Bus lane camera a council cash cow

SIR, – I have noticed when driving north on King Street then left to St Machar Drive toward the new Diamond Bridge that traffic on the roundabout is always queued back and noted that the end of the bus lane was very close to the junction leaving traffic turning left to go almost on to the roundabout before being able to move to the inside lane.

Wondering why the end of the bus lane was so close to the junction and being a little sceptical about the reason I made a freedom of information request to see how many cameras monitored the bus lane from Nelson Street to St Machar Drive and was astonished to find that, despite the distance involved, there is only one camera on the entire stretch and that it is positioned at the end of the lane.

It appears that the idea of bus lane enforcement is taking second place to penalising motorists heading left up St Machar as almost 5,000 fines have been issued in the last two years by this camera.

If the bus lane ended 20 yards earlier it would probably improve traffic flow but the city council would lose a great deal of this revenue as I believe many would be the result of drivers, in many cases, inadvertently, moving left too early and being caught in the last 10 yards of the lane.

There is no camera enforcement for the vast majority of this bus lane and drivers who patiently wait whilst vehicles jump in and out of the lane gain 10 or 20 yards each day appear to go unpunished but any driver with the temerity to move left out of queuing traffic at the roundabout to enter an empty lane running to the left-hand turn will be punished despite their action probably helping to reduce any harmful emissions whilst they are at a standstill and also cutting traffic delays on a very busy roundabout. Walter Service, Fairview Manor, Danestone, Aberdeen