A couple of weeks back I wrote about how the Design Manual for Roads & Bridges (DMRB) was changing and this week I’m doing to have a dig through CD195 – Designing for Cycle Traffic.
The first thing to say is the DMRB is a standard to be used on Highways England and devolved administration schemes. It is a useful document for trunk road style roads and caution should be exercised when using it for local roads and streets because much of the information is not applicable.
That stated, CD195 has plenty of general application within its pages because the physical space, design speed and user requirements for cycle traffic apply everywhere. It’s also an important point that the term “cycle traffic” is being used because we are dealing with a distinct mode of transport which is not motor traffic and it is not walking traffic. As Professor John Parkin says, “cycles are vehicles capable of speed”!
In terms of overall layout, there is a brief initial section for matters which all apply to Highways England, Transport Scotland, the Welsh Government and the Department for Infrastructure. The document then splits into four annexes, one for each for each of the four administrations.For England, the national annexe is a set of detailed information for the design of cycling infrastructure on the Highways England network. The annexes for the other three administrations are extremely short with only a couple of clauses each. The key ones are;
NI/1.1 Direction on the design of routes and facilities for cycle traffic in Northern Ireland shall be obtained from the Department of Infrastructure.
S/1.1 The design of routes and facilities for cycle traffic in Scotland shall be in accordance with Cycling by Design.
W/1.1 The design of routes and facilities for cycle traffic in Wales shall be in accordance with Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 Design Guidance.
So in practice, the bulk of CD195 only applies to the English annexe and the three other administrations use their own guidance which in my view is a problem because of the age of the Scottish and Welsh documents and the absence of anything for Northern Ireland (at least to the best of my knowledge).
In the first part of the UK-wide introduction, we are reminded that the scope of CD195 is for the “design of routes and assets used by cycle traffic” – it’s not for shared paths and this is an immediate problem where the default design choice is for shared designs. I’m hoping that in due course there will be better direction in this matter (which will sit elsewhere) because in many cases, there’s nothing wrong with sharing if pedestrian traffic is very low and cycle traffic low to moderate.
The photo above is a cycle track on the Danish North Sea island of Fanø. I was the only person walking here and cycle traffic was low. Of course in rural areas there may be walking connections to local services and bus stops for example and in that situation, I’d expect the design to change for a section. For me, this is an issue that needs dealing with, especially as the DMRB standards on sharing are yet to be updated.
The second part of the UK-wide introduction simply refers the reader to other parts of the DMRB which should be read in conjunction with the text. In this case, just one reference to the introduction to DMRB.
So, to the English Annexe, which is set out under the following headings;
CD195 Designing For Cycle Traffic – The Ranty Highwayman
A couple of weeks back I wrote about how the Design Manual for Roads & Bridges (DMRB) was changing and this week I’m doing to have a dig through CD195 – Designing for Cycle Traffic. The first thing to say is the DMRB is a standard to be used on Highways England and devolved administration… [Read More]
