PFCC welcomes the amended Highway Code

Roger Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex welcomes the amended Highway Code and will continue to promote safety on our roads. In Essex, we are all working towards reducing deaths and serious injuries caused on our roads. This is in line with Vision Zero which is the ambitious initiative to achieve zero road deaths in the county in the next 20 years. From the 29^th of January, the amended Highway Code came into force. It introduced a new hierarchy of road users to ensure drivers take more responsibility for the safety of all road users, and in particular, the safety of vulnerable road users – children, pedestrians, disabled or elderly people, cyclists and horse riders. Some of the new rules include but are not limited to:

• At a junction, motorists, horse riders and cyclist should give way to pedestrians
• Cyclists should give way to pedestrians on shared-use cycle tracks
• Pedestrians can use cycle tracks unless indicated otherwise
• Drivers and motorcyclists should not cut across cyclists at junctions, lanes or when changing directions

Adam Pipe, Head of Roads Policing, said: “Cyclists and pedestrians are vulnerable road users, but the changes mean that they will have a new priority at junctions other drivers may not be aware of. “Drivers and riders should give way to cyclists when turning in or out of a junction so that you do not cause them to stop or swerve if they are going straight ahead. “They should be given as much priority as vehicles when you are changing lanes, so you should not cut across them. “Cyclists should also be given priority at roundabouts meaning other drivers must give them sufficient space and even stop and give them time to exit the roundabout before entering. You need to leave a distance of at least 1.5 metres when overtaking cyclists.” You can read more about the new Highway Code here.