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The M4 bus lane was a controversial bus lane on the eastbound (London-bound) carriageway of the M4 motorway between Heathrow Airport and central London. It operated between junction 3 (A312) to the start of the elevated 2-lane section near Brentford. The lane, which had no intermediate junctions, was reserved for buses, coaches, motorbikes, emergency vehicles and licensed taxis but not mini-cabs.〔 It was positioned in Lane 3 on the motorway, causing bus drivers to switch lanes between 1 mile and 500 yards before the lane started. The lane opened as a pilot in June 1999 and was made permanent in 2001. It was suspended during December 2010 using an 18-month Experimental Traffic Order after which it will be reinstated temporarily for the 2012 London Olympics. It is then likely to be scrapped permanently.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Work starts to remove M4 Bus Lane )〕 ==History== The M4 is mostly a 3-lane motorway, but between Junctions 2 and 3, it narrows down to 2 lanes and the hard shoulder disappears. As a result, the point where the 3 lanes narrowed to two lanes proved a significant bottleneck. The original intention was to replace the bottleneck with a lane drop at Junction 3, meaning that the road stretch between Junctions 2 and 3 would be narrowed to two lanes. The redundant tarmac was then converted into the busway.〔(CBRD M4 Bus Lane )〕 The lane, replacing the original offside lane (the lane nearest to the central reservation) of the motorway, was opened as a pilot by the then Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott on 7 June 1999 and was made permanent in 2001.〔 A speed limit of 50 mph was created when the bus lane opened, which was then raised to 60 mph in 2003 when motorcycles were also allowed to use the lane.〔 Research into the effect of the lane was undertaken by the Transport Research Laboratory in 2000 and 2003. (see below) On 1 October 2010 it was reported that the transport secretary, Philip Hammond, was likely to announce at the conservative party conference that the lane would be suspended for 18 months from 24 December 2010 to be brought back for the 2012 Summer Olympics after which it would be scrapped. A Whitehall source was quoted as saying that the business-case for removing the bus-lane showed time savings for all current non-bus lane users during the morning peak period and evening peak with no significant change in journey times for existing bus lane users'. During his speech to the Conservative Party conference Philip Hammond explained that removing the bus lane would result in 'shortening average journey times; reducing congestion; restoring a sense of fairness. Seven Freedom of information requests were made the following day to various organisations (see below). A section of the bus lane was removed and the lane reverted to all-traffic use on 16 November 2010. By the end of December 2010 the entire lane had been removed and the full road width reverted to all-traffic use. However, the 60 mph speed limit is still imposed on the stretch from junction 3. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「M4 bus lane」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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