Dick Spring
Question:273 Mr. Spring asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he intends to make provision to allow hackney cars to use the dedicated bus lanes in Dublin. [20710/99]
Written Answers. - Bus Lanes.
Full access to bus lanes is at present permitted only to buses and large public service vehicles. Pedal cycles and taxis may use "with flow" bus lanes.
Hackneys, as private hire vehicles, have not been permitted to use bus lanes in view of their more limited service role, which does not involve publicly standing or plying for hire, and the practical difficulty of distinguishing them from private cars. The Dublin taxi forum, while recommending some form of external identification for hackneys to facilitate enforcement of regulations by the Garda Síochána, nonetheless, recommended against the merging of the separate service roles of taxis and hackneys, against roof signage for hackneys and against permitting access to bus lanes by hackneys. I have no proposals to extend the use of bus lanes to hackneys at this time.
However, the recently made Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations, 1999, provide for a range of improvements to the regulatory framework for taxis and hackneys, following closely the advice of the Dublin taxi forum and discussions with the various interests concerned. In relation to hackneys, the regulations make new provisions for limited external identification of vehicles, the use of two-way radios and telephonic equipment and the carrying of a log of agreed fares.