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The Red Flag Act
A man had to walk ahead of the vehicle with a red flag. The law was about steam traction engines, not cars.
- Status
- Flag requirement removed in 1878; light vehicles freed from the rules in 1896
- 1865 limits
- 2 mph in towns, 4 mph in the country
What it said
The Locomotives Act 1865, nicknamed the Red Flag Act, set a speed limit of 2 mph in towns and 4 mph in the country for road locomotives. It required a crew of three, and one of them had to walk 60 yards ahead carrying a red flag. A lot of retellings say this was written to hold back the early car. It was not. The road locomotives in question were steam-powered traction engines.
How it ended
The 1878 Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act dropped the red flag. The man still had to walk ahead, but only 20 yards. The speed limits stayed. The Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 then exempted light locomotives under three tons from these rules altogether, and treated them as carriages. That opened the way for motor cars in Britain.
Sources disagree on the speed limit set in 1896. The text of the Act gives 14 mph, while Wikipedia gives 12 mph. We have used neither as a headline figure.
People have been arguing about cars since there were cars. Autophobia: Love and Hate in the Automotive Age affiliate link by Brian Ladd is a good place to start — a history of the early backlash. Prefer a library copy? Try Open Library.