To think there should be public information adverts on TV to highlight changes in the Highway Code

Yes, V11 reminder is a good idea.

As for how I find out things in the world? Usually friends, colleagues and families, sometimes Mumsnet. If I am interested in something they have told me then I will investigate it further.

Oh, so you'd rather make pedestrians walk an extra 20 metres instead of taking the simplest, most direct (and most visible) route from one side of the road to the other?
I'm left hoping that you don't have a driving licence as you're obviously not following the highway code at the moment and are a huge danger to others.
if you are driving along a main road and see the vehicle in front of you is signalling a turn into a side road, then you are supposed to pay attention and be prepared to slow down/ stop if necessary! Not just 'rear-end' them!

What would happen if there was a large delivery vehicle in the side road, blocking them from making that turn? didn't you learn that you're supposed to always expect the unexpected?!

Yes. The Highway Code is 170 pages long, contains over 300 “rules” - a mix of law and advice.

and parts of the British public genuinely believe that all drivers not only memorised this, but keep up to date on changes?

Thank you, OP. I wasn’t aware of the zipper merge - I don’t think many people are tbh, doesn’t seem like it the way drivers behave on the roads.

How would you inform people like me, don’t read newspapers nor watch tv nor listen to the radio and rarely/hardly/never go on social media?

I don’t think they should do Tv adverts no. The Highway Code is not digestible and isn’t designed for people to recall and update their knowledge of it for 50 years.

there is always a smuggery sneering to these “don’t you know the Highway Code” types. When the Highway Code is the problem, not the public.

I was more amused by it as it took all of 5 seconds and she was acting like I had let an entire school cross the road!

Jesus, what a psycho. I always kind of fiddle with my 'dash cam' (rear view mirror area!) as if im capturing their dangerous behaviour-no idea if they even notice but it makes me feel better!

Yes to the return of public service advertisements, and those public service films we used to watch in school. Putting stuff on social media isn't enough, because people just skip it. It needs to be on mainstream television at prime time. Also to be part of driving lessons, which I don't know if it is.

New priority for pedestrians? Pedestrians have always had priority on the road. The only change is that you should give way when a pedestrian is waiting to cross. Obviously the crossing is a better place to cross but that doesn't take away priority.

These days? I remember there were taxi drivers in the 1990s speeding, beeping and nearly running me over because I was already crossing the road they were turning into. And they never used their indicators. Or having near misses on zebra crossings with the cars approaching in a second lane and not seeing the crossing or someone on it. Or drivers completely ignoring red lights. Loads used to not wear seatbelts long after it was illegal too.

As @Waipai had noted, ‘new rules’ such as not driving into pedestrians are not new rules.

The recent ‘change’ about that is a formal hierarchal list that explicitly states an order from the various existing rules.

Merging under rule 134 has been in the Highway Code for a decade, and the ‘new’ version is a wording change that advised against changing lane unnecessarily - it did not tell drivers to pull into one lane as soon as possible and wave your fist at those who carry on up the empty lane

Cyclists (and motorcyclists) have been told for decades to use the lane properly and not ride in the gutter. If you ride far to the left you hit all the detritus / broken glass etc, and other trafffic is tempted to push past you without overtaking

Wording in the Highway Code is regularly updated, the above mentioned ‘new rules’ are wording changes that are three years old.
All road users should have been following those principles for decades anyway

When I was learning to drive in the 80s I was told that I should I buy each new edition, nowadays it’s live on the internet for free
Road users have ignored the Highway Code since its first publication

You should try driving in rural Yorkshire.

I love where I live, I really do, but it has its own rules. The other day I had to stop on a 60-limit road for someone who'd pulled out from the side road to turn right and was calmly waiting in the middle of my lane for the oncoming traffic to clear, so he could complete his turn. I came home spitting feathers to find everyone else local utterly puzzled. 'But Sarah, it's hard turning right there, you often need to let people out ...' 'oh well, I suppose he'd been waiting a while and got impatient'.

The other side to it is that 'helpful' people routinely beckon and flash at you to turn out of a side road while they let you in, then get offended if you decline to turn out with absolutely no visibility of what's coming the other way. Completely mad. Lovely, well-intentioned people, but completely mad.

Well that'd be us never being able to walk to school.

It's a series of Z shaped junctions all off a main road all with left and right turning.

To get into the school, it's a junction.

I can't see councils having such a massive change of infrastructure to support not being able to cross within 10m of a junction.

Cars turning into side roads giving way to pedestrians already crossing isn't one of the new rules, though, that's always been the case. And "not mowing down pedestrians who are in the middle of the road" is a pretty common sense and straightforward rule to remember. The revised rule, on the other hand, seems to involve stopping for pedestrians hovering on pavements, but only in some circumstances and remembering which circumstances whilst also trying to tell the difference between someone waiting to cross and someone loitering with no intention to cross with no real clues to guide you (ie like a zebra crossing). Plus what I asked before about whether it still applies if pedestrian crossings have been placed slightly off from the junction specifically for pedestrians to cross it. So, yes, there should be better public announcements to publicise and explain these changes as I feel this one in particular really isn't very clear.

Then the rule to give way applies regardless of the "new" rule? So can't see the relevance. If you were on the road first then they obviously should be waiting but it must be a tricky crossing if you didn't see the car at all but had to stop to not walk into it

I don’t think people would care if it was. Half the drivers in the road don’t indicate and that’s a basic thing

Yeah this. It's not the highway code but in reality it's the rules of the road in real life. I'm definitely not taking on the lorries or tractors round my way. As a pedestrian who frequents country roads you best believe I'm stepping onto the verge and not trusting the teenage driver or the insert any walk of life person who's tapping on their phone, to avoid me.

I give way to other road users when it's safe to do so. Honestly driving is the only time when my hyper awareness and observation skills help. I just treat every other road user as if they're mental and on a suicide mission and give the obvious bad drivers a very wide berth.

Pedestrians are at the top of the Highway Code Hierarchy
It's an insane rule. The rule should be "if it's bigger than you then it's probably best to give way". If I am a pedestrian then I don't pick fights with cars. If I'm driving a car then I don't pick fights with lorries and buses. It's called self-preservation.
Putting pedestrians at the top of the hierarchy just means we get teenagers sauntering out into the road looking at their phones instead of the traffic.