Brian Rudman: Expect more bus lane lawbreakers now councillors have wimped out

Photo / Dean Purcell

So much for the ruling Citizens & Ratepayers councillors on Auckland City Council being the party of law and order. In the face of widespread civil disobedience by motorists refusing to stay out of bus lanes, the councillors have caved in.

No doubt the fear of having to stand for re-election in a few weeks added to their lily-livered behaviour.

Through gritted teeth, these "caraholics" claim to be supporters of public transport, but it only takes the anguished squawks of a few errant motorists to bring out their true sympathies.

Transport committee chairman Ken Baguley says the "initiatives" his committee has taken "will help clarify driver confusion around bus lane rules", but they won't.

If anything, they'll just complicate the situation by implying, with a nudge and a wink, that from now on the city will bend the rules and "apply greater tolerance" in certain circumstances.

That will only encourage more law-breaking and, in due course, more yelling and screaming about where the ever-flexible boundaries now lie.

A report to last Thursday's transport committee meeting from Dale Clements, group manager of parking, makes it clear that driver confusion is not the real problem. The real problem is the deliberate refusal of many drivers to accept that they have to stay out of bus lanes.

Following the furore sparked by an aggrieved driver's tale of woe on television, independent researchers were commissioned to trial extra levels of signage. For four weeks they monitored bus bus lanes on Khyber Pass Rd and on Symonds St.

They found that "without the presence of any form of compliance intervention" (eg, a camera), "infringement levels were reported as high as 15.9 per cent".

In other words, without an enforcement officer standing there with a camera, as many as one in six motorists had broken the law ordering them to stay out of bus lanes.

The research showed the largest decrease in infringements occurred "as a result of having a bus lane camera present, plus a 'camera operating' sign."

There had been a clamour from aggrieved motorists for signs to be erected 50 metres from an intersection to indicate where a motorist turning left could legitimately cross into a bus lane. But when trial signs were erected, they made no significant difference to infringement rates.

Disobedience was much higher in the evening rush hour than in the mornings which, the researchers speculated, suggested bad behaviour was not to do with ignorance of bus lanes "but about willingness to comply".

It suggested people were in more of a hurry to get home than to go to work. They also noted a strong "herd mentality", with following motorists eager to follow once an offender crossed into a bus lane.

The researchers concluded that a reluctance to comply with bus lane regulations was the main driver of motorist behaviour and the presence of enforcement activity the most effective way to reduce infringement levels.

Presented with the evidence, councillors discussed various options including cut-out policemen dummies to point an accusing finger at the passing parade.

But in the end, they settled on a watered-down version of existing enforcement which, according to the research, is the main thing keeping the bus lanes relatively car-free.

Among the wishy-washy gestures, the council will lobby the Government to halve the current $150 fine. Councillors also called on their enforcement officers to go soft on offenders.

For example, the law against motorists entering a bus lane except within 50 metres of an intersection should be invoked only "where a motorist has used a bus lane well in excess of 50m". It's a lawyers field day. What is the definition of "well in excess"? Does it change in the wet? Do you have photographic evidence?

Errant drivers will also be allowed to break the 50m law if they turn in early in order to "clearly avoid cutting in on a bus", whatever that means. There are other wimp-outs, but you get the picture.

Perhaps if the issue was about helping out a few genuinely bewildered drivers who had unwittingly strayed into a bus lane, a little leniency would be fine. But this isn't the situation.

The research shows there is a herd of born-to-rule-the-roads motorists, nostrils-flaring, just waiting to invade the bus lanes whenever they think they won't be caught. Last week's decision will only reinforce their defiance.