Regional Issues

The early Locomotive Acts between 1866 and 1896 effectively calmed self-propelled traffic by requiring that a man walked in front of each vehicle with a red flag, and so the imposed speed limits of 2 miles per hour (3.2 km/h) and 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h) didn't require enforcing.

The first person to be convicted of speeding in the UK was Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, who on 28 January 1896 was fined for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thus exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h). He was fined 1 shilling plus costs.

The Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 increased the speed to 14 mph which was based on the maximum reasonable speed for a horse which was not being 'driven furiously' which was already an offence.

The Motor Car Act 1903 increased the speed limit to 20 mph.

In 1906 'speed traps' were being compared in 'highway robbery' in parliament: "Policemen are not stationed in the villages where there are people about who might be in danger, but are hidden in hedges or ditches by the side of the most open roads in the country... they are used in many counties merely as a means of extracting money from the passing traveller in a way which reminds one of the highwaymen of the Middle Ages".

All speed limits for cars and motorcycles were abolished under the Road Traffic Act 1930[6] because "the existing speed limit was so universally disobeyed that its maintenance brought the law into contempt".

The Road Traffic Act 1934 introduced a speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h) in built-up areas for cars and motorcycles. The re-introduction of a speed limit for cars was in response to concern at increased road casualties which by 1934 had increased to 7,343 deaths, half of the deaths were pedestrians and of three-quarters of these occurred in built-up areas.

Recent years

The Department for Transport introduced Safety Camera Partnerships in 1999 which led to the installation of a large number of cameras with approximately 15% of the camera revenues being retained by the partnership for more general road safety work which was a departure from the original proposal where the money could only be used for cameras and the support infrastructure. In 1999 the downward trend in road fatalities stopped. The council part of the partnership was not prevented from reducing its road safety budget by a similar amount. The scheme has canceled in 2007.

In 2008 town of Swindon in Wiltshire was expected to abolish speed cameras. The councillor responsible for highways is reported as saying of the cameras that they were "a blatant tax on motorists" and that the council would concentrate its resources on road safety measures other other road safety initiatives.

(Source: Wikipedia)