A council has made more than £500,000 in penalty fines from a new bus gate that was installed at the start of 2024.
The new bus gate on Cumberland Road, in Bristol, has raised more than half a million pounds in fines to car drivers since being introduced at the start of 2024.
From when the bus gate became active on January 2 to March 19, more than 22,000 penalty charge notices have been issued raising £513,369 for Bristol City Council, according to figures released in a Freedom of Information request.
Only applicable on the inbound lane, the bus gate prioritises public transport over private vehicles by only allowing buses, cycles, taxis and motorcycles to enter the central areas of the city using Cumberland Road.
The Friends of Cumberland Basin predicted in September that the bus gate close to Gas Ferry Road “will obviously be a lucrative source of funds to a financially-strapped City Council”, saying that the council “have offered no coherent reasons for the gate”.
More than 1000 people have signed a petition asking the city council to remove the bus gate, saying that it “negatively impact(s) the local economy, and the lives and livelihoods of residents & businesses”.
Penalty charge notices for driving through the bus gate cost £35, with some drivers blaming Google Maps for still showing that the fastest way to get into town is along Cumberland Road.
Bristol City Council’s interim executive director of growth & regeneration, John Smith, has previously said that the bus gate on Cumberland Road “would achieve elements of the wider transport policy aspirations of the City Council’s overall transport strategy”.
In the city centre, there are also camera-enforced bus gates on Bristol Bridge and at the entrance of Baldwin Street from the centre.
The bus gates are part of the council’s Bristol Transport Strategy and aim to help meet air quality and 2030 climate goals.
To be carbon neutral by 2030, 90 percent of cars must be electric and car journeys across Bristol must be reduced by 40 percent.
