These changes apparently came about as a result of a ‘consultation’ which was very biased towards cyclist groups. Much of it seems very poorly thought through. The two worst examples seem to be having to stop when turning into a side road to allow pedestrians to cross and cyclists being encouraged to use the middle of the road.
Just as it is dangerous (and contrary to the Highway Code) as a motorist to beckon another motorist out of a side road (because someone might be overtaking you, or a vehicle coming the other way isn’t expecting it), you could end up encouraging pedestrians to cross in a dangerous situation, especially if they are youngsters or people who aren’t very ‘road savvy’ and aren’t anticipating that other motorists may have no intention of stopping! I can also foresee plenty of rear ending accidents as a result of this, as drivers following behind won’t be anticipating the car turning ahead of them to suddenly stop on a junction.
A lot of motorists are very nervous about overtaking cyclists even when they are riding on the inside edge of the carriageway and they seem to want half a mile of clear road ahead of them before they overtake, so I can see huge queues building up and people getting very frustrated and dangerous overtaking manoeuvres happening as a result.
The daftest thing of all is that these changes are effectively advisory and will only result in a prosecution if other offences are committed (such as speeding or dangerous driving) so we will end up in a situation where one segment of the community ignores them, another dangerously assumes that everyone will abide by them and yet another (probably the majority) will be completely oblivious to the changes! As you say, chaos looms!