It looks like the new car sharing lane on the M606 is nearing completion. There are huge hoardings in Bradford cajoling us to visit www.wycarshare.com. If you root around on the web, you can find the feasibility study presented to the Department of Transport but not any interim decisions (much in the study appears to have been ignored or glossed over, probably due to the political urge to put on the green tinted glasses).
On the 20 March 2006, the Transport Secretary Alistair Darling announced the first ever UK motorway car share lane.
Drivers using the M606 and M62 between Bradford and Leeds, in West Yorkshire, will benefit from the £2.5 million initiative, which was introduced in Spring 2008.
The one-mile lane aims to cut the average peak-time journey by eight minutes.
The M62 announcement was the second confirmed location for a car-sharing lane, following on from the scheme for Junctions 7 to 10 of the M1. Work on widening the motorway for the M1 scheme has already started and will be operational in 2008.
A saving of eight minutes? A one mile stretch of lane? Apparently 84% of cars only have one person in them at this junction at rush hour, including mine. If you can sail through this lane at 60mph which will take one minute, whilst you crawl through the junction at 6-7mph then it is indeed possible. But, let us explore the unintended consequences that might arise.
First of all, let us assume that this great exercise in social engineering fails miserably. People treat attempts to force them into car sharing with distain, or the practicalities make it unworkable for most. The tiny minority of cars that use this road would become an embarrassment for the Department of Transport and the scheme is recognised as a massive failure. Eventually they would have to capitulate to the hugely irritated road users and just turn it into a sliproad, something that should have been built in the first place.
Conversely, let us assume it is a runaway success, the multiple occupancy vehicles skyrocket, at which point the lane becomes meaningless and just as congested as the others. You can argue that more people in cars means less cars on the road and this is true to an extent, but the claim that “a car shared is a traffic jam halved” is obviously tosh, it should be more accurately stated as a car shared is a traffic jam fractionally reduced.
There is also the third way which is where it doesn’t actually achieve very much, because it doesn’t actually cure the other problem- Junction 26 to 27 backs up anyway due to it being a hill and a very busy section. There are supposedly plans to make it four lanes there, but not for another couple of years (It is more likely to be a use the hard shoulder scheme anyway).
Is car sharing viable? Well, yes, but it is not for everybody if you work complex shifts, have managerial responsibilities or need to stay later/arrive earlier due to operational demands. Indeed I had discussions with someone at work who doesn’t live too far away from me when I didn’t know when I’d be able to drive again. They set off later than me and are sometimes still at work three hours after I’ve set off home again…
There is something else being carefully ignored for now but will probably sneak in quietly through the back door - being able to buy the right to drive in the lane which can be policed by the inevitable fine cameras. In America they are now known as Lexus Lanes.
Update: According to the Daily Mail, it is already up the flagpole, waiting to see who salutes it. According to Ruth Kelly:
“There is a compelling argument for car-share or charged lanes, which have been used for some time in the U.S.
“In order to get maximum benefit, access to car-share lanes is limited to vehicles carrying passengers, or single drivers willing to pay a toll.
“I intend to explore the possibility for taking a similar approach here where we are adding new capacity.”
