Bus priority to have Dutch-style cycle lanes

Plans have been unveiled to transform travel along Manchester’s Oxford Road, with a major bus priority corridor featuring Greater Manchester’s first ever Dutch-style cycle lanes. Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and Manchester City Council have developed the proposals which are designed to go hand-in-hand with the recently advertised bus priority changes for the city centre. This will see over 25 miles of the network improved or created, including over 4km of segregated bus lanes. General traffic will be limited along sections of Oxford Road as part of it.

A key change of the project includes opening up the road to general traffic overnight from 21.00 until 06.00, seven days a week. Outside these hours sections of Oxford Road will be available for use by buses, hackney cabs, emergency vehicles and cycles only. The enhancements will see the provision of zebra crossing points at all bus stops where there are Dutch-style cycle lanes. The proposed bus lane on Booth Street West is to be removed in order to maintain two lanes for general traffic crossing Oxford Road.

A virtual journey along Oxford Road once the improvements have been made is available at (www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8K_V3c-fJw&feature=youtu.be) and the improvements planned for bus users, cyclists, pedestrians and other road users are viewable at www.tfgm.com/buspriority.