How Cambridgeshire’s Close Pass Crackdown Could Cost Drivers Six Points and a £100 Fine

Drivers across one of the busiest commuter counties in England are being put on notice that the 1.5 metre overtaking rule introduced four years ago will now be enforced through visible roadside campaigning, social media policing and bus side advertising. Cambridgeshire County Council has launched a Highway Code Rule 163 crackdown that targets close passes of cyclists, horse riders and pedestrians, and the council has confirmed that the trial signs will remain in place until September 2027. If the scheme works, England’s other counties are expected to follow. The consequences of getting it wrong are not symbolic. A single close pass conviction can cost a driver six penalty points, a £100 fixed penalty, and if it is taken to court, a fine of between 15 and 50 per cent of weekly income and a discretionary driving ban.

Highway Code Rule 163 has technically been in force in its current form since the January 2022 changes, but enforcement has been patchy. Drivers caught on cyclists’ helmet cameras and submitted through police forces’ online video portals have led the way, and most prosecutions still come through citizen evidence rather than roadside spot checks. The Cambridgeshire campaign is an attempt to flip that around, by making drivers aware of the rule before they break it. With cycling participation rising sharply since the pandemic and Britain reporting around 86 cyclist deaths a year on average, the council says it is no longer acceptable for drivers to claim they did not know what the rule was.

What the rule actually says

Highway Code Rule 163 sets out the minimum safe distances drivers must give to all vulnerable road users when overtaking. At speeds up to 30mph, motorists must leave at least 1.5 metres of space when passing cyclists. At higher speeds, the rule states drivers must give cyclists “as much space as you would when overtaking a car”. For pedestrians walking on roads without pavements, the minimum gap is two metres, and drivers should slow down. For horses and horse drawn vehicles, the minimum is two metres and the maximum permitted speed when passing is 10mph. Extra care is required around children, the elderly, groups of walkers and on narrow roads.

The rule also creates what road safety lawyers call the hierarchy of road users. Drivers carry the greatest responsibility for reducing risk to those most vulnerable. Rule H1 of the Highway Code, also introduced in January 2022, places motorists at the top of the responsibility hierarchy, ahead of HGV and bus drivers, then van drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists, horse riders and finally pedestrians at the bottom. The legal effect is that when a court is deciding whether a driver was careless or dangerous, the vulnerability of the other party is now an aggravating factor rather than something the driver can blame on their behaviour.

How the Cambridgeshire campaign works

Cambridgeshire’s scheme started last month and is built around visibility. The council has put up temporary signs on lampposts along the routes where close pass incidents are most commonly reported, supported by electronic roadside message boards, adverts on Stagecoach and Whippet bus sides, and social media videos. Council vehicles have been fitted with stickers reading “give 1.5m or more”. The aim is to make the rule unavoidable for any driver passing through the county, in the hope that simple awareness reduces incidents before enforcement is needed.

Councillor Alex Beckett, chairman of the council’s Highways and Transport Committee, said the campaign was responding to repeated feedback from local cyclists. “Across Cambridgeshire, around half of us cycle, and it’s easy to see why. It keeps us fit, saves money and takes cars off the road,” he told GB News. “But the data is clear: safety is the single biggest thing stopping more people from getting on a bike. Too many of us have experienced a vehicle passing too close, and that moment of fear matters.” Mr Beckett described the campaign’s message to drivers as “a simple ask. Leave a bit more space. It costs nothing and could make the difference between someone feeling safe on their bike or giving up on cycling altogether.”

The signs and adverts will run continuously until September 2027, which is unusually long for a road safety campaign. The council has signalled that the test is whether sustained visible messaging changes driver behaviour over the medium term, rather than the short bursts seen in past national campaigns. The data collected will inform whether the same approach is rolled out to other counties in England.

The penalties drivers actually face

Rule 163 itself is advisory in the sense that it uses the words “should” and “should not” rather than “must” and “must not”, and so a close pass is not in itself a specific offence. But that does not mean it carries no consequences. If a driver is caught passing too closely, prosecutors will consider whether the manoeuvre amounts to careless driving under Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, or dangerous driving under Section 2 of the same Act. Careless driving carries a fixed penalty of £100 and three penalty points if dealt with at the roadside, or a court fine and up to nine penalty points and a discretionary ban if the case is taken further. Dangerous driving is a substantially more serious offence carrying a mandatory minimum 12 month disqualification, an obligatory extended retest, up to two years in prison, and an unlimited fine.

Most close pass prosecutions are filed by cyclists submitting their own helmet camera footage to the relevant police force’s national dashcam safety portal, known as Operation Snap. Forces including Greater Manchester Police, West Midlands Police, the Metropolitan Police and now most rural forces in England and Wales accept submissions through the portal. According to data released by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, close pass submissions through Operation Snap have risen each year since the 2022 Highway Code revision, with several forces reporting that more than half of cyclist submitted footage now results in either a fixed penalty notice or a written warning to the driver.

What this means for everyday driving

The practical change for drivers is that overtaking a cyclist on a country lane is now closer in legal weight to overtaking a slow moving car than it is to driving around a parked vehicle. If there is not at least 1.5 metres of clear space, drivers are expected to wait. On a typical UK B road that is 5.5 metres wide, with an average cyclist sitting about 0.8 metres from the kerb, the space required to pass safely is wide enough that two cars cannot do it at the same time. That is what the rule is designed to achieve, and that is what frustrates drivers who feel they are being held up. The Highway Code’s view, backed by the courts, is that being held up for 20 seconds is preferable to a cyclist being knocked off their bike.

The same logic applies to horse riders. Passing a horse at 30mph with the standard car’s width of clearance is enough to frighten the animal into bolting, and a bolting horse is a danger to the rider, to other road users and to the driver who spooked it. The 10mph maximum overtaking speed for horses is the single most often broken element of Rule 215, the corresponding rule for equestrians. Drivers should also avoid sounding the horn, revving the engine or accelerating sharply once they have passed.

What drivers should actually do

First, treat the 1.5 metre minimum as a hard rule, not a guideline. If you cannot give that space safely, hang back until you can. Cyclists will often wave drivers through when it is safe to overtake, but the responsibility is the driver’s, not theirs. Second, when overtaking, cross the white line into the opposite carriageway if it is safe to do so, just as you would when overtaking a tractor. Third, if you are in a queue of cars all overtaking a single cyclist, do not assume the gap is fine because the cars in front made it through. Each driver is responsible for their own pass.

Pedestrians on country lanes without pavements are entitled to the same care. Two metres of clearance and a slower speed are required by Rule 163, and as with cyclists, “should” is read by the courts as a substantive standard of expected behaviour rather than a loose suggestion. Drivers should also be aware that horse riders are required to keep two abreast when leading inexperienced riders or horses, and Rule 163 explicitly states that drivers should be patient when overtaking groups of horses.

For Cambridgeshire drivers the next 18 months will offer a useful test. If close pass reports drop and council surveys show more residents feel safe cycling, expect the campaign to spread to neighbouring counties. If not, the next step is likely to be physical infrastructure such as protected cycle lanes, the most expensive option but the one with the strongest evidence base. Either way, drivers who have been treating Rule 163 as advice that does not really apply to them are operating on outdated assumptions about what the law actually requires.

Sources:

• Drivers issued major Highway Code warning as new road safety crackdown targets motorists – GB News
• The Highway Code – GOV.UK
• Section 3, Road Traffic Act 1988 – legislation.gov.uk