TL;DR there are no new laws, you shouldn’t be driving dangerously in the first place, bikes have always been allowed in the centre lane, you don’t pay road tax, please don’t try to kill people just because they’re on two wheels.
Nobody is born cool except the cyclist who signals to you that now is a good time to overtake them.
That thing about heavier, me +my bike weighs less than a fat cunt
>There is a tweak to priority for pedestrians at crossings
>
>One of the most debated changes is that drivers about to turn into a junction should now give way to pedestrians “crossing or waiting to cross” that road. That’s what good drivers do anyway, but it is a change to the previous version, which said pedestrians had priority only “if they have started to cross”. As anyone will know if, say, they have walked through a city with a small child, or a frail older person, it can be daunting to have to step out into the road just to claim a place to cross.
This is an interesting one. The sub-heading here regarding “crossings” is pretty appropriate as the same rules apply to pedestrians crossing a side-road as they do to pedestrians using a pedestrian crossing. The code has had various ways of describing the rules here over the years, including one which implied that at zebra crossings for instance, the driver only needed to stop once the pedestrian had set foot on the crossing.
The actual law has always simply indicated that pedestrians have *precedence*. This is clearly open to interpretation, but generally I’d assume that if it was clear a pedestrian intended to cross and a driver, either by nature of their speed, or lack of observation, failed to allow this to occur then they’d be at fault.
The new explanation of this in the HW code clarifies the position here and in a reasonable way I think. Particularly on junctions where drivers often fail to signal, so a pedestrian may think a car isn’t turning when it is, while a driver may commence their turn, thinking the pedestrian is going to wait, when they aren’t – a recipe for a fatal accident.
It’s all very well putting in changes in the Highway Code to encourage drivers to be more considerate, but it is still hard to tell someone they were being inconsiderate when you’re dead.
Seriously, what are the ramifications of this? If you’re crossing a side street and a driver narrowly misses you what are you going to do? Call the police?
It will be a measure of how much people really know about the highway code and pay attention to such changes. Most motorists will just drive as per usual and forget about any changes as soon as they get behind the wheel.
Well I won’t be stepping out in front of cars at junctions anytime soon…
7 comments
TL;DR there are no new laws, you shouldn’t be driving dangerously in the first place, bikes have always been allowed in the centre lane, you don’t pay road tax, please don’t try to kill people just because they’re on two wheels.
Nobody is born cool except the cyclist who signals to you that now is a good time to overtake them.
That thing about heavier, me +my bike weighs less than a fat cunt
>There is a tweak to priority for pedestrians at crossings
>
>One of the most debated changes is that drivers about to turn into a junction should now give way to pedestrians “crossing or waiting to cross” that road. That’s what good drivers do anyway, but it is a change to the previous version, which said pedestrians had priority only “if they have started to cross”. As anyone will know if, say, they have walked through a city with a small child, or a frail older person, it can be daunting to have to step out into the road just to claim a place to cross.
This is an interesting one. The sub-heading here regarding “crossings” is pretty appropriate as the same rules apply to pedestrians crossing a side-road as they do to pedestrians using a pedestrian crossing. The code has had various ways of describing the rules here over the years, including one which implied that at zebra crossings for instance, the driver only needed to stop once the pedestrian had set foot on the crossing.
The actual law has always simply indicated that pedestrians have *precedence*. This is clearly open to interpretation, but generally I’d assume that if it was clear a pedestrian intended to cross and a driver, either by nature of their speed, or lack of observation, failed to allow this to occur then they’d be at fault.
The new explanation of this in the HW code clarifies the position here and in a reasonable way I think. Particularly on junctions where drivers often fail to signal, so a pedestrian may think a car isn’t turning when it is, while a driver may commence their turn, thinking the pedestrian is going to wait, when they aren’t – a recipe for a fatal accident.
It’s all very well putting in changes in the Highway Code to encourage drivers to be more considerate, but it is still hard to tell someone they were being inconsiderate when you’re dead.
Seriously, what are the ramifications of this? If you’re crossing a side street and a driver narrowly misses you what are you going to do? Call the police?
It will be a measure of how much people really know about the highway code and pay attention to such changes. Most motorists will just drive as per usual and forget about any changes as soon as they get behind the wheel.
Well I won’t be stepping out in front of cars at junctions anytime soon…