A Look at Road Speed Limits UK

In 1896, a driver from Faversham in Kent, one Walter Arnold, unwittingly, and probably unwillingly, entered the record books as the first driver of a motor vehicle to be stopped and fined by the police for exceeding speed limits.

Speed limits of 2mph had been established in urban areas some thirty years previously, and applied to both horse drawn and steam driven vehicles, with a rural limit of 4mph. History does not relate how Mr Arnold’s vehicle was chased and apprehended, nor how the claimed speed of 8mph was calibrated, but the resulting fine of 1 shilling stands witness in history.

As the age of the motor vehicle truly dawned, in 1930 speed limits for cars and motor cycles were scrapped, until 1934 when a limit of Continue reading UK Road Speed Limits →