Roads without centre-lines make for safer passing, study finds

Simple answer, minimum width left hand lane of 5m if not possible either make it one-way or light controlled (with cyclist bypass), drop the speed limit to 20mph, physically restrict access to wide vehicles using pop-up bollards (to allow emergency service access) or remove the centre lines.

Another fine example of GCC road design, this one, you may not see it though, the cycle path actually gets narrower as you approach the refuge!

Not just Mill Road! The centre line was also removed from Gilbert road in Cambridge around 2011 when the re-engineered the road. They put in 1.7m advisory cycle lanes at the same time.

Cycle lanes may not improve passing or safety, but I would argue that they do have value as queue-busting lanes. It's not something to campaign for, but they can be handy. When East road was re-surfaced a couple of years ago a last-minute email to the council got some new advisory lanes (don't need TRO) put in since they had to repaint everything anyway. Won't encourage any new 8-year olds to cycle on the road, but does help filtering when the traffic is at a standstill, and all paid for out of the maintenance budget.

Good piece of research which confirms my experience.

I am at a loss as to why there is this growing trend to paint a cycle path line on the road which isn't wide enough for a large vehicle to keep out of, then introduce a new pedestrian central reservation which means the car force themselves into your space. It is utter madness. All you can do is ride further out which then winds them up even more.

And yes, no central road lines make for safer overtaking.

Road paint is quite expensive stuff. Surely someone could tell councils that they could save money by not using it?

Yes, yes and yes. We have all being saying this about centre lines for years. Have you ever noticed that when the roads are being resurfaced and there is no centre line for a while, motorists are much better at overtaking? Drivers have to THINK about what they are doing. This is worthy of a serious campaign. What would also be some welcome research would be to tease out why people dont cycle and when it comes to the 'too dangerous' answer, one of the reasons to assess would be 'cars drive too close'. As a cyclist for donkeys years, this is the number one issue for me - the absolute number one.

Interesting new roads in Cardiff (Cathays Terrace being one).

They've done two things. Remove the centre lines AND put in wide cycle lanes.

The theory is that if there's a cyclist in the lane they have priority and the other traffic is sharing one lane. If there's no oncoming traffic you stay out of the cycle lane. If there is traffic oncoming then they all have to judge each other, slow down, use the lane BEHIND the cyclist, then overtake when SAFE.

Sounds odd. Seems to work.

I find solid white lines to be really scary places when cycling... as the idiots behind me try to overtake without crossing them... even when I've taken primary...

But painted cycle lanes give councils the feeling that they have *done something*, and surely that is important?

Mill Road is a bit nicer- though I've still been shouted at to "move over" because I wasn't gutter hugging. White van, quarter to midnight.

I've noticed this many times, in fact I was thinking it while riding on a non-centrelined Swedish country road just yesterday!

But the best roads, in terms of slow car-overtaking-bike, are the ones that are only about 1,5 lanes wide (without centre lines of course). On these roads, car drivers know/feel that they need to be careful, for their _own_ safety, so they are.

Basically, our current road design is just about the worst possible then. What else is new?

Who paid these academics for their "research"?

A local authority by any chance ……… with a a view to saving cash on paint ………

I for one think cycle/bus lanes are definitely good at keeping traffic away from us, except of course buses and taxis. But in rural Cambs centre lines, single broken, single solid, double whites are often crossed by vehicles going in either direction whether the drivers are passing from behind, over taking when approaching or just pissed out of their brains on an empty road. Centre lines are good just that so many drivers have the must get past at any cost mentality, can't wait a few seconds to pass a cyclist safely. I bet once centre lines were removed it wouldn't be long before there would be total carnage. You'd get the Eastern Europeans driving on both sides of the road. It would be chaos and carnage. You have to draw the line at some point.

Centre lines and cats eyes are also very useful when it's foggy and I bet the over paid stupid academics haven't considered this aspect of road safety.

wear a helmet and hi viz, no head phones, don't ride on pavements and don't run red lights.

lines, irrelevant......
wouldn't want to make drivers think.

EXCELLENT.

I shall use this very paper to petition Hampshire County Council to remove the lines on my town's roads.

Anecdotally I would tend to believe the research on the central whitelines. A lot of drivers seem to try and not cross the central lines when overtaking irrespective of the width of the road.

Painted cycle lanes are useless?
Ive also heard of a new academic study revealing that the Pope is, in fact, Catholic.