Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he plans to take to support the (a) increased, (b) easier and (c) safe use of (i) motorcycles, (ii) e-scooters and (iii) other two-wheeled commuter transport as the covid-19 lockdown is eased.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The recent update of the Department’s Road Safety Statement, which was published on 19 July 2019, provides steps to improve motorcycle safety.
In response to COVID-19, the Department is accelerating and expanding planned trials of rental e-scooters, allowing all areas that want to host trials to do so. We will introduce legislation in June to allow trials to begin.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of motorcycle road injuries involved drivers and riders who acted unlawfully with respect to using the road in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The Department does not hold information on whether drivers or riders involved in reported road accidents acted unlawfully. The closest information available in the road casualty data is contributory factors.
Contributory factors provide some insight into why and how road accidents occur. They are designed to give the key actions and failures that led directly to the actual impact to aid investigation of how accidents might be prevented.
When police officers attend the scene of an accident, they are able to select up to six factors they believe contributed to the accident (for each vehicle and casualty involved). Please note that this does not assign blame for the accident to any specific road user, but gives an indication of which factors the attending officer thought contributed to the accident.
The contributory factor data for motorcyclist casualties for the last three years is given in the table attached. Contributory factor statistics presented here are allocated to the drivers, riders or pedestrians involved in accidents where the motorcyclist casualties occurred.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what comparative assessment he has made of exposure to particulate matter between commuting at (a) street level and (b) on the London Underground; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
My Department has not carried out such an assessment. Air quality in London, and on the London Underground is the responsibility of the Mayor of London. The Committee on the Health Effects of Air Pollution did publish a review of air quality on the London Underground last January, which was discussed with Transport for London.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect on trends in the level of road casualties of policies to promote active travel; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Government's Response to the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy Safety Review was published in November 2018 and sets out how it intends to achieve its ambition to make cycling and walking a safe, easy and affordable travel option. As part of the review the Department commissioned a rapid assessment to explore the evidence around the impact of cycling and walking interventions on improving cyclists and pedestrian safety and feelings of safety, and whether these can be introduced without adversely effecting participation in cycling and walking. The results of this assessment will be published in due course.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which local authorities allow motorcycles access to bus lanes; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of revising guidance on motorcycle access to bus lanes to create consistency; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016, as amended, prescribe the traffic signs to be used to indicate if motorcycles are allowed into bus lanes. This is a decision for local traffic authorities to make, and they are not required to inform the Department. Accordingly, the Department does not hold information on which authorities allow motorcycles into bus lanes.
Traffic authorities are responsible for providing traffic management schemes for their roads and are free to make their own decisions about the streets under their care, provided they take account of the relevant legislation.
The Department has published Traffic Advisory Leaflet (TAL) 2/07 ‘The Use of Bus Lanes by Motorcycles’ in 2007. There are no plans to revise this. TAL 2/07 is available at the link below:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/traffic-advisory-leaflets-1989-to-2009
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the sustainability of motorcycling as a form of transport; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government has not made any recent assessment on the sustainability of motorcycling as a form of transport.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether there has been a modal shift in the number of injury-causing accidents in locations where turbo-roundabouts have been introduced; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department does not hold a record of where and when turbo-roundabouts are introduced, and the information held on junctions in its road accidents data does not provide this level of detail.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will meet with representatives of the motorcycling community to discuss exemptions to emissions charges and the potential contribution motorcycles can make to reducing net emissions.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Emissions charges for motorcycles are proposed in London only, as part of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). Decisions about the level of charges and which categories of vehicles are charged, are a matter for the Mayor of London. Representatives of the motorcycling community should contact the Mayor to discuss exemptions to the charges.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made a whole life assessment of the overall environmental impact, including vehicle construction, power generation and disposal, of the scrapping of small, medium and large internal combustion engine powered vehicles and their replacement by equivalent electrically powered vehicles; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government has carried out a relative assessment, in terms of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, of different fuel and powertrain options based on outputs from the Transport Energy Model. The modelling makes clear that, even with the current electricity grid emissions, battery electric vehicles are estimated to have greenhouse gas emissions 66% lower than a petrol car and 60% lower than a diesel car. Between now and 2050 the Government project that grid emissions will fall by around 90% with total emissions from electric vehicles falling in parallel.
As well as considering the greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, the Government have also considered the emissions from battery production. As battery production is an energy intensive process, the Government would also expect these emissions to fall over the period to 2050. The results are clear that battery electric vehicles have substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional vehicles even when taking into account the electricity source and electricity used for battery production.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what comparative assessment he has made of the environmental footprint of motorcycles and single occupant cars on comparable commuting journeys; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department for Transport publishes statistics regarding emissions from road vehicles per vehicle kilometre in urban conditions. This includes both petrol and diesel cars, and motorcycles. The latest statistics, from December 2018, are available in Table ENV0302 of Transport Statistics Great Britain. This is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/energy-and-environment-data-tables-env#pollutants-emissions-and-noise-env03 .