'The whole idea is just to make driving unpleasant...'

Road lanes across the country are to become narrower to stop cars overtaking cyclists as part of a new war on motorists, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Likely to be far more successful than Labour's new war on asylum seekers, since no backbenchers will rebel against it... 

Official guidance quietly published last week on the Government's website states that the standard width of a road lane in Britain – which for almost 150 years has been 12ft – is no longer appropriate because of the safety risk posed to cyclists. Instead, lanes on local roads should either shrink no more than 10ft 8in wide or expand to at least 12ft 10in. Critics say space constraints in towns and cities mean they are far more likely to shrink.

This isn't something the government itself is persuing, it's outsourced it to another celebrity-helmed quango in an attempt to pretend its hands are clean... 

The guidance, which was drawn up by Active Travel England (ATE), a Government agency, will be applied to billions of pounds of future road building schemes, the MoS has learnt. Local authorities which defy the recommendations could see reduced transport funding.

It's yet more activist-driven nonsense with no thought given to the colatteral damage it will produce, slowing down deliveries and snaring emergency vehicles in gridlock. 

ATE's guidance follows a change to the Highway Code in 2022, which instructed drivers to leave space of at least 5ft when overtaking cyclists. ATE, which is led by former Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman, says motorists using a standard 12ft-wide traffic lane 'may try to overtake cyclists when there is not enough space', increasing the risk of collisions.

You know what else increases the risk of collisions, Chris? Cyclists acting like twats! Maybe crack down on that first, eh? 

The Department for Transport said claims that ATE is waging a war on motorists 'are false and misrepresent the guidance'.

'Our hands are clean, we got a proxy doing it for us'.