Whether you drive or not, we are all considered road users, whether we are drivers, cyclists, horse rider or pedestrians. The Highway Code is generally seen by everyone as the set of guidelines and laws that determine the correct way to behave on a road.

Around a decade the motorcar was born, there were two million of them on the roads and in 1930 there were around 7300 deaths by road accidents. Considering that in 2006 there were around 3000 deaths by road accidents and over 20 million cars on the road, the 1930 statistics needed sorting out.

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!

There was no mention of why driving drunk or tired was dangerous or any road signs or stopping distances and it cost one old penny. Included in the second edition, released in 1946, was advice on why you shouldn’t drive drunk or tired, and the first fifteen road signs to be put out on British roads made the debut appearance, only two of which we still 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 first version to include photographs and 3D images was the sixth version which came out in 1968, and these images were used to show braking distances. It also introduced the orange badges for disabled people and gave the Green Cross Code to pedestrians.

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.

The Highway Code has been adapted over the 78 years that it has been with us to become the comprehensive book on road advice, guidelines and law. One of the newest of which being the fact that you cannot use mobile phones while driving, and considering mobile phones weren’t invented when the Code was originally brought out, it just shows how the laws of the road have adapted and changed with society.

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