Highways England manual to include new advice on cycle routes

Details of new cycle infrastructure guidance, which will feature in the Highways England roads design manual, will be presented at Cycle City Active City.  The ‘Interim Advice Note’ will be included in Highway England’s Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB). The new document, due to be published in the summer, has been produced by the University of the West of England and the consultants Atkins and Phil Jones Associates. 

Although termed an interim document, the note will have the full weight of other parts of DMRB and should be used in the preparation of all trunk road schemes as soon as it is available, says Highways England. The document will be kept under review and will be converted to a long-term standard when sufficient experience has been gained.

The Interim Advice Note will set out the basic technical requirements for cycling infrastructure, with particular relevance for high speed inter-urban roads. It supersedes and amends existing DMRB standards and will cover: designing cycling networks; motor traffic speed and flow thresholds for segregation; cycle design parameters; gradient; cycle lane and track widths; signing; construction and maintenance. It will also offer advice on suitability criteria for crossings, traffic signal timings as well as priority, traffic signal, roundabout and grade separated junctions.

At Cycle City Active City Phil Jones will shed light on the preparation and structure of the Interim Advice Note and will also summarise the most important technical content.