Though the fundamental rules of driving may not change, some smaller details of our driving laws are altered or amended every year. From new driving test practices to changes in the way we use our roads – laws around motoring change so often that some go under the radar.
This year was no different, as a raft of new laws came into effect along with several other major decisions on the future of UK motoring. Not exactly sure what they all were? Don’t worry – here, we’ve recapped every major motoring change that took place in 2023, from the expansion of the London ULEZ to the ongoing discussions about car tax reformation. Scroll down to learn more.
The key driving law changes in 2023
The Welsh default speed limit reduced to 20mph
On 17 September, the Welsh default speed limit was officially reduced to 20mph from 30mph. The new rule affects nearly all the restricted roads in Wales – usually located within built urban areas with streetlights – but not all. The 20mph limit was proposed to reduce the number of traffic collisions in residential areas each year while also to encourage more active forms of transport.
The new policy has come at a cost of over £34m as many new road signs have had to be installed along with other roadside changes. According to a Welsh Government impact assessment, the 20mph limit will have a negative £4.54 billion economic impact over the next 30 years. However, Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford asserted that this figure was ‘notional,’ and instead emphasised the NHS savings of £92m per year as a result of fewer collisions.
ULEZ expansion
On 29 August the London ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) was controversially expanded to envelope almost all of Greater London. Motorists who drive cars that do not meet emissions standards will have to pay a daily fee of £12.50 to drive through the zone. From Upminster to Chingford and, more critically for UK travellers, Heathrow airport, the new zone covers almost everything within the M25 motorway.
The ULEZ was expanded to lower air pollution across every London borough, rather than just the central districts. According to a report from Imperial College London, in 2019 between 3,600 and 4,100 deaths were reportedly attributable to poor air quality, with the highest number of fatalities occurring in London’s outer boroughs. Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, saw it fit to expand the ULEZ to ensure all Londoners could enjoy better air quality.
But the new law has not been met with universal approval. Many residents within the newly covered areas have lambasted the daily charge as unfair and unreasonable with some even destroying the cameras to avoid detection.
Changing Euro NCAP regulations
The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) is an organisation that tests the safety of cars by putting them through a series of trials. Euro NCAP tests new cars every year, awarding them a star rating based on their results, but this year the safety testing protocols were updated.
New test protocols include vehicle submergence, child presence detection and the trialling of new technologies that detect motorcyclists and other vulnerable road users. According to NCAP, manufacturers must meet the targets of these new test protocols to achieve a five-star status in 2023.
Smart motorways scrapped
In April 2023, the UK government officially cancelled its plans for future smart motorway networks, following growing concerns about their safety and the ballooning cost of their construction. Any smart motorways that were finished before the announcement will continue to operate as normal. The policy U-turn simply halted the commencement of fresh stretches of monitored motorways. It even stopped work on some partly built roads.
The cost argument is cut-and-dried, but the public’s safety concerns are more complicated. That’s because, statistically speaking, smart motorways are far safer than traditional motorways. However, a 2022 survey by the RAC found drivers felt less safe on a smart motorway because they don’t have hard shoulders to pull onto in an emergency.
This concern has been heightened by several high-profile cases in which drivers have died after their car became stranded in lane one and was struck by following traffic before the smart motorway detection systems had chance to close the lane. Plus, all the victims’ families said they thought the accident wouldn’t have happened if the driver had a hard shoulder to escape onto – an assertion backed up by the inquests into some of the deaths.
Road pricing debate
The discussion surrounding this change in legislation is still ongoing in Parliament. Road pricing is, essentially, a tax on driving itself. The more you use the roads, the more you’ll need to pay each year, with the number of miles you rack up being tallied using either some form of telematics device or by working out the difference in miles covered between your car’s annual MOTs.
The government has announced it has no plans to introduce a telematics-based road pricing scheme to replace the current vehicle excise duty system, even though the Transport Committee advised a rapid tax reform in 2022 to dodge an imminent £35 billion hole in the tax budget.
The hole in the budget has been ripped open by buying trends. More and more drivers are switching to electric and hybrid cars, which means the government is earning less money each year in road tax and fuel duty. That missing revenue from the tax budget will need to be accounted for, so we wouldn’t rule out road pricing just yet.
What’s coming in 2024?
In July 2024, phase two of General Safety Regulation 2 (GSR2) – a series of new regulations for car manufacturers to adhere to – will become mandatory in the UK. The first phase was introduced in 2022 and included a raft of new safety equipment that new cars had to have fitted to stay on sale.
Next year, all new cars (including existing cars already on sale) will need to be fitted with the new safety equipment to comply. This equipment includes an emergency lane-keeping system, an electronic data recorder and a speed adaptation system. The change will mean that some existing cars will disappear from the market before the end of their life cycles, as retrofitting them with safety kit either won’t be possible or won’t be worth it for the manufacturer.
Several manufacturers have already started to pull their non-compliant vehicles from the showrooms to save themselves the expense of upgrading them with the new equipment. Fatalities include the brilliant Ford Fiesta and the superb Toyota GR86, while sales of the Parkers award-winning Alpine A110 will be restricted to just 1,500 units annually to allow it to squeak under the regulation’s exemption rule until it’s pulled from the showrooms in 2026.
Seth Walton is a Staff Writer on the Bauer Automotive Hub. He specialises in ownership content, covering a broad range of consumer-facing topics such as emissions regulations and motoring legislation.
