16CYCLE MARKINGS
GENERAL
16.1 Cycle facilities may take the form of cycle lanes (see paras 16.4 to 16.13) which run along the road and form part of the carriageway, and cycle tracks which are separate from the carriageway and meet up with it only to cross or join it (see paras 16.14 to 16.19). Cycle lanes may be mandatory, where other vehicles are excluded for at least part of the day (see paras 16.4 to 16.8), or advisory, where other vehicles may enter if necessary and when it is safe to do so (see paras 16.9 and 16.10). Coloured surfacing (see para 16.12) may be helpful.
16.2 Cycle lanes should be a minimum of 1.5 m wide. Widths less than this give cyclists very little room to manoeuvre around debris, surface defects or gulley gratings. Slightly narrower widths may nevertheless sometimes be helpful over short lengths, e.g. on the immediate approach to a junction. Where cycle flows are heavy, there may be advantages in increasing the width up to 2.0 m, but lanes wider than this are likely to be abused by other traffic.
16.3 For use on cycle lanes and tracks, the Regulations prescribe half-size variants of diagrams 1003 (Give Way line), 1009 (edge of carriageway) and 1023 (Give Way triangle), and small versions of the SLOW marking (diagram 1058.1) and the lane arrow (diagram 1059), see paras 16.23 to 16.25. The markings to diagrams 1040, 1040.2, 1041 and 1041.1 may have one of the boundary lines omitted when used alongside the line to diagram 1049 marking a cycle lane. Diagram 1057 (cycle symbol) is prescribed with alternative dimensions. The width of lane available and the required conspicuity of the marking will determine the appropriate size; the largest (1700 mm) is used with the advanced stop line (see paras 16.20 to 16.22). When used with a right turn arrow, the cycle symbol should be reversed to face right.
MANDATORY CYCLE LANES
16.4 Mandatory cycle lanes are parts of the carriageway which other vehicles must not enter except to pick up or set down passengers, or in case of emergency. They may be either with-flow (see
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