UK roads could be made narrower to improve safety for cyclists

The UK’s road lanes are set to shrink with the aim of preventing cars from overtaking cyclists, according to new government guidance.

A report by Active Travel England found that the current width of road lanes (3.65m or 12ft) does not allow for enough room for car drivers to safely overtake cyclists. It describes this as a “critical issue” due to the risk of “shunt” or “clip” collisions, where cars “come into conflict with cyclists from behind or from alongside respectively”.

The same issue was found to affect cycle lanes where the combined total of the cycle lane and car lane was less than 3.9m.

The report states that lanes should be made narrower than 3.25m or wider than 3.9m, which would either discourage drivers from attempting to overtake cyclists due to the lack of room, or reduce the risk of collisions respectively.

The report did, however, acknowledge that even widening road lanes to 3.9m may still not make enough room for drivers to safely overtake, since cars should pass with 1.5m clearance.

It would, in practice, be easier to make road lanes narrower, especially in towns and cities where space is compromised. However, as SUVs and larger vehicles become increasingly popular, this is likely to be opposed by drivers and motoring groups.

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, AA president and cyclist Edmund King said, “It is impossible and impractical to change the widths of all our roads, which have evolved since Roman times.

“This is not America where wider modern highways and more space means it would be possible to radically change road layouts. UK roads will always require a degree of give and take which can't just be ironed out by regulations.”

While the guidance is not legally binding, the Mail on Sunday reports that it will be applied to “billions of pounds” of future road building schemes as councils are expected to follow it.

Brian Gregory, policy director at the Alliance of British Drivers, said, “If you slow everybody down to the speed of cycles on narrow roads that is a huge economic cost to the country in wasted time.

“The whole idea is just to make driving unpleasant instead of trying to get everybody to co-operate and work together to use roads safely. It's all about penalising motorists.”

The Department for Transport (DfT) has denied claims that the Government is waging a war on motorists, stating that they “misrepresent the guidance” from the report by Active Travel England.

“There has never been legally binding standards for road widths and that remains the case,” the spokesperson said.

“The Government is absolutely on the side of drivers. Over the past year alone, we invested an extra £500 million to help local authorities maintain their road networks, committed £1 billion to repair bridges, flyovers and tunnels, and gave the green light to over 30 road schemes to improve journeys across the country.”

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