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History of UK speed enforcement

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Speed limits have been enforced since 1865. Enforcing speed limits for the safety of road users is by no means a recent introduction. The first speeding ticket was issued back in 1896 in the same year that the first UK road death was recorded.

1865: the Locomotive Act (Red Flag Act) introduces speed limit of 2mph in towns and villages and 4 mph elsewhere.

1895: some drivers of early lightweight steam-powered autocars assumed that these would be legally classed as a horseless "carriage" and would therefore be exempt from the need for a preceding pedestrian. A test case was brought by motoring pioneer John Henry Knight who was subsequently convicted with using a locomotive without a licence.

1896: the first road death is recorded in the UK when Bridget Driscoll is killed by a horse drawn carriage.

1896: the first speeding ticket is issued to Mr Walter Arnold. He is fined one shilling for doing 8mph in a 2mph zone.

1899: the first motor vehicle is involved in a fatal road crash.

1903: the driving licence is introduced and speed limit raised to 20 mph, with heavy fines for speeding and reckless driving.

1905: The Automobile Association was formed to help motorists avoid police speed traps.

A Royal Commission on ‘Motorcars’ in the UK reported in 1907 raised concern about the manner in which speed traps were being used to raise revenue in rural areas rather than being used to protect lives in towns. In parliamentary debates at the time it was observed that "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", "In my opinion they are manifestly absurd as a protection to the public, and 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".

1910: in legal test case (‘Betts -v- Stevens’) between Automobile Association patrolman and a potentially speeding motorist and the Chief Justice, Lord Alverston, the judge ruled that where a patrolman signals to a speeding driver to slow down and thereby avoid a speed-trap, that person would have committed the offence of ‘obstructing an officer in the course of his duty’ under the Prevention of Crimes Amendment Act 1885.

Subsequently the organisation developed a coded warning system which was used until the 1960s whereby a patrolman would always salute the driver of a passing car which showed a visible AA Badge unless there was a speed trap nearby on the understanding that their officers could not be prosecuted for failing to salute.

1930: the Road Traffic Act sets a variety of limits for different classes of vehicle.

1934: 30mph speed limit introduced in built up areas.

1940: a 20mph speed limit in darkness is introduced to attempt to combat the high incidence of road accidents.

1965: 50mph speed limits are introduced on certain trunk roads in Britain in an attempt to reduce accidents.

1982: a points system replaces the totting up of driving licence endorsements; collection of 12 or more points in three years results in disqualification.

1986: fixed penalty fines for certain motoring offences are introduced.

1988: The first red light cameras were introduced in an initiative in the City of Nottingham following a triple fatal road traffic accident at a traffic light controlled road junction.

1990’s: the ‘Kill your speed’ campaign is launched.

1991: 20mph zones are introduced to reduce accidents in busy urban areas.

1992: speed enforcement cameras are introduced at permanent sites.

1998: a DETR report states that in 1997, 3,599 people were killed, 42,967 were seriously injured and 327,544 were slightly injured on Great Britain’s roads.

2000: the DETR publish its strategy for reducing road accident casualties over the next ten years in its report “Tomorrow’s Roads – Safer for everyone”

2000: eight pilot studies into the use of safety cameras are launched. Fine revenue from speed and red light offences can be claimed back to cover the operational costs of education and enforcement.

2001: the Government announces increased introduction of the safety camera scheme after successful amendments to legislation to allow fine revenue to be used to cover operating costs.

2002: by June all fixed site speed cameras are made yellow and highly visible.

2003: a study into the effectiveness of cameras concludes that casualties are reduced by 35% at camera locations.

2004: independent research reveals that 80% of people within the Mid & South Wales Safety Camera Partnership area support cameras as a means of reducing casualties.

A traffic enforcement camera (also road safety camera, road rule camera, photo radar, speed camera, Gatso) is an automated ticketing machine. It may include a camera which may be mounted beside on over a highway or installed in an enforcement vehicle to detect traffic regulation violations, including speeding, vehicles going through a red traffic light, unauthorized use of a bus lane, for recording vehicles inside a congestion charge area and others.

The latest automatic number plate recognition systems can be used for the detection of average speeds and raise concerns over loss of privacy and the potentially for governments to establish mass surveillance of vehicle movements and therefore by association also the movement of the vehicle’s owner.

Vehicles owners are often required by law to identify the driver of the vehicle and a case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights who found that the Human Rights Act 1998 was not being breached. Some groups, such as the National Motorists Association in the USA, claim that systems "encourage … revenue-driven enforcement" rather than the declared objectives.

UK 2010 – A driver prosecuted for flashing his headlights to warn motorists of a mobile police speed gun has defended his actions as his "civic duty". Michael Thompson, 64, was pulled over by officers in Grimsby in July after warning several oncoming cars.

He was fined £175 and ordered to pay £250 costs after being found guilty of wilfully obstructing a police officer in the course of her duties.

Thompson said: "I flashed motorists to warn them of a hazard."

Thompson, of Augustine Avenue, Grimsby, was also ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge at the hearing at Grimsby Magistrates’ Court.

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