The Cycling Touring Club reports an important U-turn by the Department of Transport:
Following a high-profile campaign from CTC, the Government has agreed to amend the Highway Code to improve cyclists’ safety and to encourage drivers to take more care around vulnerable road users.
In total over 40 rules have been changed to the benefit of cyclists.
The new version makes clear that cyclists have every right to cycle on the road. Rules 61 and 63 state that cycle lanes and cycle facilities, are “not compulsory” and the decision to use them “will depend on your experience and skills”.
Last year the Department for Transport proposed a revised version of the Highway Code. Cyclists feared that this version contained rules which would see them held partly liable if hit by a driver while not using a cycle track or cycle lane. 11,000 people contacted their MPs, 20,000 signed an online petition and a cross-party coalition in both Houses of Parliament defended cyclists’ right to cycle on the road.
Now look at the photograph on top. This is a ‘cycle facility’ recently implemented in Regent’s Park. It is obvious that the cycle lane is the most dangerous place to be. The safe position is in the outer half of the roadway, to prevent any motorist attempting squeezing manouvers at the pedestrian crossing point and more importantly, at the beginning of the parking bays. The fear of the CTC and most other campaigners was that the safe position would be made illicit: if a motorist knocked you down in the safe position, she could claim that it was your fault because you were not in the cycle lane.
If a Dane had even proposed something as criminal as this white line in his country, I am sure the authorities would have put him in a straight jacket, put him in a mental hospital in North Greenland and probably allowed a polar bear in the cell (assuming no objections from the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals) . Instead, in London, the so called new cycling city, we still have this unspeakable behaviour by certain authorities. They MUST be taken to Court for dereliction of duty.
Picture courtesy of the Camden Cycling Campaign
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The lane shown there encourages cyclists to cycle close to and swerve round parked cars.
‘Cycling facities can/may/may not make your journey safer’.
Your reaction to the above will depend on how often you cycle.
Note also that the word “accident” has been removed from the amended Highway Code.
I have cycled the outer circle most days for the past year. During this time I saw these jaw droppingly expensive islands take shape in the centre of the road; just by junctions and on bends. Now I have the exhilarating thrill of trying to judge whether a Range Rover will pincer me between its bonnet and a parked car every afternoon. Well done TfL!