The Speed Kills Myth -The grab begins

BEFORE we get on to the really scary part of this scam, where safety is being sacrificed for money, it would be as well to look back over the road system we have in Britain and how down the ages we have used it.

Because Britain is such an ancient country most of the roads you use today date back to when man first walked the Earth.

Because all travel was by foot the paths chosen were the easiest to traverse.

For example, if there was a large hill inbetween your position and a vital necessity such as water, you didn't climb the hill you went round it. Like a river, man always used the path of least resistance.

Over the years settlements grew up along the route of these ancient pathways, and likewise followed the same route.

This led to a countryside where settlements appeared to be scattered haphazardly over the landscape.

The Romans changed all that. To them, a road was a method of moving quickly from one place to another, and since the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, that's what the engineers drew on their maps.

For the first time speed in movement became the primary function of the road system.

Down the ages, that has always been true with the great road builders always constructing their roads with speed of movement at the forefront of their planning.

As foot traffic gave way to horse traffic, and gradually horse traffic gave way to motorised traffic, the maxim has always been the same.

Roads are designed for fast-moving, wheeled transport, and they have priority.

Of course, there were times when roads where used by both wheeled transport and foot traffic, and since they both could not occupy the same space at the same time, segregation became the aim.

In the Victorian period we find that as well as constructing roads for wheeled traffic, authorities were also constructing complimentary roads for foot traffic – or as we call them today – pavements. It was also during this period that the first of the many speed limits were introduced.

The Locomotive Act of 1861 set a speed limit of 10mph (automobiles in those days were classed as light locomotives).

The revised act of 1865 reduced this limit to 4mph in the country and 2mph in built up areas. It remained at this level until 1890 when the speed limit was raised to 14mph.

It should be pointed out that the requirement in the 1865 act to have a man walk in front with a red flag (or red lantern at night) was purely to warn horse drawn traffic that an automobile was approaching.

By the close of the Victorian period the concept of the roads being used for the fast movement of motorised wheeled transport was well established.

To be continued...