In the assembly meeting yesterday (July 2) Mr Darren Johnson asked: “Will you rewrite bus contracts to include casualty reduction as a performance target so there's a financial incentive for bus companies to take road safety more seriously?”
Mayor Boris Johnson pledged to look at it.
“If there is some advantage to rewriting contracts I will look at it," he said.
Bus companies are already paid to meet journey reliability criteria as part of the contracts issued by Transport for London.
However, Mr Darren Johnson said financial incentives were a "crucial step" in making roads safer.
"I am concerned that bus drivers are being pressured by managers to speed and to jump red lights in order to meet the reliability criteria and thereby ensure bus companies get their full payments. The Mayor needs to send a message that road safety is as much a priority as the bus running on time.
“The scale of cycling and pedestrian casualties from bus collisions has been a neglected problem for too long. London relies on its buses and there are simple and easy steps that Transport for London could take to make them safer. The Mayor should also commission a safety study which looks at where there are particular bus routes, or stretches of road that need to be made safer.”
