Bus lanes just slow down other traffic

It appears that the city council is determined to force through its plans for an extended bus lane in Sturry Road between the Vauxhall Road roundabout and the Asda roundabout [Gazette, October 26] without any proper evaluation of the consequences. I wager the council’s plans have less to do with the efficient use of road space than with its vendetta against the private motorist. A proper consideration of the plans would compare the improved journey times for buses to reach the city centre with the increased journey times of other vehicles which will have less road space to utilise along this stretch of road. I will be very surprised if any objective statistics will be published. Readers should remember the golden rule of bus lanes – a bus lane exists to enable buses to bypass the traffic jams caused by the introduction of the bus lane. In other words, bus lanes are not about speeding up buses, but about slowing other traffic down through the inconvenience caused by the bus lane. Alan Holden Mayton Lane, Broad Oak