Highway Codes of Olden Times

Have some fun perusing the Highway Codes of yester-year.

Background:
The Highway Code was first published in 1931§. It has evolved gradually ever since.

The modern Highway Code traces its roots directly back to the original edition with obvious similarities of wording and structure.

For example you might be surprised to learn that back in 1946 the stopping distance at 50 mph was 175 feet. In the 2006 we have come a long way, the current Highway Code now quotes the stopping distance at 50 mph as......err......53 metres...(or 175 feet for any troglodyte imperialists still out there). Thank goodness for modern braking systems.

You can get bang up to date by clicking on the 2006 Highway Code (below)

Alternatively, why not turn the clock back:

1931

click the Highway Code (below) to view

Its 1931. This is the very first Highway Code.

There are, it is said, about 2 million cars on the road(1), and the country is blighted with an epidemic of fatal accidents, 7300 deaths in 1930 alone (which compares with 3221 deaths in 2004 caused by well over 20 million vehicles). The government of the day is under pressure to do something about it! The response is a raft of measures, one of which is the publication of the Highway Code. The first driving test followed a few years later.

The information in the 1931 Code was fairly basic. No stopping distances were given, and although there was a lengthy section on hand signals, no road signs were featured.

Although we tend to think of commercial sponsorship of government as a recent phenomenon, the 1931 Code featured various advertisements including full pages ads for both the RAC and AA. (12 months RAC membership for a 1.1cc motor car cost the princely sum of £1 and 1 shilling (!), equivalent to £46.21 in today's money(2). Incidentally in comparison a basic annual subscription to RAC now costs £32.90.

May be we should consider reviving one or two of the old rules, for example:

Motorcyclists and cyclists were told never to drive between between traffic to "gain a forward position in a traffic block".
When overtaking, motorists were told to first beep their horn in order to alert the driver in front, (something they still do in Greece).

Download the 1931 Highway Code

Warning: this is a large file. If using broadband, click the HTML page, otherwise we suggest you download the Zip PDF file

1946.

The War is over (just), petrol rationing is still in full swing and the New Labour government of the day felt the time was right to publish a new edition of the Highway Code. The brevity of the crisp and simple language is to be admired (...and yet not a Plain English Award in sight).

The section dealing with road signs is very short, only 15 signs shown, of which only 2 are still in use to this day! The current Code now boasts about 170 road signs, so goodness knows where we will be in another 60 years time!

Interestingly one of the signs shown in the 1946 Code is for a clockwise roundabout. The Code does not say whether these roundabouts were governed by the "Yield at Entry Rule", which some commentators say only came about in the 1950's.

Download the 1946 Code Warning: this is a large file we suggest you download the Zip PDF file

1954

9 years later, Winston Churchill is back in power and the Conservatives bring out a brand new edition. Notice how the graphical presentation has moved up a gear with a big emphasis on design, presentation and the use of colours. For example the braking distances now appear in the form of a pictorial graph rather than the simple table of figures found in the 1946 edition.

A total of 31 road signs are shown, but yellow and zig-zag lines have still not yet been invented, how they must have suffered in the past!

Sadly the elaborate signals for drivers of horse drawn vehicles shown in the 1946 Code, disappeared from the 1954 edition; so it must have been a field day for rag and bone men, one can imagine the chaos that ensued.

I particularly like the titbit footnotes which appear at the bottom of most of the pages of the 1946 Code (although one is tempted to wonder whether in these pre-computer days somebody at the Ministry was really keeping all of the accident statistics quoted). These charming little footnotes gave a foretaste of the pious overhead motorway messages which now bombard us.

Despite the improved presentation and the removal of paid advertising, the cover price of 1954 edition (1 old penny) remained exactly the same as the 1931 edition which had been published some 23 years previously. In today's money 1p cover price in 1931 is now equivalent to 18p in new money(2). Of course that was the bad old days, now its free over the internet (not so good by comparison however is the current cover price £1.49(3)).

Download the 1954 Code Warning: this is a large file we suggest you download the Zip PDF file

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§Although the Highway Code dates back to 1931, Lancs County Council states that it was the first local authority to enforce the "Rule(s) of the Road" which it says was the forerunner of the modern Highway Code, we would be delighted to obtain a copy of this! Also the London Safety First Council (now RoSPA) published in 1924 a "Safety Code for Road Users", whether this was the same document as the "Rules of the Road", we do not know. One of the main proponents of the Highway Code was Earl Russell then Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport, Herbert Morrison.

Herbert Morrison, Minister of Transport:

1 Source: Driving Standards Agency
2 Source: Comparing the Purchasing Power of Money in Great Britain from 1264 to 2002. Economic History Services, 2004
3 Source: Amazon.co.uk 01-02-06

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