not obscured by a bus in the bus gate. 

Oncoming traffic is not caught unawares by the bus gate to the right of the traffic island. The road is a Pedestrian Zone: at the southern end there is a sign prohibiting all vehicles except buses, cycles, taxis and for access. The only vehicles which cannot pass through the bus gate are those which have entered to access local premises.

Two-way Bus Gate in Middle

Bedford Street, Aberdeen

This is a view of a two-way bus gate in the middle of Bedford Road, Aberdeen. The image has been updated from that in DfT's Local Transport Note 1/24 and may be considered DfT's view of good practice. It accords with Government guidance to local authorities about civil enforcement:

Local authorities should never view enforcement in isolation and should use physical enforcement measures, for example build-outs, wherever possible to prevent contraventions. 

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 authorised traffic in the middle. This gives the signs prominence, lessening the chances of inadvertent contraventions. Many two-way bus gates have little permitted traffic, in which case this configuration helps to reduce inadvertent contraventions.

Bull Lane, Enfield

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

This image is looking north with Bull Lane playing fields on the left and an industrial estate on the right. All the vehicles which can be seen are parked. The blue roundels are on the footway on both sides of the road with the bus gate between them. 

There are areas of grey block-paving, flush with the tarmac, on each side of the road. The plans describe these as "Carriageway build-out" with "kerb flushed with carriageway level". DfT Local Transport Note 1/07: Traffic Calming states:

6.3.10 A build-out is a section of kerb built out into the carriageway on one side only to narrow the road. 

Block-paving flush with the carriageway is not a build-out, does not narrow the road and, when its colour is close to that of the tarmac, is barely noticed by drivers. Parked vehicles outside the industrial units mean that cars coming south occupy the crown of the road. The speed limit is 30 mph (in Haringey, to the south, it is 20 mph). 

Normally, before reaching a bus gate, drivers pass signs warning that it lies ahead (they do so if coming from the south). Map-type signs at preceding junctions show the blue roundel ahead and where "Other traffic" should go. Such signs have been placed approaching the junction with the main road ¼ mile to the north. But none after making that turn. 

Two junctions which Bull Lane has with side roads south of the main road have been closed. Not just closed, but closed so that the junction cannot be used to turn round, let alone provide an escape route. Once you've turned in to Bull Lane, the only way out without a £160 PCN is back the way you came. 

Below are side-by-side aerial views:

• on the left, the swept path is shown of HGVs entering and leaving the yard at 22, Bull Lane. To its south are shown the location of planters where the bus gate was originally proposed;

• on the right, the bus gate is shown as built, with its legal extent outlined in purple. Also shown is the proposed vehicular entrance to a new Selby Centre on the Bull Lane playing fields.

The boundary between Enfield and Haringey is shown in pink.

Enfield's original plan for the bus gate would not have interfered with existing uses of the land on either side of Bull Lane. The bus gate would have been 3.3m wide, with the blue roundels 4m apart at their closest. The physical restrictions would have been obvious and inadvertent contraventions few.

Enfield's revised plan removed completely the visible features of the bus gate. The carriageway retains its full width of 6.6m throughout. Goods vehicles are exempt from PCNs when using land within the purple rectangle as part of a manoeuvre to enter the yard at 22, Bull Lane. 

The blue roundels are more than 7m apart at their closest. From the north, the preceding sign is ¼ mile before. For vehicles turning from Wilbury Way, that sign is placed so as to be illegible.

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. 

As with the two-way bus gate, DfT may be sending a message that one-way bus gates should start at a junction and that motorists should have to make a positive decision to signal and turn into a bus gate rather than just continuing along a road.

Traffic entering a bus lane always has to cross a dashed thick white line before the BUS LANE road marking. DfT's example shows traffic having to cross a dashed white line before the BUS GATE road marking. It is a pity that the regulations do not require a dashed thick white line across the entrance to a bus gate, particularly as dashed white lines are absent on the exits from mini-roundabouts, which are often inserted at junctions before bus gates. 

One-way Bus Gate at Major Junction

King's Road, Reading

A contraflow bus lane runs WNW on King's Road, Reading from a skew junction which it makes with London Road:

The junction is controlled by traffic lights with entry to the bus lane by forking right. Blue roundels on either side of the lane show the permitted vehicles, there is red surface dressing on the lane and the (old) road marking BUS AND <cycle symbol> LANE. 

This was the first contraflow bus lane in the UK. It was created in 1968 when the road was made one-way for other traffic. A photograph of it in use in 1971 is here.

Bridge End, Leeds

Dft's example of a one-way bus gate in The Traffic Signs Manual has a traffic island at its start. Most local authorities use a traffic island to define the outer edge of the bus gate: there is no road marking for bus gates which is equivalent to the thick white line for bus lanes. This is a consequence of the history of bus gates: they were short and local authorities used traffic islands physically to separate them from the rest of the carriageway, so there was no need for road markings to do this.

When bus restrictions applied across the full width of the carriageway, there was no need for a traffic island to indicate to road users where the restriction lay. But for one-way bus gates, the absence of a road marking to define the outer edge of the bus gate meant that local authorities had to use a traffic island, or else the extent of the restriction would not be adequately indicated.

One benefit of using a traffic island at the start of a one-way bus gate was that a Keep Left sign could be put on it. This ensured that vehicles could not simply bypass the bus gate by travelling on the "wrong" side of the road. There is nothing unlawful about doing this: it's what you do when overtaking on a two-lane road.

Leeds is one local authority which has defied convention. They now indicate the extent of bus gates by a patch of red surface-dressing with the words BUS GATE on it.

The signage complies with the Regulations. All that is legally required for a bus gate is a single blue roundel. The road marking BUS GATE is optional; if it is placed, it must lie at the start of the bus gate. The red surface dressing has no legal significance. So this signage merely tells motorists that there's a bus gate between the two blue roundels and that the words BUS GATE lie within it. 

The signs for the two-way cycle lane indicate that the part of the road nearest to the camera is dedicated to cycles, so motorists aren't allowed in it. But they are allowed in the area of road beyond the bus gate. While four-wheel vehicles would have difficulty using it, motorcyclists would not. 

One-way Bus Gate at Minor Junction

Regent Street, Cambridge

The image below shows a one-way bus gate on Regent Street, Cambridge. The bus gate lies just beyond the junction with a minor road on the right, into which "Other traffic" has to turn. Beyond the bus gate is a contraflow bus lane: there are no restrictions on oncoming vehicles.

After passing the sign indicating that "Other traffic" needs to turn right, drivers see the "turn right" arrow as they approach the bus gate. This has blue roundels on either side with the BUS GATE road marking on red surface-dressing. The unadorned arrow combines with the blue roundel directly ahead on the traffic island to give an unambiguous message that drivers need to turn right. 

As the road into which prohibited traffic has to turn is one-way, there will never be any traffic coming out of it. That is why the priorities have not been changed.

Cumberland Road, Bristol

Cumberland Road is similar to Regent Street, Cambridge in being a one-way bus gate which starts just beyond a junction with a minor road. Unlike Regent Street, it is a true bus gate rather than the start of a contraflow bus lane: the bus gate extends for a distance of 4m to the left of the traffic island ahead.

While this looks similar to the preceding example. It's actually very different because of the nature of the road to the left, beyond the tree and what lies at its end. It's a two-way road leading to the SS Great Britain, a major tourist attraction with 150,000 - 200,000 visitors a year. 

At this point, you've just passed an extremely tall (so hard-to-read) advance direction sign which has told "Other traffic" to turn first left, i.e. just before the sign to SS Great Britain. That sign actually relates to the road beyond the tree. 

At the junction, there is red surface dressing ahead with the word BUS GATE. What there is not is a road marking before the junction directing "Other traffic" to turn left or a sign saying that the SS Great Britain is to your left.

Given the flow of traffic to and from the SS Great Britain, there are strong reasons to change the priorities here and have Cumberland Road flow into and out from the road leading to SS Great Britain. This would require buses and other vehicles which wished to continue straight on to signal and give way to traffic coming from SS Great Britain. It would bring the design of this bus gate into accordance with DfT's examples of bus gates in the Traffic Signs Manual.

The configuration of roads here is almost a carbon copy of the bus gate on John Dobson Street, Newcastle. When it was installed in 2016, it was the highest-grossing bus gate in the UK. After protests, enforcement was suspended until the Chief Adjudicator reported on appeals against PCNs. She excoriated Newcastle for the scheme. Newcastle changed the priorities to make traffic flow into a side road, which was a minor cul-de-sac. 

In its first 15 months of operation, Bristol City Council issued 67,128 PCNs here and collected £2.5 million.

Discouraging Contraventions

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 drivers need to make a positive decision to enter the bus gate, even if it lies straight ahead;

• a mini-roundabout is inserted with a sign directing "Other traffic" where to go, so that drivers don't just continue straight on;

• road markings are placed to emphasise the turn for prohibited traffic.

CCTV cameras for moving traffic offences typically cost £10,000 a year to run. If the road layout and signage are good, the income from PCNs may not cover the cost. Councils then have three legitimate options:

• retain the CCTV at a cost to local taxpayers to keep the bus gate working well;

• remove the CCTV and hope that drivers will continue to respect the signage;

• remove the CCTV and the bus gate and allow all drivers to use the road.

This last option has the merit that it encourages respect for traffic signs elsewhere. Signs which are routinely ignored are bad for everyone.

Changed Priorities

DfT's examples of bus gates in the Traffic Signs Manual show schemes in which the priorities require motorists to signal and turn into the bus gate. 

John Dobson Street. Newcastle

John Dobson Street in Newcastle is a two-way road, one end of which (past the Town Hall) had a two-way bus gate installed:

As with many bus gates, it had the necessary regulatory signage but inadequate advance signage. The road layout led many to enter the bus gate inadvertently.

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 look very much like the bottom end of the DfT's example of a two-way bus gate (see Figure 9-26 in the section Two-way Bus Gates):

DfT used this image in Local Transport Note 1/24 to illustrate bus gates. The road to the left into which traffic flows is a minor cul-de-sac in which vehicles have to turn round before returning whence they came.

Visible Break to Proceeding Straight On

Nottingham Road, Nuthall

When new roads bypassing Nuthall were built, the former "A" road was declassified and diverted onto a roundabout between the new roads. Subsequently a restriction to buses and cycles only was applied between 4 and 6 pm, Monday - Friday:

As the signage before this junction did not hint at what was about to happen, the restriction was not obeyed. Nottingham Council did not then have civil enforcement powers for moving traffic offences. They inserted a mini-roundabout with an advance direction sign:

Not only does the mini-roundabout force drivers to slow down and think where they are going, the text indicating when the restriction applies is about twice the size of that on the previous sign. The times of operation are now simpler, making it easier to process the information: hours rather than half-hours. 

Grovebury Road, Leighton Buzzard

A section of road 150m long which is used as a single-lane one-way bus gate is visibly different from the two-lane sections of road at each end.

No Entry signs have been used at both ends, with an "Except buses" plate at this end. 

This bus gate was created in 2024 and has an ANPR camera paid for by the developer of the neighbouring housing. While the design of the bus gate makes inadvertent contraventions unlikely, it also reduces the potential revenue to a fraction of the cost of operating the camera. It seems unlikely the camera will ever be activated. As locals know this, some disregard the restriction.

Road Markings to Emphasise the Turn for Prohibited Vehicles

Chestergate, Stockport

Chestergate in Stockport has a contraflow bus lane which dates back at least to the 1980s. The contraflow used to start at a major junction controlled by traffic lights. After redevelopment in 2019, it was shortened and now starts at a minor junction with the road on the right shown below:

The road marking is explicit: any vehicle which is not a bus, a cycle or a taxi should turn right. It reinforces the message which is conveyed here by No Entry signs with Except plates rather than the usual blue roundels. 

There does not appear to be a CCTV camera, so the signage has been designed with the single purpose of maximising compliance. There are no purchase or running costs of an ANPR camera or enforcement costs for the council.

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

Headstone Lane, Harrow

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

Beresford Road, Reading

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

There aren't signs for the width restriction to the left of the bus gate because the road is already width-restricted except for buses.

Heybarnes Circus, Birmingham

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. Movements around the roundabout are also controlled by traffic lights.

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. 

Cox Lane, Chessington

At Cox Lane, Chessington, the road has been split into three sections. Traffic approaching from either direction which follows the road markings is directed around right-angle bends. Vehicles which were travelling west find themselves going north, while those which were travelling east find themselves going south. 

Between these two bends, the middle section of Cox Lane has width-restricted lanes for vehicles other than buses and cycles, together with bypass lanes which buses use to avoid the width restrictions. Drivers in each direction need to turn left into a width-restricted lane and then right in order to remain on Cox Lane. The view shows the bend where westbound drivers need to turn left into a width-restricted lane to continue westwards:

Camrose Avenue, Harrow

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. 

This is not a Bus Gate

Castelnau, Hammersmith Bridge, London

This may look like a bus gate: there's a pivoting pole across a lane which has a blue roundel with a bus on it. But it's not a bus gate, as now understood. 

It doesn't stop other vehicles from using the lane. It's already a bus lane, with the standard signage which does that. Instead it's to control the buses which are using the bus lane.

Hammersmith Bridge has been falling down ever since it was built. The original bridge was built in 1825 - 1827 by private enterprise as a toll bridge. It was rebuilt in 1885 - 1887 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, but on the same footings as the original bridge.

By 1926 the Royal Commission on Cross-River Traffic in London reported:

... the bridge is so constantly under repair that it is frequently available for only one line of vehicles and is the source of so much delay and congestion of traffic. We regard it as essential that Hammersmith Bridge should be rebuilt as soon as possible and widened to take four lines of traffic, without restriction of weight.

In 1998 a weight limit of 7.5 tonnes was imposed, the buses were changed from double deckers to single deckers and the barriers were installed. They ensure that no more than two buses can be on the bridge at any time. 

The bridge closed to motor traffic in 2019. At the last report, it will cost £250 million to restore to a state which a Royal Commission a century ago declared inadequate.

More Information

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

• Early Years

• Bus Lanes

Written 9th November 2025; last updated 25th February 2026