In January 2022 the Highway Code gained three new rules at the front. H1 sets a principle: greater potential to cause harm means greater responsibility. H2 gives pedestrians priority at junctions you are turning into or out of. H3 says do not cut across cyclists going ahead when you turn. If you passed your test before 2022, H2 is the one that will feel wrong.
Three rules were added to the front of the Highway Code in January 2022, before rule 1, under the heading hierarchy of road users. They are numbered H1, H2 and H3. Learners get taught them as a matter of course. Anyone who passed before 2022 mostly encountered them as a news story about pedestrians and then carried on driving the way they always had.
That gap is the interesting part, because H2 in particular changes what happens at a junction you use every day.
Rule H1: Responsibility Scales With Harm
H1 opens: "It is important that ALL road users are aware of The Highway Code, are considerate to other road users and understand their responsibility for the safety of others." It then sets out the principle that those in charge of vehicles that can cause the greatest harm bear the greatest responsibility to reduce the danger they pose to others.
That responsibility falls most heavily on drivers of large goods and passenger vehicles, then vans and cars, then motorcycles. Cyclists and horse riders in turn have a responsibility to reduce danger to pedestrians.
Two things it does not say, both of which get misreported.
- It does not remove anyone's responsibility for their own safety. The rule is explicit that all road users, including pedestrians and cyclists, retain that.
- It does not create a legal priority. H1 is a principle that shapes how the other rules are read, not a manoeuvre you perform.
The full text is in the introduction to the Highway Code on gov.uk.
Rule H2: Pedestrians At Junctions
This is the one that changed behaviour, and the one that still catches experienced drivers.
Read the phrase "or waiting to cross" carefully, because it is the change. Before 2022, a pedestrian standing at the kerb of a side road had no priority over a car turning in. Now, if they are waiting to cross the road you are turning into, you should give way.
In practice, at a left turn off a busy East London high street into a residential side road, this means:
- Check your mirrors and signal as normal, well before the turn.
- As you slow, look into the side road for pedestrians at either kerb, not just for cars.
- If someone is crossing or standing at the kerb clearly intending to cross, wait for them.
- Only then complete the turn.
Step three is where the friction is. A driver who learned in 1998 will read a pedestrian at the kerb as someone waiting for them to pass. A pedestrian who has read the 2022 code will read the same moment as a driver who should be stopping. Both are behaving reasonably by their own lights, which is exactly why this junction moment produces so many near misses.
Two clarifications worth having straight. "Should" in the Highway Code is advice rather than law, but advice in the Code is admissible in evidence and is used to establish liability, so treating it as optional is a poor bet. And a pedestrian cannot simply step out and rely on H2. The rule tells drivers what to do; it does not tell pedestrians they may stop looking.
Rule H3: Do Not Cut Across
H3 formalises something the Code already implied. Rule 211 makes the same point in different words: "Do not turn at a junction if to do so would cause the cyclist going straight ahead to stop or swerve, just as you would do with a motor vehicle."
That last clause is the whole rule in one comparison. You would not turn left across a car that was going straight on beside you. H3 says treat a cyclist the same way, and it removes the mental category of "it's only a bike, they can stop".
The situations where this bites in East London are specific: any left turn off a road with a nearside cycle lane, which is most of Whitechapel Road, Mare Street and Barking Road, and any right turn across an oncoming cycle lane. The passing distances and mirror technique that go with it are covered in driving around cyclists in London.
What Actually Changed At Junctions
| Situation | Before January 2022 | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Pedestrian waiting at the kerb of the side road you are turning into | No priority. Drivers routinely turned in front. | You should give way to them. |
| Pedestrian already crossing that side road | Priority once in the road. | Unchanged, and now stated explicitly. |
| Cyclist going straight on in a nearside lane as you turn left | Covered by rule 211 and general care. | Stated as a rule of its own, H3. |
| Pedestrian waiting at a zebra crossing | Give way once they are on the crossing. | The Code now tells drivers to give way to those waiting to cross as well. |
What did not change is priority at traffic signals, right of way at give way lines, or anything about who goes first between two vehicles. The hierarchy sits alongside the existing rules rather than replacing them.
Why Returning Drivers Are Most Exposed
Someone who passed in 2010 has driven for fifteen years without anyone assessing them. That is normal and mostly fine, because the fundamentals do not change. What does change is the Code, and there is no mechanism that makes a licence holder read it again.
The result is a specific, predictable gap. Ask a driver who passed before 2022 what H2 requires and most will either not know the rule exists or know it exists and not have changed what they do at a left turn. That is not carelessness. Nobody sent them anything.
Three things are worth doing, in ascending order of effort:
- Read the hierarchy section on gov.uk. It is short, and it is the whole of the change.
- Deliberately practise the left turn sequence for a week: mirrors, signal, look into the side road for people, then turn. It takes about a fortnight to become automatic.
- If it has been long enough that other things have slipped too, have someone watch you drive. A couple of hours of refresher lessons covers more ground than reading ever will, because the gap is in habit rather than knowledge.
Refresher hours are charged at £41 an hour for licence holders, which is the honest way to say that this is not free but it is not much either.
How It Shows Up On Test
For anyone learning now, the hierarchy is not an extra topic. It is folded into how junctions are marked. An examiner does not record "failed to observe H2". They record a fault for the junction: observation, or response to a pedestrian, or an unsafe turn.
What this means practically is that the rules matter on test in the way all the Code matters, by shaping what safe looks like. The single most valuable habit is the one H2 forces, which is looking into the road you are turning into rather than only at the traffic you are turning across.
That is the same habit behind the first item on the DVSA's top ten reasons for failing, which is not making effective observations at junctions.
The Part That Is Not About Rules
There is a version of the hierarchy that reads as a ranking, with pedestrians at the top and lorries at the bottom, and drivers resenting their place in it. That reading misses what the rule says. H1 is about consequence, not status. A collision between a car and a person on foot has one outcome; a collision between two cars usually has another. The responsibility follows the physics.
The practical version is simpler than the debate. At a junction, look for people before you look for a gap. When you turn, check nothing is going straight on beside you. That covers H2 and H3 between them, and it is two habits rather than three rules.
What that looks like across a whole learning process, from provisional licence to the first year of driving, is set out in the complete guide to learning to drive in East London, and the speed side of the same safety picture is in 20mph zones in London.
For anyone coming back to driving after a break, the first month back has its own list, covered in what to do after you pass.
Most people who passed before 2022 have never had anyone watch them drive since, which is the actual reason the hierarchy rules have not filtered through into habit.
Book refresher lessonsCommon questions about the hierarchy rules
What are rules H1, H2 and H3?
They are three rules added to the front of the Highway Code in January 2022. H1 sets the principle that those who can cause the greatest harm carry the greatest responsibility. H2 tells drivers to give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross at a junction they are turning into or out of. H3 tells drivers not to cut across cyclists or horse riders going ahead when turning.
Does H2 mean pedestrians can just walk out in front of me?
No. H1 is explicit that all road users, including pedestrians, retain responsibility for their own safety. H2 tells you what to do as a driver; it does not tell pedestrians to stop looking. In practice you should expect some people to assume it does, which is a reason to approach side roads more slowly rather than less.
Is the hierarchy law or advice?
The three rules use "should" rather than "MUST", so they are advice rather than a specific offence. Highway Code advice is admissible in evidence in court proceedings and is used to establish liability, so it is not optional in any way that matters.
I passed my test in 2005. Do I need to do anything?
Reading the hierarchy section on gov.uk takes a few minutes and covers the knowledge. The habit is the harder part, particularly the left turn sequence under H2, and it takes a couple of weeks of deliberate practice. If other things have slipped as well, a short block of refresher lessons is the efficient version.
Did anything change about who has priority at traffic lights?
No. The hierarchy did not change priority at signals, at give way lines, or between two vehicles. It changed how drivers should behave toward pedestrians at junctions and toward cyclists going ahead when turning.
Does H3 apply when there is no cycle lane?
Yes. H3 covers cyclists going ahead whether they are in a cycle lane, on a cycle track, or riding on the carriageway. Rule 211 makes the same point: do not turn if it would cause a cyclist going straight ahead to stop or swerve.
If you have held a licence for years and the 2022 changes passed you by, a couple of refresher hours is a cheaper way to find out than a near miss at a junction.
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Published 1 September 2026. Prices and DVSA figures are checked when this page is revised. If anything here has changed, ring us and we will confirm it.