Dereham Road is an important public transport corridor into Norwich and up to eight buses per hour use the existing bus lane that is in place, carrying up to 125,000 passengers per month.  It is important to note that the bus lane can also be used by taxis and those cycling, with surveys from October 2019 showing up to 150 people per day cycling towards the city in the bus lane.

There are numerous benefits to bus lanes, which include:

• Increased bus service reliability;
• More consistent bus passenger journey times;
• Encourages greater use of public transport, particularly through a modal shift from car;
• Enables buses to stop at the bus stops along the route out of the general flow of traffic;
• Provides a safer environment for those cycling along the road;
• Provides a lane for emergency vehicles.

For the reasons above, the bus lane is operational 24 hours a day and the majority of bus lanes in Norfolk operate on this basis.  These benefits are greatest at peak times of the day when the transport network is at its busiest, but benefits are still realised throughout the remainder of the day. If restrictions are changed to allow general traffic to use the bus lane, the benefits that bus lanes bring would be substantially reduced or removed altogether.  Additionally, this would create a dual carriageway environment in this area where traffic is likely to speed up and exceed the speed limit.  Delays to general traffic are minimised by stopping the bus lane short of busy junctions.

The County Council has secured funding through the Transforming Cities Fund (TCF), which has the aim of delivering clean transport priority corridors linking economic growth areas with existing and future housing and educational provision.  Dereham Road is one of these corridors and TCF proposals along various sections of Dereham Road are aimed at encouraging more people to use public transport, walk and cycle.  First Bus are investing £18m in the provision of new buses and bus service enhancements as part of their commitment to the TCF programme, which includes new buses and a weekday service of up to 10 buses per hour for the Red line service along Dereham Road.  This investment is based around improvements to journey time reliability and journey time savings that can only be delivered through existing and proposed bus priority measures, including bus lanes, being in place and operational all of the time.

For the above reasons, the Council does not propose to remove or alter the timings for this important bus and cycle priority measure.