Motorists frequently ignore protected bike zones at junctions. Even the police give out mixed messages about whether they are breaking the law

A couple of days ago I blogged about my encounter with an Addison Lee minicab driver who drove into the protected bike zone at a red traffic light.

This happens frustratingly frequently and is clearly contrary to the Highway Code. (Point 178 states: "Motorists, including motorcyclists, MUST stop at the first white line reached if the lights are amber or red".) But is it actually illegal? And if so what penalties do drivers face?

When I started looking into this, the answer turned out to be surprisingly contradictory. Peter Walker touched on the in a previous blog in which he asked the police why they apparently turn a blind eye to the offence:

Booking cars which enter the zone is tricky, [PC James] Aveling says, as it's not illegal if they stop in one if a light turns red as they're part-way in. Officers thus have to watch a driver creep in on an already red light. There are also rumours that some officers see the penalty for the infringement – six points on the licence the same as you'd get for sailing all the way through the red light – as somewhat disproportionate.

So the offence comes under failure to stop at a red light.

Not so, says bike blog reader Nick Lane, who emailed us about another blog that mentioned the issue:



Cycle stop boxes are NOT legally enforceable, no points of fines can be levied against a vehicle entering or using one. Therefore they are NOT illegal. In 2004 I had a lengthy correspondence with a chief inspector of road policy policing in which I queried why officers were not fining or awarding penalty points to motorists who compromised [advanced stop line] boxes. His reply on each occasion was emphatic - it is not an offence and therefore they cannot take action. He advised that I should not interpret the Highway Code as a set of laws attached to which were penalties, but rather as a set of guidelines.

Can that really be true? What is the point of saying in the Highway Code that drivers "MUST" not do something if there is no sanction for transgression? If that is correct, it's no wonder so many people do it.

The preface to the Highway Code suggests that the chief inspector is wrong. It states:

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'.

For chapter and verse on the subject I called the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) (they ought to know, right?). After a day on the case, the press officer got back to me to say that nobody at ACPO knew the answer. She suggested I contact the Department for Transport (DfT). So I did.

At last some clarity. The DfT said that driving into a bike zone when the lights are red is an offence. It carries a £60 penalty and three points on your driving licence (maximum £1,000 fine if it goes to court). Police have some discretion over which bit of the Road Traffic Act to use, but most likely it will fall under "Failure to comply with a traffic sign or road marking".

So driving into a bike zone when the lights are red is illegal. Although there is apparently a great deal of confusion among the police themselves. One thing is for sure. Booking drivers for this offence is not a priority.