Hybrid Cycle Track

A 'hybrid cycle track' is a British description for a stepped cycle track, a cycleway that is built higher than the carriageway, but lower than the footway - at an intermediate height, between the two.

This is a design that can work where space is genuinely tight, as it creates a cycleway that has good effective width, with no space lost to boundaries between the track and the footway, and the carriageway. However it does not offer the same level of subjective safety as a cycleway with a buffer between it and the carriageway.

Old Shoreham Road in Brighton and Hove is a British example of this type of 'stepped' design.

Hybrid, or stepped, tracks are only appropriate on roads with a 30mph limit, or lower. Roads with higher speeds should have cycleways with a greater degree of separation from motor traffic.