Penalty Charge Notice with roadworks..

[JLneonhug]

Hi all,

I'll get straight to the point.

In central london coming heading outbound, there were some road works which forces the traffic into the bus lane, after the while the lanes opened up again but there wasn't a end roadworks sign so one would assume its still ok to go on a bus lane since it forced traffic onto it in the first place. Annoyingly I have a letter came through the post to say I entered a bus lane zone and they want £65 or £130...

Think there's any point writing to them and challenge this? How would I word it to make it sound more convincing? Honestly didnt mean to go onto the bus lane but it was rather confusing in that roadworks moved the traffic into bus lane but not put a sign to say end roadworks or to say its not ok anymore to travel on the bus lane (since it never said use bus lane for because of road works either).. :think:

[Ootohere]

I would word it pretty much as you have.

ask them to look into the situation and the signage at the roadworks at the time..

There may have been many like yourself that were caught out.

There will have had to be a Temporary Traffic Order in place during the works that allowed use of the Bus lane for a given distance & dates covering the period..

If not, why not?

george

[JLneonhug]

There will have had to be a Temporary Traffic Order in place during the works that allowed use of the Bus lane for a given distance.

If not, why not?

Whats one of them? I was in a little bit of a hurry and it was 16:40 (rush hour), I definitely wasn't moving anywhere fast ~1-2mph avg, so I would've seen something along the lines of a big red "use the bus lane" sign if I did pass it. Pretty sure I didn't though, nor did I catch the end road works sign.

[rwbaldwin]

Was the bus lane the ONLY lane passing the roadworks?

[Ootohere]

Unless it was Emergency works like a burst water main,

the Road Works will of had a planned date, Public Notices posted, permits issued and a plan for signage and use of a Bus Lane.

If the Signs are knocked down or Missing then that is the Contractors duty to be sure they are displayed correctly.

If you just miss them, but they were there, then thats down to you really.

george

[JLneonhug]

Its not my usual route but I didn't see any notices like that, im pretty sure I didnt see use the bus lane sign, normally they're stupid big.

Was the bus lane the ONLY lane passing the roadworks?

Yep, was very strange.. I never encountered that before.

When it opened up, I (and a big herd of traffic) assumed it still was available to use since there were no end of road works sign, again stupid big and cant really miss it especially when your at crawling pace in central london.

[rwbaldwin]

In the absence of a 'Use Bus Lane' sign, you can use a bus lane if 'avoiding road works or emergency vehicles'. There doesn't always have to be a roadworks end sign, so as soon as there was another lane available, you should have used it. With only one lane passing the roadworks, you cannot argue that you were held in the bus lane by traffic on your right.

However, roadworks (including 'emergency roadworks') signage and road layout must be clear and not confusing. You were confused by these roadworks, so I would appeal to TfL on that basis.

You really don't have anything to lose. One of my brother's mates went into a bus lane to avoid flooding from a burst water main and even though 'to avoid flooding' isn't a listed exception, he won his appeal.

[littleade]

If you can go back before the roadworks finish and video the route through the roadworks and demonstrate where it fails to meet the COP and that was someway responsible that would help your case.

[Kevsta]

TFL? Should be Transport against London, as the fudgepackers are certainly not for it.

Appeal.

[gadgetman]

The experts on peepipoo should be able to help you with this

[harryja]

Taken direct from the TfL website: http://www.tfl.gov.u...routes/963.aspx

When can I enter a bus lane?

• During non operational times. The times of operation are indicated on the sign
  
• If you want to turn left within 20 metres of the junction - an arrow or a dotted white line will indicate if this is allowed
  
• If avoiding road works or emergency vehicles
  

Edited 1 May, 2013 by harryja

[JLneonhug]

I've got a google maps up to see how from LHS of bus lane switches to RHS shortly before a roundabout - https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=a219+southbound&ie=UTF-8&ei=EVmBUfCrCIjIOejhgLAL&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg

I was travelling on A219 end of Shepherds bush road towards the big roundabout.

You can imagine with road works blocking it off then releasing 2 lane traffic it gets a bit confusing in heavy traffic (tbh I was just following traffic).