Read our press release on the announcement
Read the Government's response to the Highway Code consultation
The Department for Transport has updated the Highway Code. These are changes Living Streets and our friends from across the active travel sector fought hard to win - changes that will make people walking the number 1 priority when it comes to road safety.
“The Highway Code used to treat children walking to school and lorry drivers as if they were equally responsible for their own or other people’s safety," says our Interim CEO, Stephen Edwards. "These changes will redress that balance."
The changes came into force on 29 January 2022, following Parliamentary approval.
We continue to work with DfT and the THINK! campaign to ensure these changes are publicised.
Our top call above all was for the new Code to include a hierarchy ensuring that those road users who can do the greatest harm have the greatest responsibility to reduce the danger or threat they may pose others.
This would implicitly make people walking the Number One priority.
The hierarchy would be:
WIN
We called for stronger priorities for pedestrians, introducing a new obligation for drivers to give way to pedestrians waiting to cross at junctions (side roads) or zebra crossings.
The new rule makes clear that at a junction, drivers should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or, or out of which, they are turning.
Equally, for pedestrians, “when you are crossing or waiting to cross the road, traffic should give way.”
All riders MUST give way to pedestrians on a zebra crossing, and pedestrians and cyclists on a parallel crossing.
We supported the proposals that the new Code make it clear that 20mph speed limits must not be exceeded by drivers. The proposed update acknowledges that fast speeds increase the likelihood and severity of a crash, and that slower speeds are less intimidating for people walking.
Rule 125 says: “You should always reduce your speed when sharing the road with pedestrians, particularly children, older adults or disabled people, cyclists, horse riders and motorcyclists.”
win
The proposed changes are ones that Living Streets has campaigned for for many years.
They reflect the thinking and ideas more broadly of the Walking and Cycling Alliance (WACA), of which Living Streets is a part, alongside the Bicycle Association, British Cycling, Cycling UK, the Ramblers and Sustrans.
During this process, Living Streets’ former Chief Executive Joe Irvin led talks (on behalf of and including WACA partners) with interested organisations – including road safety groups, disability charities and motoring bodies, before presenting agreed WACA proposals to update the Highway Code to the Department for Transport.
Walking is a vital part of our everyday lives, and we are all pedestrians at some point. It is the cleanest, greenest and most accessible form of exercise – and yet pedestrians (followed by cyclists) currently bear the brunt of road casualties.
In 2020, pedestrians in England made up almost a quarter (24%) of deaths in road collisions, and almost a fifth (19%) of pedestrian deaths occured at or within 50m of a crossing.
Before the change, the Highway Code lacked clarity on how pedestrians and drivers should behave at crossings. For example:
An update of the Highway Code to provide clarity for all road users, not just pedestrians, was long overdue.
The new rules will make it clear that drivers and riders should give way to pedestrians, not only when pedestrians have stepped onto the road at a zebra crossing or junction, but also when they are waiting to cross the road.
This will make our roads safer for everyone. Although changing the Code will not automatically change everyone’s behaviour, it is still a positive step towards prioritising pedestrians on our streets.
The changes to the Highway Code are important, but still more action is needed to make our roads safer.
Government will need to raise people's awareness through campaigns of the changes to the Highway Code, highlighting the impacts of inconsiderate and illegal road user behaviour.
We also want to see greater priority given to enforcement of the law, for example, through more visible policing and including road traffic offences that can cause death or serious injury as 'notifiable crimes'.
There is currently a review of roads policing taking place, looking at the research for links between police presence and road safety, as well as how technology can be used to target dangerous road behaviours. This call for evidence is an opportunity to highlight the importance of traffic law enforcement. Living Streets is considering the best way to respond.
The recent announcement of changes to the Highway Code puts people walking and wheeling at the top of a new road user hierarchy.
Sarah Berry from our Lambeth Local Group says shifting the narrative on who our streets are for can lead to making ambitious and necessary changes to our cities, towns and villages.