Following a Facebook post PCyC started looking into how the issue of vehicles parking in cycle lanes could be addressed. We found that there are problems in reporting to PCC (Plymouth City Council) and tackling the problem generally. Please see our findings below. We are liaising with PCC on this locally and will update accordingly.

What the Highway Code says:

“Rule 140: Cycle lanes and cycle tracks. Cycle lanes are shown by road markings and signs. You MUST NOT drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a solid white line during its times of operation. Do not drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a broken white line unless it is unavoidable. You MUST NOT park in any cycle lane whilst waiting restrictions apply.

Many of the rules in the Code are legal requirements, and if you disobey these rules you are committing a criminal offence. You may be fined, given penalty points on your licence or be disqualified from driving. In the most serious cases you may be sent to prison. Such rules are identified by the use of the words ‘MUST/MUST NOT’. In addition, the rule includes an abbreviated reference to the legislation which creates the offence. See an explanation of the abbreviations.

Although failure to comply with the other rules of the Code will not, in itself, cause a person to be prosecuted, The Highway Code may be used in evidence in any court proceedings under the Traffic Acts (see The road user and the law) to establish liability. This includes rules which use advisory wording such as ‘should/should not’ or ‘do/do not’.“

Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that Given the wording “Must Not” in rule 140 it is an offence to park in a cycle lane. However, the highway code is backed by various laws e.g. the Roads Traffic Act 1988 and The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002. After seeing an article from Cycling UK and after discussion with them our understanding is that, due to a discrepancy between the law and Highway code some lanes are not enforceable, this quote from the article encapsulates this madness… “It is illegal to park in mandatory cycle lanes (ie cycle lanes with an unbroken white line) built before 2016, but under changes in traffic sign guidelines, it is legal to park in mandatory cycle lanes built after 2016, unless there’s a double yellow line or similar road markings indicating no parking.
However, there is nothing to tell the difference between lanes built before and after 2016: they look the same. This causes danger for people cycling and confusion for those driving.
Cycling UK is campaigning to resolve this issue.”

Reporting cycle lanes parking issues to PCC.

We were hoping to start by asking people to report issues to the PCC website Parking Enforcement page and monitor to see if this helped, however, on checking we noted that there was nothing on the options to allow parking in cycle lanes to be reported. Using the website feedback facility, we asked why this was and received a reply that advisory lanes (broken white lines) are not enforceable, and that PCC are looking at ways of enforcing the most abused cycle lanes. We had several queries to ask PCC following this reply as below, we will be meeting with them soon to discuss these.

• In the reply it was mentioned TROs being introduced to help enforce cycle lanes, is there a time scale for this and how is this likely to be implemented please?
• The reply indicates Advisory Cycle Lanes can’t currently be enforced but doesn’t mention Mandatory Cycle Lanes, are these currently enforceable?
• Do we understand correctly that from June 2020 Local authorities in England were given powers to use CCTV to issue penalty charge notices to drivers who park or load illegally in mandatory cycle lanes? If so, is this something PCC uses?
• The reply also mentioned that the most abused areas are being looked at by the senior management team. How are the most abused cycle lanes identified? Is there a reporting system other than the parking enforcement reporting on the PCC website as this does not include cycle lanes and hence prompted the original email?

The only definite is that any cycle lanes with double yellows can be reported on the website, basically because the cars would be parked illegally anyway.

We also acknowledge that the original issue reported was from the South Hams end of Elburton / Billacombe Rd and therefore involved DCC (Devon County Council) and we will be addressing this also.

We have also found the following articles that pertain to this problem

Cycling UK: Why is it important to activate Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004?

UK Gov: New powers for councils to keep cyclists safe

It seems that TfL are more proactive here: TfL to begin using new enforcement powers to improve cycle safety on its roads