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Speed limit enforcement
Speed limits are enforced on most public roadways by authorities, with the purpose to improve driver compliance with speed limits. Methods used include roadside speed traps set up and operated by the police and automated roadside "speed camera" systems, which may incorporate the use of an automatic number plate recognition system. Traditionally, police officers used stopwatches to measure the time taken for a vehicle to cover a known distance. More recently, radar guns and automated in-vehicle systems have come into use.
A worldwide review of studies found that speed cameras led to a reduction of "11% to 44% for fatal and serious injury crashes". The UK Department for Transport estimated that cameras had led to a 22% reduction in personal injury collisions and 42% fewer people being killed or seriously injured at camera sites. The British Medical Journal recently reported that speed cameras were effective at reducing accidents and injuries in their vicinity and recommended wider deployment. An LSE study in 2017 found that "adding another 1,000 cameras to British roads could save up to 190 lives annually, reduce up to 1,130 collisions and mitigate 330 serious injuries."
The use of speed limits pre-dates both motorized vehicles and enforcement of the laws. Facing the invention of the automobile, many nations enacted speed limit laws, and appropriate measures to enforce them. The Locomotive Acts in the UK set speed limits for vehicles, and later codified enforcement methods. The first Locomotive Act, passed in 1861, set a speed limit of 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) in uninhabited areas, and 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h) within towns. This act also included the value of fines for violations of the law.
Stricter regulations came in the Locomotive Act 1865, which required a man with a red flag to walk 60 yards (55 m) ahead of qualifying powered vehicles. The distance ahead of the pedestrian crew member was reduced to 20 yards (18 m) in 1878 and the vehicles were required to stop on the sight of a horse. The speed limit was effectively redundant as vehicle speeds could not exceed the speed at which a person could walk.
By 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 of using a locomotive without a licence. The Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 lifted some of the restrictions introduced by the 1865 Act, notably raising the speed limit for "light locomotives" under three tonnes to 14 miles per hour (23 km/h). The speed limit was lifted again by the Motor Car Act 1903 to 20 miles per hour (32 km/h).
A royal commission on motorcars in the UK reported in 1907 and raised concerns 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" and were "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".
In 1905 The Automobile Association was formed to help motorists avoid police speed traps. Chief Justice, Lord Alverston brought a test court case in 1910 (Betts v Stevens) against an Automobile Association patrolman and a potentially speeding motorist—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 that displayed 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.
Gatsometer BV, founded in 1958 by rally driver Maurice Gatsonides, produced the 'Gatsometer' which was described as "a revolutionary speed-measuring device". Developed initially for improving his race times,[citation needed] it was later marketed as a police speed enforcement tool. Gatsometer claims to have developed the first radar for use with road traffic in 1971, but this claim is undermined by evidence that radar detectors were already for sale in 1967. Gatsometer BV produced the world's first mobile speed traffic camera in 1982.
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Speed limit enforcement
Speed limits are enforced on most public roadways by authorities, with the purpose to improve driver compliance with speed limits. Methods used include roadside speed traps set up and operated by the police and automated roadside "speed camera" systems, which may incorporate the use of an automatic number plate recognition system. Traditionally, police officers used stopwatches to measure the time taken for a vehicle to cover a known distance. More recently, radar guns and automated in-vehicle systems have come into use.
A worldwide review of studies found that speed cameras led to a reduction of "11% to 44% for fatal and serious injury crashes". The UK Department for Transport estimated that cameras had led to a 22% reduction in personal injury collisions and 42% fewer people being killed or seriously injured at camera sites. The British Medical Journal recently reported that speed cameras were effective at reducing accidents and injuries in their vicinity and recommended wider deployment. An LSE study in 2017 found that "adding another 1,000 cameras to British roads could save up to 190 lives annually, reduce up to 1,130 collisions and mitigate 330 serious injuries."
The use of speed limits pre-dates both motorized vehicles and enforcement of the laws. Facing the invention of the automobile, many nations enacted speed limit laws, and appropriate measures to enforce them. The Locomotive Acts in the UK set speed limits for vehicles, and later codified enforcement methods. The first Locomotive Act, passed in 1861, set a speed limit of 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) in uninhabited areas, and 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h) within towns. This act also included the value of fines for violations of the law.
Stricter regulations came in the Locomotive Act 1865, which required a man with a red flag to walk 60 yards (55 m) ahead of qualifying powered vehicles. The distance ahead of the pedestrian crew member was reduced to 20 yards (18 m) in 1878 and the vehicles were required to stop on the sight of a horse. The speed limit was effectively redundant as vehicle speeds could not exceed the speed at which a person could walk.
By 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 of using a locomotive without a licence. The Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 lifted some of the restrictions introduced by the 1865 Act, notably raising the speed limit for "light locomotives" under three tonnes to 14 miles per hour (23 km/h). The speed limit was lifted again by the Motor Car Act 1903 to 20 miles per hour (32 km/h).
A royal commission on motorcars in the UK reported in 1907 and raised concerns 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" and were "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".
In 1905 The Automobile Association was formed to help motorists avoid police speed traps. Chief Justice, Lord Alverston brought a test court case in 1910 (Betts v Stevens) against an Automobile Association patrolman and a potentially speeding motorist—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 that displayed 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.
Gatsometer BV, founded in 1958 by rally driver Maurice Gatsonides, produced the 'Gatsometer' which was described as "a revolutionary speed-measuring device". Developed initially for improving his race times,[citation needed] it was later marketed as a police speed enforcement tool. Gatsometer claims to have developed the first radar for use with road traffic in 1971, but this claim is undermined by evidence that radar detectors were already for sale in 1967. Gatsometer BV produced the world's first mobile speed traffic camera in 1982.
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