Highway Code confusion highlighted as pedestrian fatalities increase

The aim of the changes to the Highway Code was to protect vulnerable road users and encourage people to walk and cycle more – but statistics suggest they have not had the desired effect

Crossing the road used to be relatively straightforward. Now confusion reigns. Some pedestrians will calmly walk in front of cars, thinking they have the right of way – and that may well be the case. Some drivers will respectfully stop and – quite rightly – beckon anyone on foot to cross unmolested. Other motorists angrily hit the horn if any pesky pedestrian dares get in their way.

The chaos is the result of revisions to the Highway Code at the end of January 2022. The aim was to make the roads safer for vulnerable users, including pedestrians and cyclists. But the latest data shows stubborn increases in pedestrian fatalities ever 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 they’ve not had the desired effect.”

What do the statistics say?

Official figures don’t make pretty reading for the Department for Transport (DfT). Its latest provisional statistics show that 407 pedestrians were killed in 2023, up from 385 the previous year. Compare last year with the year before the Highway Code was revised and there’s been a 13 per cent increase in pedestrian fatalities.

The good news is that pedestrian casualties overall in 2023 were down by a tiny amount compared with the year before. But they’re up by 15 per cent compared with 2021, before the changes to the Code.

Why has this happened?

There seems to be a consensus that the DfT didn’t do a good enough job of publicising the changes.

When it polled 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 revisions to the Highway Code. The same research found that half of drivers (51 per cent) thought the government had done a bad job of communicating the changes.

The AA’s Cousens agreed: “We did some polling at the time and found there wasn’t as much awareness as there should have been. Has enough been done [by the DfT] for any vehicle licence holder to know about the new rules? Perhaps not. Even two years on, how deep is the knowledge that there has been a change?”

Research by rival organisation the RAC earlier this year suggested knowledge about the change isn’t particularly deep. It found that a half of drivers (51 per cent) don’t think the changes have made any difference. Less than a quarter of drivers (23 per cent) say they always give way to pedestrians when they turn into junctions. Fewer than a half (48 per cent) claim they give way most of the time and only a fifth (19 per cent) always give way.

The RAC’s 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 starting to reflect that.”

The director of external affairs at Cycling UK, Sarah McMonagle, added: “The two underfunded and short-lived public awareness campaigns commissioned by the government were completely inadequate. The light-touch strategy caused mass public confusion and the circulation of inaccurate reports on the impact and effects of the new Highway Code.”

And a report late last year from the Commons’ Committee on Public Accounts, titled Active Travel in England, slammed how the DfT has publicised the changes. It said: “Public concerns around 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 Highway Code changes?

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 those who can do the greatest harm have the greatest responsibility to reduce the threat they pose to more vulnerable road users. So, truck drivers have more responsibility than car drivers, cyclists more than pedestrians and so on.

The changes emphasised that traffic should give way to people crossing or waiting to cross at a junction. And it added that pedestrians have right of way if they’ve started crossing at junctions and traffic wants to turn into the road.

There are harsh penalties for drivers who don’t comply. Drivers who turn 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 licence and a fine of up to £2,500.

What should happen next?

The AA argues that there’s plenty the DfT could do to alert people to The Highway Code changes. Cousens told us: “It could have done some simple things that would have helped drivers. Putting a leaflet with vehicle tax or MOT reminders would ensure you get the message to every driver, not just the ones who happen to hear a radio advert.

“More broadly, it’s a case that road safety is no longer seen as a priority by the government. We think bringing back road safety targets should be in every party’s manifesto. If there were as many deaths in other areas as there are on the roads, there would be public enquiries left, right and centre.”

The RAC agreed. Dennis told us: “There hasn’t been enough focus on road safety. Is a change to some words in the Highway Code really enough to change people’s behaviour? It’s often cited that we already have some of the safest roads in Europe. But we don’t think that’s acceptable any more. There are still people getting killed and seriously injured.”

Walking charity Living Streets was involved in the work on the Highway Code revisions. Its policy and research manager Dr Rachel Lee told us it was too soon to judge whether the changes have had an impact. She said: “If in five years’ time there’s still been no improvement, then we have a problem.”

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