AZE.US
Azerbaijani transport authorities say taxis will not be allowed to use dedicated bus lanes in Baku for now, arguing that protecting bus schedules remains the city’s top transport priority.
Anar Rzayev, chairman of the Azerbaijan Land Transport Agency (AYNA), said the issue is discussed in many countries but is not currently on Baku’s agenda.
“Frankly speaking, we are not keeping this issue on the agenda right now. The main reason is the priority of maintaining bus intervals. If bus schedules are not protected, other measures lose their meaning,” Rzayev said in an interview with Report.
According to him, the purpose of dedicated bus lanes is to ensure that passengers can rely on public transport arriving on time instead of getting trapped in the same congestion as private vehicles.
Rzayev warned that if buses are forced back into mixed traffic together with taxis and cars, commuters will gradually abandon public transport and return to private vehicles or taxis, increasing congestion across the city.
He also pointed to international experience, saying several cities that previously allowed taxis into bus lanes are now moving in the opposite direction.
Rzayev cited Paris, Singapore and New York as examples where authorities are tightening the isolation of bus lanes, while London has also begun strengthening enforcement.
According to him, those cities concluded that allowing additional vehicles into the lanes disrupted bus intervals and reduced the efficiency of public transport systems.
Rzayev also highlighted a potential loophole specific to Azerbaijan’s system. He said a driver could obtain a taxi permit in one of the regions and then use bus lanes in Baku without actually transporting passengers.
“From the system’s perspective, the vehicle appears as a taxi and enters the bus lane,” he said, warning that such abuses would be difficult to control without broader transport reforms.
He added that before any decision could be made on taxi access to bus lanes, additional changes and regulatory mechanisms would need to be introduced across the transport system.
The agency’s position reflects a broader strategy increasingly seen in large cities worldwide: prioritizing buses over private transport in an effort to reduce congestion and make public transportation more reliable.
AZE.US