Ah. OLC's comment was saying that in Europe they have the opposite rule (must ride in cycle lane if present), so when you said "we already have that, but no-one wants to mention it" I was well confused...
I'm sure the whole cycle lanes being make mandatory has been looked at relatively recently in the UK (last 20 years or so) There used to be a good article about it on the CTC web site about it. It was rejected at the time, thankfully.
Ah. OLC's comment was saying that in Europe they have the opposite rule (must ride in cycle lane if present), so when you said "we already have that, but no-one wants to mention it" I was well confused...