Early Years

The First Bus Gates

Bessborough Gardens, Pimlico, London

The first bus gate in the UK was created in 1964 as part of a one-way scheme between Vauxhall Bridge and Victoria. The map below shows the configuration of roads as it was in 1960. 

As can be seen, Bessborough Gardens was then the name of the gardens, the roads on the SW, NW and NE sides of the gardens and the diagonal road which ran from W to E across the gardens. To avoid ambiguity, I shall use the following (pre-1880) names for these sections of road:

• Vauxhall Bridge Road: the NE side of the gardens

• Bessborough Street: the road which crosses the gardens from W to E.

Vauxhall Bridge Road was (and is) part of the Inner London Ring Road. In 1938, the Bressey Report said of the junction at the north-west end of Vauxhall Bridge:

A straight "cross-over" with one additional street (now made one-way) leading away from the junction. The place works tolerably under signal control, but congestion is frequent ...

By the 1960s, congestion was worse. The fundamental problem was that Vauxhall Bridge Road was only wide enough for three lanes of traffic. 

Some traffic to Victoria went west along Bessborough Street and then north-west along Belgrave Road. The plan was to force all traffic to Victoria and beyond to use this route during the rush hour, except for buses, which would be able to continue to use Vauxhall Bridge Road. 

To achieve this, The Stopping up of Highways (London) (No. 24) Order 1963 authorised the removal of the diagonal section of road across the gardens and its replacement by a new road, Bessborough Way, parallel to the roads at the NW and SE sides of the gardens and midway between them. The road on the NE side of the gardens was widened and split into two carriageways between Vauxhall Bridge and just beyond Bessborough Way:

This 1967 photograph is looking north-west from the spot marked with a red X. The bus gate forced traffic towards Victoria to turn left into Bessborough Way. During the rush hour, only buses could continue towards Victoria.

The No Entry signs have the words NO ENTRY in black across the white bar. This makes them pre-Worboys: they could not legally be installed after 31 December 1964. Extraordinarily, the words "Except buses" have been added in white Worboys-style text beneath the white bar. 

A photograph from 1963 shows that pre-Worboys No Entry signs could have exceptions written on them, but that text was, as one would expect, in upper-case. Such signs would have been specially-authorised by the Ministry.

Another photograph of the junction taken in 1967 shows the advance direction sign before the bus gate. This sign uses three colours, which appear as different shades of grey:

• black for the prominent arrow showing which way traffic should go;

• blue for the vertical line representing the road, the border of the sign and for the words ALL ROUTES;

• red for the No Entry sign, the horizontal line separating the main panel from the narrow panel at the top and for the text above it.

The use of:

• the pre-Worboys No Entry sign with the words NO ENTRY in black;

• words written on the No Entry sign itself rather than on a separate plate;

• blue and red for text and for lines on a sign

are all features of road signs before the Worboys reforms. 

They imply that the signs were created and placed before the end of 1964, when TSRGD 1964 came into force. 

The use of the Worboys-style font with mainly lower-case lettering for the words "Except Buses" on the No Entry signs implies that the Worboys Report had been published, i.e. that the signs were created during 1964. This is corroborated by the date of the stopping-up order.

Although the photographs are from 1967, these pre-Worboys features date the signs to 1964. With the signs dating from 1964, the bus gate must also date from 1964.

Tyburn Way, Marble Arch, London

Tyburn Way is a bus-only short-cut across the roundabout at Marble Arch, London. 

From 1851 until the early twentieth century, Marble Arch was the north-eastern entrance to Hyde Park. Then a road immediately to its south was created between Park Lane and Edgware Road. In 1925 the roads around the Arch were converted to one of the first gyratories in the UK with the section to the south of the Arch being called Tyburn Way. 

Gyratories were places where traffic flowed clockwise around a central island. There had been roundabouts and circuses (e.g. Piccadilly Circus) before that, but they weren't subject to rules about how traffic flowed around them. Take the shortest route to your exit seems to have been the approach. 

Between 1961 and 1964, the road system around Marble Arch was remodelled as part of a larger scheme. This included turning Park Lane into a dual carriageway and building an underpass at Hyde Park Corner. 

This aerial view shows the roundabout and its surrounding roads as they are today.

The roundabout is elongated and consists of straight sections with rounded corners and exits. Tyburn Way is now a south-to-north short-cut across it. The elongation arises because Edgware Road, which joins it from the north west, lies some way west of Park Lane, which joins it from the south. 

In February 1965, the police applied to close Tyburn Way. They assessed that it was causing congestion and accidents and that the whole scheme would work better without it. A subsequent assessment showed this to be true and the closure was made permanent. 

At this time, there was no general rule about who had priority on roundabouts. From 1956, some local authorities had introduced the rule to give priority to traffic which was already on the roundabout. This was found to work better than the old practice under which some drivers courteously gave way to vehicles seeking to join the roundabout. Trials of "Give way" signs by the Ministry of Transport began in 1963 and would lead in 1966 to the introduction of "Give way" road markings at the entry to roundabouts ("Give way" signs came later).

In 1966 London Transport introduced Red Arrow buses. These provided "express" services but with fewer seats and more standing. The flagship was the 500 service between Victoria and Marble Arch, which was extended during shopping hours to Oxford Circus. To speed this service up, in August 1966 London Transport proposed opening Tyburn Way to the Red Arrow 500 service only: other London Transport buses would continue to go the long way round when turning right from Park Lane to Oxford Street.

The City of Westminster (Restriction of Traffic) Order 1966 duly reopened Tyburn Way for this very limited purpose. A 1967 photograph shows it to have had No Entry signs with the words "Except for Buses" in white on the red beneath the white bar (so very similar to the signs on Bessborough Gardens). 

In October 1973, Tyburn Way was opened to all scheduled buses by The City of Westminster (Restriction of Traffic) Experimental Traffic Order 1973.

The bus gate remains in use 60 years after the first Red Arrow buses. It continues to use No Entry signs, but with "Except buses" plates rather than text written on the signs. There is now a road marking: BUS ONLY rather than BUS GATE. 

High Street, Watford

Another early bus gate was photographed in Watford in December 1966. It used Motor Vehicles Prohibited signs ("flying motorcycle") with "Except for buses" plates and a BUSES ONLY road marking to ban all but buses and cycles from turning left from the High Street to Market Street. The view below shows the location in 2019. 

Bollards across the full width of High Street beyond the junction meant that other vehicles had to do a U-turn and return the way they had come.

The First Bus Lanes and their Signage

All of the bus gates listed above (and there may have been more, not recorded in photographs held by London Transport Museum) were regarded as "Buses only" lanes. They allowed buses to go where other vehicles could not.

The first bus lanes in the UK, as usually understood, were introduced on Park Lane and Vauxhall Bridge in London on 26 February 1968. They were "Buses only", but ran parallel with other lanes which were open to all vehicles. Their purpose was to allow buses to move faster than other traffic in the same direction. 

The previous bus gates had needed signage only at the point of entry. The new bus lanes also needed signage (i.e. road markings) to keep other vehicles out of the bus lane as it ran beside other lanes. The solution adopted was a continuous single white line about 6" wide (see this photograph). This image also shows the broken white line across the end of the bus lane.

Entry to a bus lane is shown in this photograph from 1970. There is a broken white line across its start with the road marking BUSES ONLY in the lane. This is a contraflow lane, so it uses No Entry signs with "Except for buses" plates.

One issue, which arose with the bus lane on Park Lane, was what to do where there was a nearside junction with a side road. The solution adopted was to have the bus lane continue legally across the side road but to break the continuous white line and write the traffic order to permit vehicles going to and from side roads to cross the bus lane.

Other issues concerned what vehicles beyond buses should be allowed to use a bus lane. The answer, as expressed in the traffic order for Park Lane (some didn't apply to Vauxhall Bridge because the bus lane was in the centre of the carriageway and there are, in any case, no adjacent premises):

• emergency services vehicles;

• vehicles delivering or collecting post from adjacent premises or pillar boxes;

• refuse collection vehicles operated by the local authority;

• vehicles which disabled people were boarding or alighting from, provided they stopped for no more than two minutes.

These subsequently became part of a model traffic order issued by the Department and were standard for with-flow bus lanes.

Park Lane

The bus lane on Park Lane was originally intended to come into force during December 1967 (see notice of 17 November 1967), but The Greater London (Bus Lane) Experimental Traffic Order 1968 (GLC 1968/46) was not made until 15 February 1968 with it coming into force on 26 February 1968. 

The bus lane was nearside southbound from Curzon Street to Achilles Way, with a solid white line on its offside. It applied 4 p.m. - 7 p.m., Monday - Friday. 

Photographs

Vauxhall Bridge

That on Vauxhall Bridge and Bridgefoot was in the centre of the carriageway, carrying traffic from Westminster to Lambeth, with a solid white line on each side. At both ends of each bus lane, there was a transverse broken white line.

Each bus lane and could be used by:

The broken and continuous single white lines were regulatory road markings specially authorised under section 54 of Road Traffic Regulation Act 1967. There was also a specially-authorised sign beside the start of the bus lane which specified its hours of operation. 

Opposite a junction with a side road, the single white line was interrupted and traffic was permitted to cross the bus lane to enter or leave the side road. Legally, the bus lane continued across the junction. 

The notice for the bus lane on Vauxhall Bridge was published on 2 February 1968. The Greater London (Bus Lane No. 2) Experimental Traffic Order 1968 (GLC 1968/47) was made on 19 February 1968 and came into force on 26 February 1968.

Newspaper reports indicate that at the start of the bus lane there were also road markings indicating that it was for BUSES ONLY and the days and hours of operation. 

Most early bus lanes applied only during weekday rush-hours. 

First Contraflow Bus Lane

King's Road, Reading

The first contraflow bus lane in the UK was King's Road, Reading, which came into effect on 16 June 1968. The road is four lanes wide and had been two lanes in each direction, with trolley-buses using the nearside lanes. 

Trolleybuses were due to be scrapped on 3 November 1968, to be superseded by diesel buses. The plan was to make King's Road eastbound with the adjacent London Road westbound. 

To maintain the bus service, the westbound lane used by trolley-buses was converted to a contraflow bus lane. 

Whereas with-flow bus lanes required specially-authorised signage (longitudinal single white lines and transverse broken white lines) to separate the bus lane from the rest of the carriageway, contraflow bus lanes did not. They could use the standard double white line.

Access to the bus lane at its start required the specially-authorised "Except for buses" plate in conjunction with a standard No Entry sign. The road marking BUSES ONLY would presumably have been used as well. Access at other junctions was prohibited by standard No Left Turn or No Right Turn signs. 

Photographs from the early 1970s indicate that at junctions with side roads, the BUSES ONLY road marking was placed in the contraflow lane facing against the direction of travel. This was to discourage drivers from entering the lane going the wrong way.

The experiment proved so successful that it was made permanent for use by diesel buses. It remains in use today.

Physically-separated lanes for Buses

While bus lanes were usually created using white lines, this wasn't the only way to create them. Physical separation was another possibility. This involved creating a kerbed structure (i.e. a very long traffic island, or a series of them) instead of a white line. Such kerbed structures weren't traffic signs, so did not require special authorisation from the Ministry. 

Without special authorisation, a council wouldn't be able (legally) to use an "Except for buses" plate with a No Entry sign, but it could use psychological means to encourage traffic not to enter the bus lane. The BUSES ONLY road marking seems to have been used widely for lanes giving access to bus stations even though it wasn't in the Regulations (it's still used today with yellow box markings at bus stands).

High Road, Tottenham

London Borough of Haringey appears to have been the first to propose a physically-separated bus lane. It seems likely that the signage was specially authorised. On 5 July 1968 it published a Notice of The Haringey (Various Roads) Experimental Traffic Order 1968. 

High Road, Tottenham forms part of the A10. The plan was to make ½ mile of High Road northbound-only except for buses, which would use a physically-separated southbound bus lane. Other southbound traffic would be diverted along Chesnut Road, Tottenham Hale and Broad Lane. As there were northbound lanes for all vehicles but only a bus lane southbound, the bus lane was contraflow.

The start of the bus lane can be seen in this high-angle photograph. Lane markings before its start indicate that vehicles have to turn left. There is a broken white line across the start of the bus lane with the marking BUSES ONLY beyond it. The signs at the start of the lane can be seen in this photograph. On each side of the bus lane there is a No Entry sign with an "Except for buses" plate.

A typical part of the bus lane is shown in this photograph; it is just north of the junction with Colsterworth Road. The road marking BUSES ONLY lies across the bus lane in the direction of travel; NO ENTRY lies across it in the opposite direction.

The Origins of Bus Gates and Bus-only Streets

Where bridges and tunnels had tolls, there would be a toll plaza where the road split into lanes, each with a toll bar. This was usually a red-and-white striped pole which pivoted at one end (this is Dunham bridge near Lincoln in 2009):

Bus-only streets tended to depend on signs and psychological measures such as narrowing of the carriageway and coloured surface-dressings.

Written 13th November 2025; last updated 26th February 2026