Crossing the road used to be relatively straightforward. Now confusion prevails. Some pedestrians will calmly walk in front of cars, thinking they have the right of way – and they may be. Some drivers will stop respectfully and – rightfully so – wave anyone on foot to pass without getting in the way. Other motorists angrily honk their horns if any pesky pedestrians dare to cross their path.
The chaos is the result of revisions to the Highway Code at the end of January 2022. The aim was to make roads safer for vulnerable users, including pedestrians and cyclists. But the latest figures show a steep rise in pedestrian fatalities since the changes were made.
The AA’s Jack Cousens said: “Have the new regulations made the changes people wanted to see? If we are looking at the statistics, it suggests that they have not had the desired effect.”
What do the statistics say?
The official figures are not pleasing to the Department for Transport (DfT). The latest provisional statistics show that 407 pedestrians were killed in 2023, up from 385 the year before. Compare last year with this year BEFORE The Highway Code was revised and there has been a 13 per cent increase in pedestrian deaths.
The good news is that overall pedestrian fatalities in 2023 decreased by a small amount compared to the year before. But they have increased by 15 percent compared to 2021, before the changes to the Code.
Why did this happen?
There seems to be a consensus that the DfT did not do a good enough job of publicizing the changes.
When it surveyed drivers a few months after the changes came in, charity IAM RoadSmart found that one in five drivers (20 per cent) were unaware of the Highway Code revisions. The same research found that half of motorists (51 per cent) thought the government had done a poor job of communicating the changes.
AA’s Cousens agreed: “We did some surveys at the time and found that there wasn’t as much awareness as there should have been. Enough has been done [by the DfT] for any vehicle license holder to know about the new rules? Maybe no. Even after two years, how deep is the knowledge that there has been a change?”
Research by rival organization RAC earlier this year suggested that knowledge about change is not particularly deep. It found that half of drivers (51 per cent) do not think the changes have made a difference. Less than a quarter of drivers (23 percent) say they always give way to pedestrians when turning at intersections. Less than half (48 percent) say they put it away most of the time, and only a fifth (19 percent) always give up.
RAC road safety specialist Rod Dennis said: “The principle of the changes was right with the hierarchy of road users, but how do you translate the revisions? More communication should have happened and still needs to happen. The statistics are beginning to reflect this.”
Cycling UK’s director of external affairs, Sarah McMonagle, added: “The two underfunded and short-lived public awareness campaigns commissioned by the government were completely inappropriate. The soft touch strategy caused massive public confusion and the circulation of inaccurate reports on the impact and effects of the new Highway Code.”
And a report late last year by the Commons Public Accounts Committee, titled Active travel in England, criticized how the DfT has published the changes. He said: “Public concerns about safety remain a barrier to more people taking up active travel (walking and cycling). To address this… revisions to the Highway Code need to be communicated effectively.”
What were the changes to the Highway Code?
The Department for Transport introduced a significant number of changes to the Highway Code in January 2022. The aim was to protect vulnerable road users and encourage people to walk and cycle more, for health and environmental benefits.
These included what the DfT called a “hierarchy of road users” to ensure that those who could do the most harm have the greatest responsibility for reducing the threat they pose to the most vulnerable road users. So truck drivers have more responsibility than car drivers, cyclists more than pedestrians and so on.
The changes emphasized that traffic must give way to people crossing or waiting to cross an intersection. And he added that pedestrians have the right of way if they have started to cross at intersections and traffic wants to return to the road.
There are stiff penalties for non-compliant drivers. Drivers who swerve into the path of a pedestrian can be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention. This results in between three and nine penalty points on your license and a fine of up to £2,500.
What should happen next?
The AA argues that there is a lot the DfT can do to alert people to the changes to the Highway Code. Cousens told us: “He could have done some simple things that would have helped the drivers. Placing a vehicle tax leaflet or MOT reminder would ensure that you get the message across to every driver, not just those who hear an advert on the radio.
“More broadly, it is a case that road safety is no longer seen as a priority by the government. We think that the restoration of road safety objectives should be in the manifesto of every party. If there were as many deaths in other areas as there are on the roads, there would be public inquiries left, right and centre.”
The RAC agreed. Denis told us: “There hasn’t been enough focus on road safety. Is a change in a few words in the Highway Code really enough to change people’s behaviour? It is often mentioned that we already have some of the safest roads in Europe. But we think this is no longer acceptable. There are still people being killed and seriously injured.”
Walking charity Living Streets was involved in the work on the Highways Code revisions. Its head of policy and research Dr Rachel Lee told us it was too early to judge whether the changes had had an impact. She said: “If in five years there is still no improvement, then we have a problem.”