Basingstoke ObserverRules for all types of road users have been updated in The Highway Code to improve the safety of people walking, cycling and riding horses.
The changes follow a public consultation on a review of The Highway Code to improve road safety for people walking, cycling and riding horses. It ran from July to October 2020, and received more than 20,000 responses from the public, businesses and other organisations.
The changes were made to The Highway Code on Saturday 29 January.
There are changes in 8 key areas: introducing a new hierarchy of road users; crossing the road at junctions; walking, cycling or riding in shared spaces; positioning in the road when cycling; overtaking when driving or cycling; cycling at junctions; people cycling, riding horses and driving horse-drawn vehicles on roundabouts; parking, charging and leaving vehicles.
The introduction section of The Highway Code has been updated to include three new rules about the new ‘hierarchy of road users’. The hierarchy places those road users most at risk in the event of a collision at the top of the hierarchy.
The code recommends a new technique when leaving vehicles. It’s sometimes called the ‘Dutch Reach’. When able to do so, people should open the car door using their hand on the opposite side to the door they are opening.
A summary of all the changes is on GOV.UK.
