Actually buses and bus lanes to be honest. We thought it just sounds a bit racier. But buses are a significant and useful part of our city’s public transport system and to help them run to time, bus lanes are very important.
The matter of cameras on buses was raised, not for security but to enforce the patrolling of bus lanes. This is the arrangement they have in London, but it is not what we will get here in Edinburgh.
There are to be 5 cameras over 10 sites in certain locations to patrol the correct use of the bus lanes. In other words 5 rotating cameras.
The resultant traffic offence is to be decriminalised, and so if you are caught driving your car in a bus lane you will get something akin to a fixed penalty parking ticket. The sites for the cameras were agreed with Lothian Buses, according to the routes where their buses are most often impeded by rogue drivers. It was explained that buses travelling through Jock’s Lodge could be delayed by 3 minutes, but this can add up to as much as half an hour over several junctions on one journey. So more street furniture on our already crowded thoroughfares.
As a fairly random aside, we started wondering this….. If the Airlink bus can be fitted with free wifi, then could the other Lothian Buses also have wifi? What a great thing it would be. The Reporter could spend all day going round the city on buses using a £3 day ticket.
How much does it cost to equip one bus with wifi? We shall ask!
