These much welcome changes for vulnerable road users have been in force since Saturday 29th January but I have been too busy to blog about these before now.

I was invited to speak to Andrew Castle on LBC about the changes on Sunday morning 23rd January and found this a helpful exchange. Andrew stated that he was both a motorist and a cyclist ( as so many are ) and I referred him straight to the new ' close pass' rule in the new HC that says that motorists must keep 1.5 metres from a cyclist while they are overtaking.

EVERY cyclist will have experienced a close pass ,it's very frightening ,and in a very few cases, is done deliberately , to intimidate or worse .

The new changes bring in a hierarchy on our roads, I have spoken before about the hierarchy of vulnerability on our roads since it starts with our most vulnerable, the very young, the very old and the disabled pedestrians , moving on to pedestrians generally and then to cyclists , motorcyclists and so on.

It's pleasing that the DFT have listened to vulnerable groups , because this has filtered through to these changes.

I can think of at least two cases that that we are already running which will be helped by these changes, both left hooks, although I feel that the close pass 1.5 metre rule will be of more longer lasting benefit to cyclists.

Just last moth, I was consulted by a wife who had lost her cyclist husband to a driver who had , as so many do, left insufficient room when overtaking.

Highway Code changes for the better to give protection on the roads where it is needed.