2016
TSRGD 2016 added solo motor cycles to the vehicles allowed to use bus lanes and replaced “BUS ONLY” and “BUS & <cycle> ONLY” road markings with “BUS GATE”.
It defines bus lanes as:
a traffic lane reserved for—
(a) buses; and
(b) where indicated on a sign, authorised vehicles, pedal cycles, solo motor cycles or taxis
At the same time, the BUS GATE road marking is defined as:
Road or part of a road with access permitted only for buses and other vehicles when so indicated by any of the [blue roundel signs which include a bus]
These changes (together with other legislation) effectively dissolve the distinction between bus lanes and bus gates. Any area of road restricted to buses and other vehicles specified on a blue roundel can be regarded as a bus lane or a bus gate (or both). Local authorities can choose which type of signage to use. It is common now for contraflow bus lanes to start with signage for a bus gate.
The signage for bus lanes indicates that they are bus lanes and whether they admit cycles, taxis and motorcycles. When these additional vehicles are shown, this means that they are admitted, but not that they are the only vehicles permitted in addition to buses. The traffic orders usually specify that the emergency services and council refuse vehicles can also use a bus lane; they may also specify that other vehicles, e.g. liveried Royal Mail vehicles can. There are also often standard clauses allowing their use by vehicles being used in connection with building works at adjacent premises, maintenance of the road, installation or repair of utilities, etc (see 1980s TRO).
Bus gates are often specified in the same traffic order as bus lanes and have the same additional vehicles.
With-flow bus lanes almost always start with the bus lane signage for them. Some contraflow bus lanes start with the specific sign; others use a blue roundel or No Entry with an "Except buses" plate. Bus gates have never used bus lane signage. These are shown below:
If a Start of Contraflow Bus Lane sign is used, no issues arise if the traffic order permits other vehicles not shown on the sign to use it. But if one of the other signs is used, they do. The meaning of such signs is set out in the traffic signs regulations, and they do not permit other vehicles to be used. While there is a general understanding that the emergency services and those maintaining the highway or utilities can disregard the signs, some local authorities' traffic orders go well beyond this.
With the blue roundels, until 2016 some local authorities covered this by obtaining special permission from DfT to use the plate "and authorised vehicles" beneath the sign. With TSRGD 2016, this plate was made available as a standard option. Some local authorities use it when they place blue roundels at the start of contraflow bus lanes. Others do not.
This is not a mere procedural irregularity of the type which can be waved away by referring to Soneji. Regulation 18 of LATOR 1996 requires local authorities to place signs which show the effect of a traffic order on a road. There are signs which do that: Start of a Contraflow Bus Lane; or a blue roundel with an "and authorised vehicles" plate.
Failure to use the correct signage destroys the claim which local authorities make in their submissions to adjudicators at appeals against PCNs that all the signage is in order and complies with the regulations. The signs may comply with TSRGD 2016, but those signs may not show accurately the effects of the traffic order. This is a breach of Regulation 18 of LATOR.
A local authority places itself on the back foot if it has to argue that its own breach of a statutory duty does not affect its civil claim for a contravention of the traffic order for which the signage was defective. That becomes harder if the local authority has had the defect in the signage drawn to its attention and has failed to correct it.
Written 16th November 2025; last updated 17th November 2025