New research into drivers' knowledge of changes to the Highway Code has raised concern, a survey estimating that 25 per cent of drivers do not know the correct rules on pedestrian and cyclist priority.

The research comes courtesy of Tier (link is external), the world's largest shared micro-mobility operator, who surveyed motorists ahead of Car-Free Day and have now called for better awareness of the Highway Code changes and hierarchy of road users.

Changes were implemented in January 2022 to better protect vulnerable road users, and include establishing a hierarchy of road users with those most vulnerable (pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders) placed at the top, as well as giving cyclists and those on foot priority in situations such as the ones illustrated below.

However, Tier's survey found that one-in-four drivers were incorrect or unable to answer on questions of pedestrian and cyclist priority and incorrectly believe that those driving vehicles have right of way over cyclists and pedestrians when turning onto a side road.

Furthermore less than half of drivers correctly identified pedestrians as having right of way, that despite the two-year anniversary of the Highway Code changes approaching this winter.

The Highway Code states:

You should not cut across cyclists, horse riders or horse-drawn vehicles going ahead when you are turning into or out of a junction or changing direction or lane

More than a third of drivers surveyed wrongly believed drivers have priority when turning into a side road, while one-in-five said they were not sure who has priority.

Jessica Murphy, Head of Public Policy UKI at Tier, said the results of the survey were troubling, and demonstrate the need to further raise awareness of the changes to avoid dangerous interactions on Britain's roads.

She said: "The findings highlight how well-meaning changes to the Highway Code still put the onus on cyclists and other vulnerable road users to be aware of drivers. Currently the majority of drivers should give cyclists their legal right of way, however a quarter will not, which could lead to potentially devastating outcomes.

"We hope that by raising awareness of the changes more drivers will hear about the changes and drive according to the Highway Code, making our roads safer to cycle on, especially in urban areas and reduce conflict between road users."

The changes to the Highway Code were brought in 20 months ago and prompted much discussion and hysteria at the time. Just days before the revisions came into force, two major newspapers misrepresented the rules around the 'Dutch Reach' technique, designed to reduce the chances of dooring a cyclist.

A further concern came with the lack of communication of the changes to the public, Cycling UK at the time calling for a long-term public awareness campaign to help produce a "mindset shift" on British roads. It took until July, six months after they came into effect, for the changes to be promoted in a THINK! road safety campaign.

And Tier's research is hardly surprising considering the news a year ago that an AA survey showed that 61 per cent of drivers had not read the new rules.

"While we are pleased that many of the changes can be successfully recalled, we'd like more drivers to know the rules outright so they can keep themselves and others safe," the managing director of AA Accident Assist, Tim Rankin, said.

https://road.cc/content/news/highway-code-1-4-drivers-still-dont-know-correct-rule-303959

Simon Mason <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:

> New research into drivers' knowledge of changes to the Highway Code has
> raised concern, a survey estimating that 25 per cent of drivers do not
> know the correct rules on pedestrian and cyclist priority.

To get a 75% success rate on any public survey, especially one based on a
knowledge of something as prolix as the modern Highway Code, is
astoundingly good.

> The research comes courtesy of Tier (link is external), the world's
> largest shared micro-mobility operator, who surveyed motorists ahead of
> Car-Free Day and have now called for better awareness of the Highway Code
> changes and hierarchy of road users.

Presumably to meet the high Tier standards, the public survey should score
125% in such knowledge.

> Changes were implemented in January 2022 to better protect vulnerable road users […]

When you get to the split infinitive, you suspect the hand of road.cc…

> https://road.cc/content/news/highway-code-1-4-drivers-still-dont-know-correct-rule-303959

Bingo!

--
Spike

BalladOfStruth | 419 posts | 5 hours ago
12 likes

I like the bit where she suggests that only a quarter of drivers won't give way to a cyclist because they're unaware of the rules, as if the other three quarters will despite the fact they do know the rules.

Going a bit off topic here, but leading on from the call for a public awareness campaign to ensure drivers know about the new rules, I think we should go further - 99% of what the average driver "knows" about cyclist and the rules around cycling is myth and fallacy (for example, 86.1% of drivers think we should "also" be subject to a tax that they don't pay and that hasn't existed in 86 years). Just about everything that we cyclists do that drivers get annoyed about a) doesn't inconvenience them at all, and b) we're supposed to do.

I've mentioned this before, and although the consensus seemed to be that "it wasn't the Government's job", I can't help but think that a lot of the issues we all face (which stem from misinformation-fuelled, anti-cyclist hatred), would be resolved by some form of public information campaign that at least attempted to clear up some myths surrounding issues like:

Road funding/tax/entitlement.
Two abreast riding, primary position.
Why filtering past a stationary car at 5mph isn't the same as a close pass at 60mph.
The 24,605 reasons why a cyclist might choose not to use a cycle lane/path
The fact that cyclists don't cause congestion and additional pollution.
The fact that insane amounts of public land has been handed over to drivers at great cost to the taxpayer (a large amount of it used for storage of private property), giving a tiny fraction back to active travel modes isn't a "fascist attack on driver rights".

On 20/09/2023 08:07, Spike wrote:
> Simon Mason <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> New research into drivers' knowledge of changes to the Highway Code has
>> raised concern, a survey estimating that 25 per cent of drivers do not
>> know the correct rules on pedestrian and cyclist priority.
>
> To get a 75% success rate on any public survey, especially one based on a
> knowledge of something as prolix as the modern Highway Code, is
> astoundingly good.
>
>> The research comes courtesy of Tier (link is external), the world's
>> largest shared micro-mobility operator, who surveyed motorists ahead of
>> Car-Free Day and have now called for better awareness of the Highway Code
>> changes and hierarchy of road users.
>
> Presumably to meet the high Tier standards, the public survey should score
> 125% in such knowledge.
>
>> Changes were implemented in January 2022 to better protect vulnerable road users […]
>
> When you get to the split infinitive, you suspect the hand of [the at-best semi-literate] road.cc…
>
>> https://road.cc/content/news/highway-code-1-4-drivers-still-dont-know-correct-rule-303959
>
> Bingo!

:-)

Do you reckon May Sun writes for them?

On 20/09/2023 08:47, Simon Mason wrote:
> BalladOfStruth | 419 posts | 5 hours ago
> 12 likes
>
> I like the bit where she suggests that only a quarter of drivers won't give way to a cyclist because they're unaware of the rules, as if the other three quarters will despite the fact they do know the rules.
>
> Going a bit off topic here, but leading on from the call for a public awareness campaign to ensure drivers know about the new rules, I think we should go further - 99% of what the average driver "knows" about cyclist and the rules around cycling is myth and fallacy (for example, 86.1% of drivers think we should "also" be subject to a tax that they don't pay and that hasn't existed in 86 years). Just about everything that we cyclists do that drivers get annoyed about a) doesn't inconvenience them at all, and b) we're supposed to do.
>
> I've mentioned this before, and although the consensus seemed to be that "it wasn't the Government's job", I can't help but think that a lot of the issues we all face (which stem from misinformation-fuelled, anti-cyclist hatred), would be resolved by some form of public information campaign that at least attempted to clear up some myths surrounding issues like:
>
> Road funding/tax/entitlement.
> Two abreast riding, primary position.
> Why filtering past a stationary car at 5mph isn't the same as a close pass at 60mph.
> The 24,605 reasons why a cyclist might choose not to use a cycle lane/path
> The fact that cyclists don't cause congestion and additional pollution.
> The fact that insane amounts of public land has been handed over to drivers at great cost to the taxpayer (a large amount of it used for storage of private property), giving a tiny fraction back to active travel modes isn't a "fascist attack on driver rights".

Fascist.

carlosdsanchez | 142 posts | 2 hours ago
1 like

Just make it compulsory to resit the theory test every time you get caught for a motoring offence. You could give say a 8 week grace period, but failure to take and pass the test within that period would result in losing your driving licence until you had successfully passed.

JNugent <jennings&co@mail.com> wrote:
> On 20/09/2023 08:07, Spike wrote:
>> Simon Mason <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> New research into drivers' knowledge of changes to the Highway Code has
>>> raised concern, a survey estimating that 25 per cent of drivers do not
>>> know the correct rules on pedestrian and cyclist priority.
>>
>> To get a 75% success rate on any public survey, especially one based on a
>> knowledge of something as prolix as the modern Highway Code, is
>> astoundingly good.
>>
>>> The research comes courtesy of Tier (link is external), the world's
>>> largest shared micro-mobility operator, who surveyed motorists ahead of
>>> Car-Free Day and have now called for better awareness of the Highway Code
>>> changes and hierarchy of road users.
>>
>> Presumably to meet the high Tier standards, the public survey should score
>> 125% in such knowledge.
>>
>>> Changes were implemented in January 2022 to better protect vulnerable road users […]
>>
>> When you get to the split infinitive, you suspect the hand of [the
>> at-best semi-literate] road.cc…
>>
>>> https://road.cc/content/news/highway-code-1-4-drivers-still-dont-know-correct-rule-303959
>>
>> Bingo!
>
> :-)
>
> Do you reckon May Sun writes for them?

Possibly…but they seem to write longer sentences than swldxer1958…

--
Spike

Maybe random call ups, for retesting - a bit like jury duty - the prospect of not knowing if/when it will happen will make people keep up to date. #optimistic

Impromptu roadside tests performed by police. Any driver they think looks suspicious, they pull over, ask a couple of test questions and any failure gets them booked for a full re-test.
==============
I rather suspect the upshot of that would be every black person in London taking twice-weekly driving tests... :-)