I was caught out at the junction of Lewes Road and Coldean Lane where I frequently turn left to head back to Mid Sussex. Motorists familiar with the area will know there is a bus lane that runs almost the entire length of Lewes Road which briefly breaks by that junction so vehicles in the only other lane can cut across to make the left turn. Often, the queue of traffic waiting at the lights to continue towards Lewes is lengthy so it seems what I have done, like so many others, is cut across slightly too soon thereby keeping the traffic flowing rather than continue to block northbound motorists. Fair enough, this is a bus lane and I shouldn’t have done it but it wasn’t as if I arrogantly zoomed down the lane the length of Lewes Road snubbing my nose at more law abiding drivers, I just turned a few yards before I should have. I paid the fines as there was no point in arguing but since then I have taken what might be described as an unhealthy interest in bus lane cameras.
On the stretch of Lewes Road between the Gyratory and Coldean Lane, according to my subsequent observations and the map published in The Argus last year, there are two bus lane cameras. Both are sited where bus lanes end and motorists must cut across to turn left; the other being at the Pavilion Retail Park. I spotted none running up past Bevendean, Brighton University or Moulsecoomb prior to Coldean Lane. The same is true at Preston Road at its junction with Preston Drove.
A study in 2023 showed Brighton and Hove City Council as raking in the fourth highest annual income from bus lane fines in the UK; £3.6million. This was derived from 138,704 fines and equated to £69,000 per week. The BBC reported in March this year that almost £7m has been raised in fines issued to motorists using bus gates installed in the centre of Brighton four years ago. This was from more than 230,000 penalty notices being issued at four sites within the Valley Gardens project since 2021, only 7% of those were rescinded on appeal.
Councillor Trevor Muten said they were put in place to “improve traffic flow, safety and bus services”. I get that, I really do, but the signage, particularly for those unfamiliar with the area and especially heading north from North Road to York Place is notoriously ambiguous and many people are fined for not being local enough to pick out the prohibiting road sign from the many others at that junction.
Bus lanes are a crucial town planning device to improve traffic flow and to encourage people to make more sustainable transport choices but it strikes me that Brighton and Hove City Council adopt enforcement options solely around catching people out and making as much money as they can.
Where I was caught, would it not have been more defensible to place cameras along the stretch of road where car drivers might cause actual congestion and hazards? For example, by the university or where Bevendean and Moulsecoomb residents might cross, not at the very point where drivers are forced into a manoeuvre and it’s only paint on the road that dictates whether or not it’s wise. By all means target those supercilious motorists who take short cuts through well-signed Bus Gates or race along lanes they are forbidden from instead. Although that wouldn’t be nearly as lucrative as placing cameras right at the end of the lane where traffic has to move across or to catch confused visitors to the City.
It’s like being penalised in football for being a toe offside; within the letter but not the spirit of the law.
Former Brighton and Hove police chief Graham Bartlett’s Brighton-based Jo Howe crime novel series continues with City on Fire which is now available in paperback.
