- The first edition cost 1d and had advertisements in it. It included signals for drivers of Horse carts to make with their whips, and arm signals to be given by drivers and police officers controlling traffic. It didn't mention mirrors.
- The first edition was just 18 pages long. Today it is 145 pages long.
- Illustrations of road signs didn't appear until the second edition in 1934, but the code wasn't published in colour until 1954. Motorway driving was included in the fifth edition, and photographs in the sixth edition.
- The UK Government website says “Knowing and applying the rules contained in The Highway Code could significantly reduce road casualties. Cutting the number of deaths and injuries that occur on our roads every day is a responsibility we all share. The Highway Code can help us discharge that responsibility.” It seems to have worked. In 1931 there were only about 2 million motorists in the UK, but there were somewhere in the region of 7,000 road deaths. Now, there are about 27 million cars and only half the number of deaths. Although you could argue that driving tests and modern technology helped as well.
- Although the majority of copies are bought by people preparing for their driving tests, it isn't just for car drivers. There is guidance in there for applies to drivers of animals, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists as well.
- Anything in the Highway Code that is a legal requirement will be identified by the words ‘must’ or ‘must not’, and include a reference to the relevant legislation. While failure to comply with the rest of it may not be an offence in itself, it can be taken into account by a court and considered to be careless driving.
- We all know using a phone while driving is an offence, and that includes using a phone while stuck in a jam. As long as your engine is running, it's an offence. The code advises not using mobiles to call the emergency services in the event of an accident, but to use the emergency roadside phones instead - because not only are they free, but they transmit your exact location to the emergency services.
- In 2004, over a million copies were sold.
- There are seven different types of pedestrian crossing covered in the code. These are: zebra, puffin, pelican, toucan, staggered puffin, staggered pelican and Traffic Lights. There's another type of crossing it doesn't cover (not yet anyway) called a pegasus crossing, which is for people riding horses. Named after the the mythical winged horse, Pegasus, they will have extra features such as a 2m high control panel for people on horseback, as well as one at the usual height for other pedestrians or dismounted riders and the "green man" (walk) and "red man" (stop) pictograms are replaced with horses.
- It's not just a book anymore, either. You can get it as an e-book, an audio book, a CD ROM, an iphone/ipad app and as a PDF. You can also follow it on Facebook and Twitter, along with parodies of it including “Not the Highway Code” and Top Gear’s “Alternative Highway Code”.
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