Numbers of bus lane penalties issued in London falls by more than 426,000 in two years

Motorists are heeding warnings that driving in London's bus lanes will result in a penalty but they still continue to flout parking regulations according to figures released today (Friday) by London Councils.

The findings are based on an analysis of the number of penalty charge notices (PCNs) issued by London's 33 boroughs and Transport for London (TfL) between 1 April 2006 and 31 March 2007.

The figures show that a total of 288,394 fewer penalties were issued to motorists using London's bus lanes wrongly compared to the same period the previous year. This is on top of 137,638 fewer tickets issued in 2005/06 from 2004/05 - resulting in a reduction of more than 426,000 (51 per cent) over two years.

A total 6,016,683 penalty charge notices were issued in London in 2006/07. These cover illegally parked cars, driving in bus lanes, contraventions under the London Lorry Control Scheme and moving traffic offences, such as ignoring a no entry sign. This is more than 2 per cent less than the previous year.

Parking violations, such as ignoring the rules on parking in resident bays or on double yellow lines, still account for the lion's share of the total PCNs - with 5,185,772.issued. This is an increase of 2.7 per cent on the previous year. But this has to be seen against the fact that 20.4 billion miles are driven by vehicles on London's roads each year.

Seven more boroughs adopted the enforcement of moving traffic offences during 2006/07 and this resulted in 418,512 tickets being issued for contraventions such as driving the wrong way up a one way street or entering a box junction when the road ahead is blocked. This is a 7.5 per cent increase from the previous year.