Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Dutch Reach to be in the Highway Code - thousands unaware
A new Highway Code was announced in September, but a survey has found thousands of drivers are unaware of one of the new rules (including yours truly).
One of the new rules relates to how you open your car door once you've parked up, requiring both drivers and passengers to use the hand furthest from the door to open it - known as 'Dutch Reach'.
The idea is this process naturally means drivers and passengers turn towards the window when they open their door - making it less likely they'll miss a cyclist and open the door into their path.
Road safety charity IAM RoadSmart surveyed 10,000 people and 85 per cent of them were unaware of what Dutch Reach was.
Sensible rule - poor roll-out. Glad that I'm now aware.
Update: Story in The Guardian after initial publication of this story.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Are you sure? As I understand it, this is something of a grey area.
You're right that not all the rules in the Highway Code are backed up by the force law. But, as I understand it, any rule that starts with Must or Must not is backed up by law or regulation.
If we look at rule 239 it says,
- you MUST ensure you do not hit anyone when you open your door. Check for cyclists or other traffic.
It seems to be backed up by regulation 105, from the The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986. (Apparently a regulation that's been on the statute books for over a quarter of a century but has only just made its way into the Highway Code).
So that brings us to the difference between law and regulation. The wisdom of the interwebs tells me that
Regulations are supplementary to acts. They link to existing acts and they are designed to aid a person to apply the principles of the primary act. Essentially, they are formal guidelines, and breaching them is not necessarily enforceable in courts.
Elsewhere, I've read that everything in the Highway Code can be used as evidence in any court, to establish liability.
So, for all our sakes, Ian, for our moral, legal and financial wellbeing, rather than arguing the toss over the finer points of law, I think it's best that we all recognise that this regulation is in all our best interests and just do what it says (and I'm not a cyclist).
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Permalink Reply by IanB on
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I think your interpretations are quite correct. Was just pointing out there's no MUST specific to the new stuff about how doors are actually opened. Also see the last sentence of the first post has been edited :)
I'm more interested in the effect of new rules regarding pedestrians at junctions. Previously drivers only had to give priority to pedestrians already in the road (not that many paid any attention to that) but the new rule will apparently state pedestrains waiting to cross a juntion will have priority.
Lastly, I don't think any of this has actually made it into the highway code yet. It's still under review and due to be implemented at the end of Jan.
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Yes, to avoid any further resistance, one word was changed - ‘law’ to ‘rule’.
I quoted and added a link to rule 239 in the current Highway Code. This contains the new rule.
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Well that confuses me because I found a number of articles published in October that referred to the change having taken place in September.
Here are a couple that were still in my browser history:
https://www.bedfordshirelive.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/thousands-una...
https://www.bicyclenetwork.com.au/newsroom/2021/10/07/dutch-reach-b...
But, on checking I found this probably more reliable article, published after I added this story, which suggests that the changes are due in January.(So this story has clearly been doing the rounds of the press-rooms today).
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/30/two-in-three-uk-dri...
So, even having checked for a number of sources, it looks like I have fallen victim to poor information on the net. Apologies to all who have read this. But, on the bright side, forewarned is forearmed!
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