So if i'm reading it correctly....
Currently where you do a left turn you'd expect someone on the pavement to wait until you'd passed before crossing the road you are turning into. Unless they are a d######d.
Now they get right of way?
I foresee much grinding and gnashing of teeth over this aspect. The bodies of the young will be piling high in the funeral parlours as old people fail to react in time to them suddenly stepping out into the road. :(
They have always had right of way, look at an older Highway Code. All the "new rules" are doing is to emphasise existing rules.
I wondered about that. Does this still apply where there is a red man?
It's insanity! It will make driving in a town centre unbearable, which is what they want really isn't it? An extra disincentive to use our ever shrinking local market.
Do you mean a black man ?
When turning left, you now have to give way to both cyclists passing you on the left, and pedestrians crossing the side road. So looking in your mirrors and ahead at the same time. Specsavers will soon be offering a fly eye conversion for simultaneous all round vision.
All colours get priority over pink, like in everything else.
Bill
How are you supposed to know what they're planning to do? Personally I'm not into telepathy.
Bill
Not surprising since the consultees for the changes were cyclists and pedestrians, not motorists.
R D S expressed precisely :
Nowt much has changed, pedestrians always had right of way, apart from you are now being told to anticipate someone wanting to cross - which has always been good, polite practice anyway, so shouldn't make much difference to the more sensible road users.
The big issue I notice at the moment is that Copenhagen footways are all the rage, and this means blind peopled do no longer know if they are approaching a road or still on the footway, so could just walk straight on. This means that all pedestrians have to have right of way.
Unless the dept of transport want to be sued for installing these footways, then they have to put the onus on the car, cycle or whatever driver to save their bacons because they cannot be bothered to lay a bit of tactile paving down. It sound completely hat stand logic, but there you are. Brian
AFAIK pedestrians always had right of way to *continue* crossing, but now they will get right of way to *start* crossing ...
There certainly don't seem to be any new laws backing up the MUST/MUST NOT phrasing of the new highway code, they've just sprinkled a lot of extra SHOULD/SHOULD NOT phrases in there ...
Yes and no. Most of the "new" rules are, as you say, simply stating things that were already covered, but as individual statements. However, the old rules did say that drivers must give way to someone crossing a side-road, when they are turning into it, but did NOT say to give way to someone waiting to cross. The latter is I think somewhat dangerous, as drivers approaching will have to (unnecessarily) stop, causing following vehicles, that are not turning, to take avoiding action. This will increase the chances of being hit from behind, people swinging out into oncoming traffic to pass or people passing the waiting car, but not seeing something that is hidden on the other side of it (a pedestrian crossing the main road or a car pulling out from the side road).
On most side roads, there is plenty of time for a pedestrian to cross between infrequently turning vehicles, with a minimal wait to do so and changing it to drivers having to stop, in moving traffic, to let someone
*start* to cross is significantly more disruptive and dangerous to far more people.In some locations (near schools at finishing times for instance), a constant stream of people crossing, waiting to cross or approaching, will make it nigh on impossible to turn into some side-roads, with consequent problems on the main roads.
Exactly. A lot of the comments seem to suggest that many people don't know what the current highway code says, so I have no great expectation that the latest revision will be any better understood.
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Or, you could look upon it as giving our town centres back to their original owners before motorists started hogging the roads?
Tim
even the first Highway Code (1936) states "Remember you cannot be certain of the movements of pedestrians."
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