UK roads to be made narrower in bid to stop cars overtaking cyclists
The current Government advice has been deemed as no longer appropriate
Road lanes across the country are set to be made narrower in an effort to prevent cars from overtaking cyclists.
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The changes are set to come after a report from the Government agency, Active Travel England, suggested that roads should be reduced to 3.25m or under.
The current guidance has been deemed no longer appropriate and the updated version aims to make it clear to drivers that "there is not enough space to safely overtake cyclists," while also showing cyclists "they need to ride more centrally."
The move has angered some motoring campaigners, including Brian Gregory, policy director at the Alliance of British Drivers.
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Mr Gregory told the Mail on Sunday: "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. It's completely stupid."
Howard Cox, founder of FairFuelUK, said: "Narrowing our increasingly congested roads for the benefit of a small economic minority of road users makes no commercial or social sense.
"It will lead to even more congestion, frustration and anger and be a detriment to small businesses and the high street.
"Active Travel England and the DfT should focus on ensuring cyclists use roads more sensibly, and stop hitting motorists at every opportunity."
Edmund King, AA president and a cyclist, 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."
ATE, which is led by former Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman, says motorists using a standard 12ft-wide traffic lane "may try to overtake cyclists when there is not enough space," increasing the risk of collisions.
Lanes wider than 12ft 10in reduce the risk but "may still not be wide enough for motor vehicles to safely overtake cyclists."
The Department for Transport said: "There has never been legally binding standards for road widths and that remains the case."
"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."