Road rules for cyclists: what the official texts say, and how firmly.

The Highway Code: MUST and should

The Highway Code applies to England, Scotland and Wales. Its introduction on GOV.UK (first published 1 October 2015, last updated 22 October 2025) explains that its rules come in two strengths:

• MUST and MUST NOT rules are legal requirements. Breaking one is a criminal offence, and each such rule cites the law behind it.
• "Should" and "do" rules are advisory. They are not offences in themselves, but the Code may be used in evidence in proceedings under the Traffic Acts to help establish liability.

That distinction matters for every rule below, so each one is given with its wording. Northern Ireland has its own Highway Code.

The 2022 changes

The Department for Transport laid alterations to the Code before both Houses of Parliament on 1 December 2021, under section 38 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. GOV.UK says they took effect on 29 January 2022, after a consultation that drew more than 20,000 responses, and lists eight areas of change, from the hierarchy of road users and positioning when cycling to overtaking, junctions, roundabouts and parking. The alterations are stated to apply to England, Scotland and Wales; whether Northern Ireland adopted equivalent changes is not something we could confirm.

The hierarchy of road users

The Code describes the hierarchy as a concept that places the road users most at risk in a collision at the top, and says it does not remove anyone's duty to behave responsibly. It names pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders and motorcyclists as most likely to be injured in a collision, with children, older adults and disabled people more at risk.

• Rule H1: those in charge of vehicles that can cause the greatest harm bear the greatest responsibility to reduce the danger they pose. This applies most strongly to drivers of large goods and passenger vehicles, vans and minibuses, cars and taxis, and motorcycles. Cyclists, horse riders and drivers of horse-drawn vehicles likewise have a responsibility to reduce danger to pedestrians.
• Rule H2 (for drivers, motorcyclists, horse-drawn vehicles, horse riders and cyclists): at a junction these road users should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross the road they are turning into or out of. They MUST give way to pedestrians on a zebra crossing, and to pedestrians and cyclists on a parallel crossing. Cyclists should give way to pedestrians on shared-use cycle tracks and to horse riders on bridleways. Only pedestrians, including wheelchair and mobility scooter users, may use the pavement.
• Rule H3 (for drivers and motorcyclists): drivers and motorcyclists should not cut across cyclists, horse riders or horse-drawn vehicles going ahead when turning into or out of a junction or changing direction or lane, whether they are on a cycle lane, a cycle track or the road.

Rules about cyclists' position and passing

Is the 1.5 m gap "the law"?

No, not on the Code's own wording. Rule 163's 1.5 m figure is given "as a guide" in a "should" rule, which the Code's introduction classes as advisory. A 2026 close-pass campaign page from Cambridgeshire County Council describes leaving enough space as "the law", which goes further than the Code's text. The Code can still be used in evidence to help establish liability, as its introduction says.

Helmets and lights

Rule 59 says cyclists should wear a helmet that conforms to current regulations, is the right size and is securely fastened, and that evidence suggests a correctly fitted helmet will reduce the risk of head injury in certain circumstances. It is a "should" rule and no law is cited for it, so wearing a helmet is not a legal requirement for cyclists in Great Britain under the Code. The same rule advises light-coloured or fluorescent clothing in daylight and poor light, and reflective clothing or accessories in the dark. Northern Ireland's Highway Code carries the same helmet advice in its own rule 59. Cycling UK, a cycling charity, argues in an undated article by Cherry Allan (read on 22 October 2026) that the Code's advice on helmets and high-visibility clothing should be revised, saying it leads to victim blaming; that is one side of a debate set out on the helmet law debate page. Helmet standards are on the helmet standards page.

Rule 60 is different. At night a cycle must have a white front light and a red rear light lit, a red rear reflector, and amber pedal reflectors if it was made after 1 October 1985; the Code cites the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations for this. Northern Ireland's version gives a different pedal reflector date, cycles made after 24 January 1996, and cites different regulation numbers; each text is correct for its own area. The lights and visibility page has the detail.

United States: state laws, not one code

In the US, road rules for cycling are set state by state. California is the example our research recorded. Its AB 1371 of 2013 added Vehicle Code section 21760, the "Three Feet for Safety Act", operative from 16 September 2014. As worded in the bill text amended in the Senate on 20 August 2013, a driver overtaking a bicycle going the same way must not pass at less than three feet between any part of the vehicle and any part of the bicycle or its rider. Where traffic or road conditions prevent that, the driver must slow down and pass only when doing so would not endanger the rider. We read the Senate-amended text, not the final chaptered version.

How many states set a passing distance?

A 2018 Legisbrief from the National Conference of State Legislatures, read only in a search summary, counted 32 states with a three-foot law. The NCSL's own chart, updated 5 September 2023, gives 35 states and the District of Columbia requiring at least 3 feet, as of September 2021. The League of American Bicyclists, an advocacy group, says on one page that 24 states and DC set a defined passing distance and 32 states and DC mention bicyclists in a safe-passing law; another League page, read only in a search summary, gives 38 states and DC with a defined distance. The counts differ by source and date and we could not reconcile them; the road rules and close passing page sets out the NCSL chart by type of law.

This page reports rules; it does not teach how to ride in traffic. That is what cycle training is for: the learning to ride page describes the national schemes.