1994 Reforms

Local Transport Note 1/91

The changes to the Traffic Signs Regulations which were made in 1994 were the result of a long gestation. The first public indication that substantial changes were afoot came in 1991 when the Department of Transport published Local Transport Note 1/91: Keeping Buses Moving. This set out the full range of bus priority measures which highway authorities were encouraged to adopt.

Separate chapters covered with-flow bus lanes, contraflow bus lanes and bus-only streets (which included bus gates). The first two were the measures for which the Department had been providing signage; the third was what highway authorities had been doing off their own bat using “No Entry” signs with “Except buses” plates.

As bus lanes were measures which the Department had been advocating for years and for which recommended practice had been set out in the Traffic Signs Manual, LTN 1/91 largely repeated established practice.

New Signs

Its chapter about bus-only streets was more interesting. Not only did it survey existing practice (see Bus Gates), it introduced new signs which highway authorities could use. For the first time, these made it possible for highway authorities to allow cycles to use schemes which had until then been strictly bus-only. Until the new version of TSRGD was issued in 1994, local authorities did, however, need to submit their schemes to the Department and obtain permission to use the new signs. 

The signs which were made available are shown below:

Of these the most significant was the blue roundel with a bus and a cycle (later diagram 953). This was, in effect, the answer to the missing “Except buses and cycles” plate for a No Entry sign.

The pedestrian zone signs could be used to prohibit all through traffic except buses and cycles but still allow vehicles access to local premises. A bus gate could be placed at one end of a section of road between two junctions with the rest of the section made a pedestrian zone.

These signs became generally available as part of TSRGD 1994.

TSRGD 1994

Change in Definition of Bus Lanes

1970s and 1980s

TSRGD 1975 and TSRGD 1981 didn’t formally define bus lanes. Instead the descriptions of signs and road markings referred to:

lane marked on the carriageway by the marking in diagram 1048 (BUS LANE) and bounded by the marking in diagram 1049 [solid longitudinal line] reserved for the use of stage carriages, scheduled express carriages, school buses and works buses …

1994

TSRGD 1994 introduced a formal definition of bus lanes as far as some traffic signs were concerned:

23.— (1) In the sign shown in diagram 962, 962.2, 963, 963.2, 964, 1048 or 1048.1 the expression “bus lane” has the meaning given in paragraphs (2) and (3).

(2) Before 1st January 1997 “bus lane” …

(3) After 31st December 1996 “bus lane” … means a traffic lane reserved for—

(a)  motor vehicles constructed or adapted to carry more than 8 passengers (exclusive of the driver);

(b)  local buses not so constructed or adapted; and

(c)  pedal cycles and taxis where indicated …

There is a significant change here: for the specified signs, bus lanes are no longer exclusively lanes with the solid white line at their outside edge. Now they are traffic lanes reserved for buses and, if the signage so permits, pedal cycles and taxis. This meant that some signs which warned pedestrians and motorists of bus lanes could be used regardless of whether the bus lane was a “proper” bus lane or not. The specified signs included diagrams:

• 962 and 962.2 (formerly 812.2): bus lane(s) on a road at junction ahead

• 963 (formerly 810.1): direction in which pedestrians should look when crossing a bus lane;

• 964 (formerly 655): end of a bus lane.

As General Direction 16 bundled diagram 1048 (BUS LANE) or 1048.1 (BUS AND <cycle symbol> LANE) with diagram 1049 (solid longitudinal line) and diagram 959 or 960 (start of a bus lane), those road markings remained exclusively for use with “proper” bus lanes.

2002

TSRGD 2002 added the following diagrams to the list of specified signs for which “bus lane” meant any lane reserved for buses:

• 877 (formerly 812): lanes at junction ahead

• 878: bus lane cameras

It also added the “BUS ONLY” and “BUS & <cycle> ONLY” road markings for use on “improper” bus lanes.

2010

In 1999, local authorities in London were given powers to use CCTV evidence in civil enforcement of bus lane contraventions. This was extended to other local authorities in England in 2005. In 2006, civil enforcement in London was extended to moving traffic contraventions, including those at bus gates. Outside London, local authorities did not acquire such powers until 2022. 

Oxford High Street has had a bus gate since 1999. It used specially-authorised signage because the restriction did not comply with TSRGD's requirements for a bus lane, nor with the requirements for blue roundels (the restriction was part-time). Having consulted their lawyers, Oxfordshire started taking civil enforcement proceedings for contraventions under the bus lane regulations. 

After some successful appeals by motorists, Oxfordshire took judicial review proceedings against The Bus Lane Adjudicator. The resulting judgment in 2010 found that, for the purposes of Transport Act 2000, the whole width of Oxford High Street at the restriction was a bus lane. Local authorities outside London could use civil enforcement at bus gates because they were bus lanes under Transport Act 2000.  

LTN 1/91 was updated and reissued as LTN 1/97.