The Western Cape province introduced tough new cycling legislation earlier this week, aimed at better behaviour by both cyclists and motorists on the roads of Cape Town and the province.  Other than newspaper coverage this week, there has been no communication to Western Cape residents, nor to tourists arriving from other provinces and from overseas.

The Western Cape Provincial Road Traffic Administration Act 2012 (Act 6 of 2012): Safety of Cyclists Regulations, 2013, places the following duties on motorists:

*   keep a distance of 1 meter from a cyclist (no longer 1,5 meters as initially recommended)

*   must pass a cyclist carefully, and are allowed to drive over a solid line into an oncoming lane to keep the specified distance from the cyclists, but only if there is no oncoming traffic (this sounds like a dangerous relaxation of the law, which in essence means that the motorist must give way, and that Continue reading →