Cycling glossary: the terms and abbreviations in council plans

Knowing standard cycle campaigning terms allows you to write your consultation responses accurately. Whether you are standing in a high-visibility jacket counting bikes at a temporary traffic light or scanning a local walking strategy on your laptop, the terminology separates what is legally required from what is merely a weak suggestion. A lot of the confusion comes from how the infrastructure is named and graded.

Look for the title block on each drawing to find the scale and the revision dates. The dates matter. A drawing might have been revised multiple times before the public ever sees it, and you need to know you are looking at the current version. Begin with the layout plan, locate the missing kerb line, and then use the correct vocabulary to point out the flaw. Name the problem clearly.

The Department for Transport sets the primary rules for roads in England. Active Travel England has operated as their executive agency since August 2022. From 1 June 2023 the law made Active Travel England a statutory consultee on large planning applications, so the planning authority must consult it on applications for large new estates and major sites.

Down at the local employment level, a bicycle user group, often shortened to BUG, promotes riding to work within a specific employer. In Parliament, you have the All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group. This is a collection of supportive MPs and peers who produced the Get Britain Cycling report in April 2013.

Charities and advocacy networks have a long habit of changing their names over the decades. The Cycle Campaign Network was an earlier name for the federation now known as Cyclenation. The Cyclists' Touring Club has traded as Cycling UK since 5 April 2016. Across the channel, the European Cyclists' Federation dates back to 1983. Based in Brussels, this group runs the international EuroVelo routes.

For road skills, Bikeability is the national cycle training programme in England. Funded by the Department for Transport and mostly delivered through schools, it operates at three distinct levels. Level 1 is completely off-road, while levels 2 and 3 take place on the actual road. Finally, 20's Plenty for Us is a community interest company that supports local efforts for twenty mile per hour speed limits.

This is the paperwork behind a scheme. The crucial document is LTN 1/20, which is the official Department for Transport cycle infrastructure design guidance published on 27 July 2020. If a local council proposes a narrow painted strip in the gutter, LTN 1/20 is the exact document you use to point out why the design falls short of the guidance.

A local cycling and walking infrastructure plan, known everywhere as an LCWIP, is the long-term map showing where future routes should go. The technical guidance for creating these plans was published by the government on 21 April 2017.

When a council wants to alter the legal use of a street, they must publish a traffic regulation order, commonly called a TRO. Under the Local Authorities' Traffic Orders Procedure Regulations 1996, you get a minimum of 21 days in England to submit a formal objection to a traffic regulation order. Look for the closing date on the lamppost notice and submit your formal response with plenty of time to spare.

You might also see local references to the Cheltenham Standard. This is a grading system that uses five colours to rate every road according to the skill level needed to ride it safely.

This is where the paper drawings finally meet the tarmac. An advanced stop line, or ASL, is the painted box you see at traffic lights. Highway Code Rule 71 states clearly that a cyclist may cross the first stop line when the light is red, but must not cross the final stop line.

Contraflow means cycling against the main flow of one-way motor traffic. Where a one-way street is opened to cycles, the entry is signed 'no entry except cycles'.

Permeability describes the route choices available for cycles with the least amount of diversion. If a residential neighbourhood has high permeability, you can ride through it in a straight line without navigating a frustrating maze of dead ends.

Once you know the strict definitions, you can read the wider literature. The site library includes several child pages to help you dig deeper into street design and local advocacy. The conference papers list who spoke on what at the federation's conferences. Winning the arguments collects the evidence on health, risk and helmets that campaigners quote most often. The cycle mapping standard explains how a whole road network can be graded by the skill needed to ride it.

Keep reading the consultation plans. Identify the missing links in the proposals. List your points clearly. Send them in.