Pointless Bus Gate?

One of the late service change notices that came through last week was for the 52 which serves Plympton and Derriford Hospital. I went to have a closer look at the new route and the reason for the change, or at least the new Bus Gate…

The new route in and out of Derriford Hospital

The new Bus Gate is at the crossover right next to St Matthews School on the map.

which allows buses to turn into Brest Road after coming off the Platinum Parkway. The buses then continue up to the roundabout then along Brest Road to Derriford Hospital via Morlaix Drive. On the return from Derriford Hospital buses have to come down William Prance Road (from the left in the photo above and then turn right onto The Parkway. It all looks very nice with the red bus lanes etc but I still dont really understand why the bus gate is needed as buses previously ran up William Prance Road to the roundabout. It would just make more sense for the route to be the same in both directions.
The 52 is the only route to come up through The parkway with its nice smart bus lanes. When the route was first diverted to use the new road it was officially non stop along this section which seemed a bit pointless although now to looks like all stops are served although for some reason this stop is shows as a temporary bus stop!

If only the timing was better I would use this route myself – I would have to wait another twenty minutes for this bus to turn around and come back down the hill…