More than six months ago, the Department for Transport (DfT) made significant changes to the Highway Code. Perhaps most notable was the creation of a new hierarchy of road users which placed the most at-risk road users at the top. It was hoped the changes would go some way to increasing the safety and awareness of all road users.
However, with the physical copy of the code only just updated and the government campaign just ramping up, knowledge of the changes is sparse.
Research commissioned by the UK's largest independent road safety charity, IAM RoadSmart, shows that one in five motorists were unaware of the latest changes to the code. This represents more than 7 million out of the 35.9 million drivers in the UK.
Furthermore, while 80 per cent of the survey respondents believe the changes to the Highway Code to be important, over half admitted they cannot remember the last time they referred to the code.
Cycling UK and others have voiced concerns that there has been nowhere near enough communication from the DfT. This is confirmed by the 51 per cent of drivers who believe the government has not done a good job communicating the updates.
In 2021 alone there were over 100,000 reported casualties on the UK's roads, 1,560 of which were fatal and a further 27,300 of which were serious injuries. It is therefore crucial that changes made to the Highway Code to help increase safety are known about by more people. At present, and as outlined by IAM RoadSmart policy director Neil Greig, the changes pose "a serious safety risk which could actually see the updated code causing more conflict on our roads rather than less."
ACSO wants to see the DfT up its game - and help save lives.