The new highway code rules
From the 29th January 2022 the new Highway Code Rules have come into force which gives cyclists clear priority over drivers and motorists and provides specific instructions on how much room to allow when overtaking.
Car drivers will have more responsibility to watch for cyclists, pedestrians or those riding a horse.
Under the new rule’s cars must leave at least 1.5 meters room when passing bicycles, furthermore the revised guidelines state that it can be safer for cyclist to ride two abreast.
Cyclist are not instructed to ride in the centre of the lane in slowing moving traffic, on quite roads or streets, moving to the left if a faster vehicle comes up behind them, but only if they can do so safely and at the approach to junctions or where the road narrows, where it would be unsafe for drivers to overtaken the cyclist.
other amendments to take into account are as followed:
- Drivers turning into a road are required to give way to pedestrians waiting to cross.
- Drivers are not allowed to cross across cyclist or horse riders when turning into or out of a junction or changing directions or lane, to avoid left hook collisions.
- Drivers are to allow cyclist priority at roundabouts.
- Drivers are being advised to reduce the risk of opening the car doors into the path of the cyclist to use the hand on the opposite side to the door, as this will often lead the driver to look over their shoulder, known as the Dutch Reach technique.
By the end of June 2021 according to the Provisional Department of Transport (DFT) figures showed 4,290 pedestrians and 4,700 cyclist were killed or seriously injured in crashes in the United Kingdom.
