Highway Code: Do drivers or pedestrians have priority?

Does a car have to stop to let someone cross if they enter the road? <i>(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)</i>
Does a car have to stop to let someone cross if they enter the road? (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
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The rules around who has priority on our roads changed three years ago, but that hasn't stopped there from being a lot of confusion among drivers and pedestrians.

The Highway Code introduced a new "hierarchy of road users," which placed more vulnerable groups at the top.

This is laid out in Rule H1 of the Highway Code, where road users are told that drivers of cars and motorbikes have a responsibility to reduce harm to cyclists and pedestrians.

It adds: "Cyclists, horse riders and drivers of horse-drawn vehicles likewise have a responsibility to reduce danger to pedestrians."

Drivers also must stop for pedestrians waiting to cross at zebra crossings (Image: Getty Images/Endrik Baublies)

However, the code is quick to warn: "None of this detracts from the responsibility of ALL road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders, to have regard for their own and other road users’ safety."

The code also points out that many pedestrians may have impaired vision, hearing and mobility and that this may not be obvious.

Who has the right-of-way at a junction? What pedestrians and drivers need to know

Rule H2 of the Highway Code makes this very clear, stating that drivers waiting to turn should give way to pedestrians waiting to cross at a junction.

The rule reads: "At a junction, you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning.

"You MUST give way to pedestrians on a zebra crossing, and to pedestrians and cyclists on a parallel crossing (see Rule 195)."


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These rules are said to also apply to cyclists and horse riders waiting to turn when there are pedestrians waiting to cross.

Pedestrians may use any part of the road or a cycle track unless there are signs prohibiting pedestrians.

For more information, please refer to the Highway Code.

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