"Your right to ride on the road is in jeopardy."

An exert from an e mail I received

For all those who cycle or those who don’t want a nanny state taking away your rights

Your right to ride on the road is in jeopardy. (*remember click title to read all of shortened articles).

The revised Highway Code says cyclists should "use cycle facilities where possible". If this Code is approved, cyclists will effectively lose the right to ride on the road where there are alternative routes or adjacent facilities. The implications of this are too bad to contemplate. First we will suffer more abuse and intimidating driving. Second, if a cyclist is involved in an accident and tries to claim damages, the insurance companies are likely to argue that the rider contributed to the accident by not using the cycle facility.

The Highway Code has been laid before parliament. It will automatically be approved unless it is referred to a House of Commons Committee which cannot amend it and can only recommend the whole document be rejected.
It will take an unprecedented amount of adverse publicity to persuade the government to reject the Highway Code in its entirety.

It is interesting to note that 35 MP's objected to the original revised wording. Unfortunately, the replacement wording is no better. Only 11,000 objections were received to the previous wording. If this Highway Code is approved by government cyclists will effectively lose the right to ride on the road where there are alternative routes or adjacent facilities.

Please register your name on the petition and persuade others to do the same http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/roads4bikes/

The CTC are backing this campaign it can’t do any harm and it may change things so sign up.

[Update - webmaster 15th May 11:58]

The current CTC stand point on it is here.

Here is the Driving Standards Agency Draft.

If you feel suitably moved, there are links on the CTC site for further action you can take.

./ah