Many taxi accidents on bus lanes, alderman wants to look more critically at exemption
At the bottom there are certain scheduled bus lanes where an exemption for taxis applies, hence they are allowed to drive on the lane. That remains possible, but in consultation with the taxi industry and other organizations, the alderman wants to look for ways to increase road safety, such as additional speed limits and stricter rules of conduct.
The alderman had a study carried out by the Foundation for Scientific Research on Road Safety (SWOV) into the decrease in load cases. An earlier study made it plausible that the number of taxi accidents had been detected between 2015 and 2018, especially in Amsterdam and Utrecht. The first part of the SWOV study, which was completed in early 2022, showed that this increase did not continue in 2019.
The second part was also published at the end of August, about the cause of taxi accidents. This showed that 20 percent of the accidents occurred on the scheduled bus lane. These were mainly collisions; in 70 percent of the cases, a cyclist, pedestrian or scooter driver crossed the bus lane. Often a role was played that (from both sides) no right of way was achieved, that the driver was driving too fast or that the conversation was of limited visibility.
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