The Locomotive Acts of 1861, 1865 and 1878 set the United Kingdom’s earliest speed limits for road-going vehicles; powered passenger vehicles were at the time known as light locomotives, as they were invariably powered by steam.[a]Gottlieb Daimler’s first patents for an internal combustion engine suitable for use in a motor vehicle date from 1884, but it was not until 1889 that his engines began to be produced in any great quantity.[1] Early steam-powered vehicles met with some opposition in Great Britain, as they were seen as a potential threat to the powerfully entrenched coaching industry.[2] But the era of horse-drawn road transport had reached its zenith by 1838, after which the rapid development of railways led to its demise.[3]
The Locomotive Act 1861 was the first to set speed limits for road-going vehicles in the UK; speeds in rural areas were limited to 10 mph (16 km/h) and in urban areas to 5 mph (8 km/h).[b]Walter ArnoldFirst person in the UK to be fined for speeding. was the first driver ever to be fined for speeding, through the village of Paddock Wood in Kent at 8 mph (13 km/h), on 28 January 1896. The Act also imposed the “impossible” restriction that the vehicles were to consume their own smoke. The “notorious” Locomotive Act of 1865, commonly known as the Red Flag Act, reduced the speed limits to 4 mph (6 km/h) in the country and 2 mph (3 km/h) in the city. It further mandated that each road-going locomotive was to be manned by a crew of three, one of whom was obliged to walk in front of the vehicle carrying a red flag during the hours of daylight, or a lantern at night;[c]There was no similar requirement for railway locomotives.[4] it did however loosen the onerous restriction for vehicles to consume their own smoke to “so far as practicable”.[5] No other European country introduced similar legislation, which imposed a significant restraint on the early development of the motor car in Britain.[4]
The Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act 1878 reduced the minimum distance by which an accompanying pedestrian should precede the vehicle to 20 yards (18 m), and that requirement remained in place until the passage of the Light Locomotives on Highways Act 1896, which increased the speed limit to 14 mph (23 km/h) for mechanically propelled vehicles on open roads, a speed somewhat in excess of that which a pedestrian could reasonably be expected to sustain.[4]
Gottlieb Daimler’s first patents for an internal combustion engine suitable for use in a motor vehicle date from 1884, but it was not until 1889 that his engines began to be produced in any great quantity.[1]
b
Walter ArnoldFirst person in the UK to be fined for speeding. was the first driver ever to be fined for speeding, through the village of Paddock Wood in Kent at 8 mph (13 km/h), on 28 January 1896.
c
There was no similar requirement for railway locomotives.[4]
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service. By clicking on “All cookies”, you consent to us using all cookies and plug-ins as described in our Cookie policy.
Functional cookies
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.