The city believes the move would help ensure greater reliability and faster connections for public transport. It would also improve traffic safety and reduce dangerous overtaking maneuvers involving public transport vehicles that can force drivers to brake suddenly. According to the city's press office, such incidents can cause passengers to fall and suffer serious injuries, while falls on public transport have increased in recent years.

Tallinn City Government noted that traffic volumes in bus lanes have already grown significantly in recent years. Statistics show that at the end of 2020, there were 1,649 fully electric vehicles registered in Estonia. As of May 1 this year, the number of registered fully electric M1 and N1 category vehicles had risen to 11,525, of which 7,818, or 68 percent, are located in Harju County.

The city said the rapid increase in electric vehicles has slowed the movement of public transport in bus lanes and made it more difficult for vehicles to stay on schedule. In Tallinn's view, this indicates that access to bus lanes should be restricted rather than expanded.

"Even today, it is difficult to effectively monitor which vehicles actually have the right to use bus lanes and which do not. In practice, ride-sharing vehicles also use these lanes and in the case of taxis, it is impossible to determine whether they are carrying a passenger or driving empty. To ensure clearer traffic management and more effective enforcement, we support a solution under which only M2 and M3 category vehicles would be allowed to use bus lanes," Deputy Mayor Joel Jesse (Center Party) said.

M2 and M3 category vehicles are buses.

As recently as December, Tallinn Deputy Mayor Kristjan Järvan (Isamaa) proposed allowing cars with at least two passengers to use the capital's public transport lanes.

Tallinn against allowing motorcycles to use bus lanes

Tallinn does not support a proposed amendment to the Traffic Act that would allow motorcycles to use public transport lanes, saying the change would reduce the smooth flow of public transport and directly affect vehicles' ability to stay on schedule.

According to Jesse, bus lanes must remain primarily an advantage for public transport.

"Our goal is to make public transport faster and more reliable so that more people choose it for their daily travel. If additional vehicles are allowed into bus lanes, public transport's competitiveness will decline and the risk of conflicts and accidents will increase, especially in locations where rail transport also uses the lane — riding a motorcycle on tram tracks is dangerous," Joel Jesse said.

Tallinn also believes allowing motorcycles into bus lanes would run counter to the goals of the city's Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, which aims to increase public transport speeds and improve traffic safety.

Members of the Riigikogu's motorcycle riders support group have submitted a draft bill to the government that would give motorcycles the right to use bus lanes. Supporters of the proposal include MPs from Eesti 200, the Reform Party and Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE).

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