Informal Consultation: Kings Road Outbound Bus Lane Change of Use

Overview

We are seeking your views regarding a potential change to the vehicles that can use the outbound (eastbound) bus lane on Kings Road, which will include the section approaching the traffic signals toward Watlington Street. A plan is included in the ‘Related’ documents section below.

The decision to undertake this informal consultation was made at the September 2023 meeting of the Council’s Traffic Management Sub-Committee and followed an officer update report relating to a petition that had been received previously. The petition requested access to the bus lane by Reading Borough Council licenced Private Hire vehicles. The report and meeting minutes are available here.

This is an informal consultation, so no permanent alteration to the restrictions can be made as a result of the feedback received, as this would require statutory consultation of the proposed new Traffic Regulation Order.

The Change Being Consulted

Currently, there are two different restrictions related to this section of bus lane, as follow:

1. Eastbound section approaching the traffic signals at Watlington Street – Access by buses, motorcycles, bicycles and wheelchair accessible taxi only; and

2. The eastbound bus lane from Watlington Street to Cemetery Junction (London Road/Wokingham Road) – Access by buses, motorcycles, bicycles and hackney carriages.

We are seeking your views on a potential change to alter both restrictions to allow access for the following vehicles, replicating the inbound bus lane restrictions:

• Buses (no change)
• Motorcycles (no change)
• Bicycles (no change)
• Reading Borough Council licenced Hackney Carriage Vehicles (change 1)
• Reading Borough Council licenced Private Hire Vehicles (change 2)

This consultation will be open until the end of November 2023 and we ask that you please complete the below survey to provide your views. Your feedback is intended to be reported to the Traffic Management Sub-Committee at their meeting in January 2024.

As your feedback will be provided in a publicly accessible report, please do not include any sensitive, personal or identifiable information in your response. We will not be able to include this text in the report and its removal may impact the readability of your comments.