Other measures to get more people on the buses are also being looked at
No-stopping ‘red route’ roads could come to Greater Manchester as transport chiefs ‘look at’ the concept which is common in London.
Speaking at Labour Conference in Liverpool, Greater Manchester’s Transport Commissioner Vernon Everitt revealed TfGM is looking at bringing red routes into the city-region’s ‘key corridors’. He also said that ‘lane rental’ schemes are also being looked at.
Both measures could be deployed as bosses try and reduce the number of residents using their cars. However, Mr Everitt said you ‘cannot blame’ motorists for getting behind the wheel.
“Two-thirds of people in Greater Manchester drive at the moment, and you cannot blame them,” he said. “The public transport is not up to it. This is about providing people with choice — so we can drive it from two-thirds driving to it being closer to fifty-fifty.”
Some 390 miles of red routes are in place in London, which were introduced in 1991. On those sections of road which have double red lines running alongside, it is illegal to stop at any time of day.
They have been introduced to some parts of the West Midlands and Leeds since London rolled them out. The other key hint is that Greater Manchester could use ‘lane rentals’, which is a mechanism for councils to charge firms which dig up the road for maintenance or building work.
Currently, to implement a scheme requires permission from the Secretary of State for Transport.
According to Mr Everitt, lane rentals will allow local authorities to ‘get [companies] on and off the road quickly and prevent them from digging up the same stretch five times in two weeks’.
However, in terms of getting bus ridership up, the ‘game-changer’ has already happened in Greater Manchester, Mr Everitt continued. He added: “The game-changer for buses in London was the creation of the mayoralty in 2000.