Portsmouth private hire taxis to use city bus lanes in trial later this year

City council cabinet member for transport Lynne Stagg said she and council officers had 'agonised' over how to run the scheme, which was first approved in December, in response to safety concerns from cycle groups and support from drivers.

'We came to the conclusion that it was better to do five lanes properly than 53 badly,' she said at her decision-making meeting on Tuesday (July 5). 'And if private hire drivers drive properly then there is not a problem.

'We are not against PHVs, what we want is all vehicles to be driven safely and all pedestrians, cyclists and e-scooter riders to ride safely.'

The trial will start in early October and run into early next year after which a decision on the future use of bus lanes by the trade will be made.

Under it, drivers will be able to use Cavell Drive, Marketway, Mile End Road, Bishop Crispian Way and Queen Street bus lanes which will all be regularly monitored.

Peter Sutherland the representative for Uber drivers in the city said he was ‘for’ the trial but had complaints about the way the matter had been handled by the council and wanted access to be increased to 'almost all' bus lanes.

'Bikes and e-scooters have access to bus lanes without going through any sort of proficiency training - and we have no idea how many of them there are,' he said.

'Yet you throw your hands up in the air at the very thought of skilled, professional private hire drivers having access.

'Over us, you would have some control. Over them, you would have no control.'

But Portsmouth Cycle Forum founder Mike Dobson said the council was treating cyclists as 'potential roadkill'.

'The only safety measure proposed by the council is to check monthly the number of so-called accidents reported to the police,' he said.

In other words, a cyclist actually has to be knocked off their bike for it to be recorded.

'Noting Portsmouth's appalling death toll in the last 12 months of eight pedestrians killed by motorists, it seems the council has got a very high tolerance for road fatalities and is indifferent about cyclist casualties.'

An interim report on the success of the trial will be produced before the end of the year after which the number of bus lanes included could be extended.

It is estimated the trial will cost £56,000.

Councillor Scott Payter-Harris, the Conservative group spokesman for transport said he supported the opening up of bus lanes but not the approach proposed by the council.

'I'm not overly enamoured by this being only five bus lanes,' he said. 'I think this is doomed to fail and it feels like it's been deliberately set up to fail.

'It's going to give a minute dataset - not a full picture of what's happening out there.'

These concerns were echoed by Labour spokesman for transport councillor Graham Heaney but he also emphasised with concerns raised by cyclists and the lack of a complete, safe cycle network in the city.