How The Highway Code Has Adapted To The Changes In Society- writedeal.com

Jun 22nd 09 Posted by Ciara Hodson McLemon in Writing

How The Highway Code Has Adapted To The Changes In Society

by Johann Ken Flanders

The Highway Code is widely known by many as the set of laws and guidelines that govern the way we all use the roads, whether you are a pedestrian, a driver, a cyclist, a horse rider, or any other kind of road-user.

Although in 1930 there were only around 2 million motorcars on the roads, there were over 7000 deaths from car accidents. When you compare that to the 2006 statistics, (20 million cars, 3200 deaths from car accidents) it seems that road deaths were staggeringly high.

The government of the day knew that they needed to do something about this, thus the Highway Code was born. Now nearly 80 years old, it has had a lot of changes made to it over the years considering that the original version of the Code contained information about things like what actions to take when driving your carriage and horses, and was only 24 pages long!

The original version of the Code was very limited, but then so were the laws of the road in comparison to today so I suppose that is to be expected. There were no road signs when the Code first came out, and nobody had thought twice about driving after drinking, or when tired, so you can see, the Code still had a long way to go. Even among the 15 road signs that were included in the second edition (1946), there are only two that we use today.

Stopping distances however, did not get a mention until the edition that came out in 1954, along with a further sixteen road signs, bringing the total number to 31. When compared with today’s 170, its interesting to think what new signs might become commonplace on our roads in another sixty years.

The sixth edition was out in 1968 which included 3D images and photographs to show stopping distance. The 1978 version contained these as well. It also contained the Green Cross Code for pedestrians and orange badges for disabled people. Due to a huge increase in car crime, the government made an update on this version to so that it contained advice on how to keep your car secure.

The version of the 90s contained advice and information about the theory driving test that had just been introduced. The information that new drivers are required to learn in order to pass their theory test has now become part of the Code itself.

So the Highway Code has been with us for around 78 years and during that time has become the key resource for driving laws, guidelines or advice. The newest law to be added of course being that you can’t use mobiles while driving. This just shows how the laws of the road have adapted to the changes in society.

About the Author:

For free legal advice on the laws of the road and to fully clarify what is within driving law and what isn’t, completely free of charge, visit pattersonlaw.co.uk. They provide a full legal advice service in a question & answer style form.