so i just found out that there are some changes coming this month to the highway code.
il link this youtube video because the guy explains it better than i eve could
now after watching the video my first thought was
“oh no the woke crowd have managed to get there hierarchy of oppression into the highway code and it is going to get people killed, facepalm”
however politics aside.
i think these changes are utter lunacy and that they will get quite alot of people killed.
also, i think that the gov has done a pee poor job of informing people about these changes.
after all the changes is days away and i only found out because youtube put that video in my suggestions!
you know, wheres the radio adverts, wheres the road side billboards and tv ads telling us about this change!
i get the feeling that they have deliberatly done this on the quiet because they know that if they told everyonem we would tell them their being dumb and dangerous!
It’s nonsense, the changes aren’t required.
If we all continue (as pedestrians/cyclists/vehicle users) to carry on doing what we do at present. It works pretty well I think, as the guy says we all have a duty of care over your fellow road user. You’ll always get some t*t who thinks it’s their right of way no matter what, that won’t change.
If I see anyone near a junction I always assume they are going to step out, they are quite often oblivious to the traffic; heads down engaged in some extremely important interaction on their phone.
Well I Can’t Do Your Link 'cos my 2011 Purpose Built Desk Top has No Sound [Boring as to Why]
BUT…Have Been Following This
I Was Taught to Drive By Police 1979 and to Assume that Every Cyclist/Horse Rider was the Size of a Car…So Giving Them as Wide a Birth as Possible…And if You Couldn’t…Just Wait Slowly Several Yards Back Until You Could Successfully Do This…Not to Pressurise Them…Whether in Your Own Car or One With Blue Lights
And to Treat Every Road User as a Potential Idiot…Including Pedestrians…and that was Before Mobile Phones as Grumpy Badger points out
Because You Are Driving a Lethal Weapon
Just Glad that the ‘Dutch Reach’ says “If You Are Able” ['cos that will NOT do wonders for my 1980 Whiplash Injury]
But then Trained to Check 360 Degrees before opening car door back in 1979 !
Trained to Give Way to Weight [HGVs] and Drivers Coming Up Hills
For Anyone That Can View the Video…Have I Missed Anything ???
i was taught (back in the very late 70s and early 80s that vehicles had the right of way.
even at zebra crossing i was taught not to cross untill the vehicles had stopped.
I Have a Very, Very, Very Faded Memory of Learning About Road Traffic Law 1978-81 ish
It said that an Adopted Road Includes the Paths…It Could Have Changed…But If It Hasn’t…It Means that Pedestrians on the Paths are Actually Legally “On the Road”
Don’t Know If Any Member More Up to Date Than Me ?
Hmmm note to check field of view on dashcam, if you are turning right and stop for someone to cross the road will the dashcam pick that person up as proof when you are rammed in the back by an impatient driver. ‘You were indicating to turn right mate and there was nothing coming …’
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes! Nobody likes them do they but some of these aren’t even changes?!
Cyclists have long been told to adopt the Primary Position (i.e. centre of the lane in certain circumstances) maybe some of the bikers on here will know more? Spot on with overtaking (anything) as well even if just to save your wing mirror. As for turning into a road, who is to say you can’t turn into the road because there’s a car blocking your way, are people really getting rear-ended that much? Also, didn’t pedestrians have right of way at junctions anyway (if they were crossing the road already)?
I think these new rules are simply a way to save money on black and white paint.
The rule that you should give way to those pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross is the same as has been forever on Zebra crossings. The government have cunningly found a way to avoid the inevitable Belisha Beacon shortage and I commend them for the ingenuity!
for me, the only one i hve problem with that pedestrians now have right of way at junctions.
personally i think its going to cause some deaths and a whole heap load of rear end shunt’s.
I read about these “changes” a month ago on my insurer’s newsletter. In parts they seem ridiculous: braking then driving away more often means using more fuel and polluting more…
We’re told these rules are there to protect the most vulnerable road users, but they won’t achieve that if pedestrians feel free to jump onto the road.
I think we can all agree that the pre-publicity for these changes has been dire. But the discussion so far has been sadly unbalanced. No matter how capable we are as drivers and how meticulously we maintain our cars, they are still fast-moving lumps of (mainly) steel than can do serious damage to pedestrians, riders and especially their horses and indeed cyclists. Irrespective of the road tax issue that some have raised, they all have a right to use the road. Driving a motor vehicle doesn’t involve special privileges. Some posters here may have been trained to check all round before we leave the kerb, but who here can say they do so every time.
By holding the road in specified circumstances, cyclists will actually be contributing to road safety by slowing down traffic - they certainly don’t deserve a blast from a horn. As a pedestrian, I have been nearly struck by the driver of a Rover when he decided that - although the traffic in one direction had stopped for me at a pedestrian crossing , he needn’t bother. So I welcome that pedestrians now have priority once they are at the kerbside, not when they are actually on the crossing. And I especially welcome the presumption that pedestrians crossing a side road have priority over traffic turning in, having had to wait for an unconscionable time while a stream of traffic slowly filters in front of me. Why should they have priority? It is a system that many will know applies in Canada and it works there.
So I suggest that rather than carping we accept the vulnerability hierarchy as commonsense and drive extra-carefully in the introduction period and make it work.
It’s strange that some car drivers think that just because pedestrians might have the right of way they are going to take to jumping in front of cars at random.
It is commonsense and nothing to get excited about. As for the comment about keeping politics off the roads … without the …err… policies stemming from politics we’d have no road traffic laws , road maintenance nor anything much else .
As for car drivers somehow being more privileged than mere pedestrians because they pay road tax… So, by the same token , a gas guzzling SUV takes priority over my MX5 because the owner pays more road tax?
Publicity? What do people want - a personal briefing ? This stuff has been featured countless times in the media . It has never, ever been easier to keep up with news - or to ignore it altogether . Those in the latter camp have only themselves to blame if their ignorance comes back to bite them .
My daughter cycles to work every day, from Bournemouth to Christchurch, through rush hour traffic. Some of the stories she tells me about being cut up by cars, vans and lorries make me shudder. I wish she wouldn’t (she has a nice Mazda 3) but she is a keen environmentalist and she also does it to keep fit. She is extremely fit, and doesn’t suffer fools gladly. I wouldn’t want to pick a fight with her. Be careful who you sound your horn at.
Maybe I should emphasise, my statement. At the end of the day we all share the same roads, being a dork on a bike or being a dork in a car is pretty much the same thing. However in case of an accident who do you think will come off worse mate? I’m not saying this is your daughter however if someone decides to be a vigilante on a bike and wont move over (as they should) for a car to pass them over if there is an accident and they come in contact is it the drivers fault or is it the person on the bike?
It might seem strange.
However, some pedestrians already do go from walking in one direction on the pavement, to crossing the road at a zebra crossing, without waiting to make sure drivers have noticed them.
School kids especially.
I’ve never hit one. But I do not want such instances to become more likely everywhere. And as a cyclist, I understand the need to look after more fragile road users.
