Britain’s Highways of Holiness

Sometimes you’ll come across a news snippet that beams out at you like a lighthouse. There is one in my current ‘Road Smart’ magazine from the Institute of Advanced Motoring (IAM). It was in an article by Richard Gladman, the Institute’s Chief Examiner. He wrote, ‘I’ve witnessed lorry drivers help out motorcyclists who were in trouble by picking up on their distress and positioning themselves to the right of the biker, blocking them from motorists and shepherding them to the side of the road – which is an early implementation of the hierarchy of road users that the Highway Code now promotes.’ It’s a picture of how older Christians often come alongside teenagers and young folk in church and help them through their turbulent unsure times to places of safety.

The Highway of Holiness in Isaiah 35:8 is not a description of a well-behaved British motorway, of course, but lorry drivers’ actions in protecting motor bikers until they are safe reflect Scriptural principles. As does the new ‘hierarchy of road users’ promoted by the Highway Code.

The hierarchy of road users in the UK is a concept that prioritizes road users who are most likely to be injured in a collision – the weakest and most vulnerable to the strongest and toughest. It is a central idea of the 2022 Highway Code, which is a set of rules and guidance for road users.

The hierarchy of road users in the UK is:

• Pedestrians: At the top of the hierarchy because they are the most vulnerable in a collision
• Cyclists: Second in the hierarchy
• Horse riders: Third in the hierarchy
• Motorcyclists: Fourth in the hierarchy
• Car and van drivers: Fifth in the hierarchy
• Bus and lorry drivers: At the bottom of the hierarchy

The hierarchy of road users means that drivers in vehicles have a greater responsibility to protect more vulnerable road users. The lower a road user is in the hierarchy, the more harm they and their vehicle can cause.

Many of the rules in the Highway Code are legal requirements. Disobeying these rules can result in criminal offences and the rules can be used as evidence in court proceeding.

I’ve driven thousands of miles both in the UK and overseas and have never thought of our motorways as ‘highways of holiness’ but now that the initiative is mirroring Scriptural principles it makes me think of Matthew 23:11, that says: ‘The greatest among you will be your servant.’ The very act of ‘giving way’ to protect the weaker is a blessing to the stronger, as it is in other contexts.

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