British Cycling says it has won agreement from the Highways Agency and the Department for Transport to make official guidance for building new roads more bike-user orientated.
The news comes after the governing body met with Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, MP, who agreed the cornerstone document, Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) will be updated to give engineers more – and earlier – guidance on incorporate cycle friendly design into their planning – so called cycle-proofing.
While the DMRB is aimed at trunk road development, British Cycling said the manual is also frequently used to guide the development of smaller roads.
Chris Boardman, British Cycling's policy advisor welcomed the announcement, and said he was happy to see fast action on Prime Minister David Cameron's commitment to cycling, which was made over the summer.
Boardman said: "I’m pleased that we’re now seeing the government begin to implement the commitments made by the Prime Minister on 12 August.
"The scale of the task to make cycle-proofing happen is significant however, that does not excuse the need to move fast on pushing through change. We cannot be waiting more than six months for these regulations to appear. The time to transform cycling in this country is – as the government has said – now."
