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Road Safety

Communicate Highway Code Changes To All Road Users

By 20th January 2022No Comments

A recent survey (1) suggested that only one-third of drivers are aware of the fact that major changes to the Highway Code come into force on 29th January 2022.

The ABD considers that some of the new changes to the Highway Code are dangerous and counter-productive (2). Of the 21,000 consultation responses, 16,500 came from the cycling lobby who boasted about successfully loading the consultation (3). Sensible and considered responses like the one from the Road Haulage Association (RHA) (4), whose members operate over 100,000 commercial vehicles, were ignored. For example, allowing cyclists to undertake or overtake vehicles indicating and intending to turn left or right is a recipe for more collisions. The ‘hierarchy of responsibility’ based on the size or weight of a vehicle represents ‘presumed liability’ by the back door instead of making all road users responsible for their own actions or errors.

ABD Spokesman Paul Biggs said: “Whilst we have serious concerns about the changes to the Highway Code, they do need to be communicated to all road users. Back in 2003 the ABD suggested that the Highway Code should be sent to every household, paid for with adverts and sponsorship. As a bare minimum a leaflet explaining the changes needs to be distributed as a matter of urgency.”

Ends

Notes for Editors

(1) Two-thirds of drivers unaware of major changes to Highway Code:

https://fleetworld.co.uk/two-thirds-of-drivers-unaware-of-major-changes-to-highway-code/

(2) Summary of the ABD’s Response to the Proposed Highway Code Changes:

https://home-5010050506.webspace-host.com/wordpress/abds-response-to-proposed-highway-code-changes/

(3) Campaign win: Cyling UK’s fight to improve the Highway Code:

https://dev.cyclinguk.org/blog/campaign-win-cycling-uks-fight-improve-highway-code

(4) The Road Haulage Association (RHA) response to the Highway Code consultation:

https://www.rha.uk.net/Portals/0/News/Policy%20and%20Campaigning/Consultation%20Responses/201014%20Highway%20Code%20Consut%20response%20Final.pdf?ver=2021-08-03-113932-653

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