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news
Cyclist in traffic (copyright Simon MacMichael)Public must be told about Highway Code changes, says Cycling UK
Cycling UK has urged the government to launch a properly funded and ongoing awareness campaign over changes to the Highway Code due to come into effect at the end of January, with the charity saying that “now is the time to right the misunderstanding on our roads.”
> Highway Code changes aimed at protecting cyclists to become law next month
The changes, primarily aimed at protecting vulnerable road users including cyclists, were drawn up following a consultation held by the Department for Transport (DfT) last year.
But the charity says that without people being made aware of the changes, and what they aim to achieve, the revised Highway Code will only be of “limited benefit.”
Its appeal follows a poll by the AA of its members earlier this month which found that two in three were unaware of the changes, with the motoring organisation likewise calling for the DfT to publicise them.
> Two in three drivers unaware of forthcoming changes to Highway Code, says AA
Duncan Dollimore, Cycling UK’s head of campaigns said: “Cycling UK is concerned the forthcoming improvements to road safety outlined in the latest revision of the Highway Code, which will benefit everyone, are not being communicated through official channels.
“In a month’s time, our Highway Code should change for the better, but these changes will be of limited benefit if the public aren’t aware of them.”
The changes, which are due to come into effect towards the end of next month, include:
A new Hierarchy of Road Users, meaning that those posing the greatest risk to others have a greater degree of responsibility – ie motorists to people on bike or foot, or cyclists to pedestrians.
The introduction of a minimum 1.5-metre passing distance for motorists overtaking cyclists.
Recommending the ‘Dutch Reach’ to drivers and other occupants of motor vehicles to avoid cyclists being ‘doored’.
Simplification of rules regarding non-signalised junctions aimed at preventing crashes where drivers ‘left-hook’ cyclists.
Clarification that cyclists are allowed to ride two abreast – and that it is often safer for them to do so.
Widespread misconceptions on that latter point and comments on social media or beneath online press articles highlight that there is widespread ignorance among motorists of what the current rules of the road are, let alone what the new version will be.
> Highway Code changes: ‘What about cyclists, or do the rules not apply to them?’
“Many people won’t have read the Highway Code for years, so it’s essential that the key changes are clearly explained, with simple, accurate and memorable messages,” Dollimore said.
“These changes have legal implications. Just as we saw with the introduction of other road safety measures like mandatory seat belts and stricter drink driving laws, the public needs to be accurately informed about the new rules.
“The hierarchy of responsibility and changes to junction priority need to be explained and communicated properly, regardless of whether or not everyone agrees with them.
“Once the public has been clearly informed about the update, there’s a requirement to bring people on a journey to understand and appreciate why these changes are necessary.”
The charity is calling for the government to introduce an ongoing and properly funded awareness campaign so that the changes can be clearly communicated to the public.
“At Cycling UK far too often we see the potential for conflict that comes from a lack of awareness of the Highway Code,” Dollimore continued. “This puts the most vulnerable on our roads at unforgiveable risk.
“Now is the time to right the misunderstanding on our roads, not tomorrow when it is too late,” he added. “Any awareness campaign needs to be viewed in years, not months, and it needs to be well-funded.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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29 comments
Not the Highway Code specifically, but another potential small victory
https://youtu.be/a53yjghvCp4
Excellent YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/rvHA4wNnYC4
covering some of the changes
Forgot to say: I watched this video at your recommendation and it's pretty good
My village FB group has just become aware of the incoming HC changes.
A lot of people saying, "How come this hasn't been publicised? How come nobody has told us this is happening?". And then lots of people saying, "Road tax! Insurance! But red lights! But cycle paths!" and someone literally saying "War on motorists!". It kind of went downhill from there...
My point is that there has been close to zero 'official' coverage of these changes. I get that to a large degree they aren't 'new' things, simply making more explicit things that people should have been doing / not doing already, but if there's no public justification or background provided for the proposed changes then all it's going to do is wind a lot of motorists up against cyclists even more than the pre-'red mist' stage that they are already in...
As others have pointed out, what should the government do? The underlying road laws have not changed which they would publicise to some extent (changes to seatbelts, mobile phone usage, etc). And from the tone of the comments in the Facbook thread, their favourite news sites would have covered them anyway in the same way as what they are writing now.
Cyclists must be told about new Highway Code changes.
I love a good bell. I have one of those Lezyne brass mushroom style ones. Might be useful for compliance with the 'hierarchy'.
As has been pointed out most drivers don't keep up to date with changes in the Highway Code. A simple solution to this would be mandatory online re-training. A simple free online course could be offered every so often covering important changes with a required pass mark. Anyone who has done online training for H&S or Food Safety etc knows that these courses are relatively easy to pass but do require you to aquainted with the facts.
From today's (30.12.21) Guardian online:
'A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: “The proposed upcoming changes to the Highway Code will improve safety for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders and were announced to national press.
“The department has established a working group of key organisations to ensure that messages about the changes are as widespread as possible, and our well-established Think! campaign will continue to ensure all road users are aware both when these changes come into effect and beyond.” '
Source - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/30/two-in-three-uk-drivers-...
Ah, that totally successful Think campaign that blamed cyclists for daring to ride on the road and for failing to wear a helmet.
Thinking, with or without the capital, is not the department's strong point.
Interesting that they have set their own target at 'all road users'. Should be easy to to test their success or failure against that target.
I'd also like to think that heads will roll if they fail. I'm not holding my breath.
as ive said before on this topic I believe the DfT views the changes as merely updated guidance not a change in law, which any careful and safe motorist should be following in the first place, so arent planning a major advertising campaign on it.
and no ad campaign however loud or how much money is spent on it is going to break through the current Christmas holiday fog and pandemic headlines.
plenty of media outlets have carried the changes, even if theyve not been overwhelmingly in favour, just Google "highway code changes 2022", and I expect that coverage will only increase as we move into January.
Can anyone find a major newspaper that hasn't published an article, usually about how the rules changes is unfair and dangerous because drivers can't possibly cope with having to give way (despite rules 170, 184, 223 and others already requiring it though less strictly/clearly)
We don't run campaigns for other law changes beyond possibly having simplified advice on police and gov webpages so why should we need it here? Especially given the relatively heavy coverage and fact that the changes are mostly clarifications not major differences
I have spotted on social media links to lots of news articles about the new rules in the highway code. And every time the comments section on the links falls into the same pattern :-
IMHO it's not that drivers are unaware of the changes to the rules. It's that a significant proportion of drivers don't like the changes because it forces more responsibility on them for their actions which they feel is unwarranted.
One article had a picture of a cyclist beside a lorry..... and there were dozens of comments along the theme of "why is the cyclist beside the lorry, it's just asking for trouble". When people pointed out that the reasons could be the lorry was overtaking the cyclist or that the cyclist could be using a cycle lane..... they were met by a chorus of people saying the cyclist simply shouldn't be beside a lorry.
All the comments sections I've seen have been full of:
"but cyclists ride in the middle of the lane/2 abreast"
"but cyclists don't pay road tax"
"but cyclists pass my car closer than 1.5m"
All of which suggest that so many drivers are so ingorant of current regulations that it doesn't matter what The Highway Code says in the future.
Searched the BBC, latest article on the new Highway Code is 30 July. Top comment asks:
"how are they going to be communicated to the probable massive majority of drivers who've never read the Highway Code again after passing their driving test ?"
To which the first reply is:
Make it headline news, like this article? You're right, but I'm hopeful because of the media profile it's getting.
The BBC has resolutely squashed that media profile ever since.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58021450
Edit - oops, I missed a later BBC article referencing the new HWC. Buried under 'Hampshire & IoW' and avoiding any mention of pedestrians or cyclists, in the month before the changes go live the BBC has led with the little known paragraphs about feral ponies ...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-59595678
Worryingly, I noticed these sentiments on Facebook. In a cycling group.
Seethe quietly, scroll down...
'forces more responsibility on them'
Exactly!
It's not a 'Road Traffic Accident' (RTA) that nobody is responsible for, rather a 'Road Traffic Incident' (RTI) that results from errors, so is a predictable consequence.
The word 'Accident' is a common attempt to deny responsibility and must be challenged.
Exactly
" but it was only an accident [that has left two 3rd parties dead and 1 seriously injured]....."
The two motoring organisations, the RAC and the AA, could do some good by informing their members of the changes.
The AA has done a decent job of this. The head of the AA is a keen cyclist, yes really. The RAC, not so much.
In the future, could we have a continuous education requirement for drivers, so that something like the theory test had to be taken every so often, online? Even if it was difficult to prove that the driver was taken the test unassisted, at least there would be a reasonable number of people out there who had some idea of current rules.
This was my thought, too - there are plenty of news feeds along the lines of "New highway code rules will cause confusion" and "Only a third of drivers know about the new rules" but absolutely no sign of a prominent national information campaign that would address those headlines.
How did we get such a disfunctional administration system, in this country?
We've needed a pro cycling prominent national advertising campaign for years
Was it by voting for self-serving personalities rather than someone more pragmatic?
That would a nice choice
The administration is actually very good at this (at least the civil service is).
https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKDVSA/subscriber/new?topic_id=U... provides a way to automatically get updates when the HW code changes (And to put this system into perspective, I signed up for travel updates before a recent ski trip; The UK travel advice for entering Switzerland was updated faster than the Swiss advice pages! (Some of it may have been wrong at times, but mainly because the Swiss didn't seem to know themselves what the new rules they had implemented were, and once they clarified it was updated...)
This requires a modecum of effort, but so does reading the new HW code rules in full after being told they have been changed... If people can't be bothered to do this then a public service anouncement won't help (because the changes are sufficiently large to require they reread the HW code anyway...)
The articles are based on the Government press release; I.E. A NATIONAL INFORMATION CAMPAIGN; This is the standard well established way of doing this.
The news articles covering that it is changing have been at least as detailed as any government run public service campaign would be.
The only real issue is not making it very clear (and mandated) that any defence based on not knowing the rules have changed should automatically result in loss of licence (preferably through a rapid SJPN system) as the only way to get people to actually learn the new rules (as they then have to to get a new licence)...
Unless, of course, you allow for the fact that this mechanism isn't widely publicised either...
Since insurance is mandatory for the operation of a motor vehicle, why don't the insurance companies reduce their policy risks by informing their customers about the relevant changes. They have contact details, typically including email and mobile phone, so passing on the DVLA feed is a simple IT problem...