Cycle-lanes - epetition reply
18 January 2007
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to force all road designers to cycle on the cycle lanes they plan."
Read the Government's response
There are two types of cycle lanes that can be introduced by local highway authorities, mandatory cycle lanes and advisory cycle lanes. Both types attempt to create space for cyclists and improve their safety.
Mandatory cycle lanes are created by way of a local traffic regulation order. They are marked by a solid white line and signed to warn all road users the lane is available for cyclists only. It is an offence for other vehicles to enter the lane during the hours of operation. Some lanes only operate during peak hours and are signed accordingly.
Advisory lanes are sometimes also used to create space when a road is either too narrow or too heavily trafficked to provide a mandatory cycle lane. Advisory lanes are indicated by broken white lines, are usually narrower than mandatory lanes and no offence is created when other vehicles enter them.
The use of cycle lanes is not compulsory for cyclists. They can choose to ignore them and use the remainder of the carriageway if they prefer to do so.
There is a great deal of published advice available to local authorities on the design and use of cycle lanes. We also advise authorities to also introduce parking restrictions in cycle lanes to prohibit cars parking in them.
It is certainly true that despite the guidance, some facilities could be better designed. In addition to the wealth of written guidance available, Cycling England, DfT's advisory body on cycling, employ a team of experts who can provide free advice to local highway authorities on the design of cycle facilities.
Such facilities will also be the subject of safety checks and safety audits by the authority. We also encourage authorities to involve local cycle groups in both the design of cycle facilities and to report back on the effectiveness of new schemes. Individual cyclists can always report through local cycling groups who often have a regular dialogue with local highway authorities.
Given the level of guidance and support available for local highway authorities, and whilst we accept that not all facilities are perfect, we do not have any plans to introduce the requirement that road designers should cycle on the roads they design.
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