[LINK] The Red Flag Act

[Glen Turner]

> A famous example of this is the Locomotives Act of 1865 in the United Kingdom,
>  better known as the Red Flag Act. It was a law that limited the speed of the
> new so-called automobile to 2 miles per hour in urban areas, and required them
>  to always have a crew of three: a driver, a stoker (!), and a man who would
> walk before the automobile waving a red flag (!!).

Anyone else find this nowhere near as remarkable as the author does.
We're talking about and age where nothing moved faster than 10mph, where
the width of a horseway was 8 feet, where the dominant technology were
animals easily spooked by noise, and a new mechanical device that was a
proven killer of the innocent (and continues to be so to this day).

Motor vehicles were not yet the transportation of the masses, and
wouldn't begin to become so for another 50 years. They were the toys of
rich enthusiasts.

Sure, the legislation looks odd to modern eyes. And odder to US eyes,
with its straight wide turnpikes not possible in populated England. And
sure, it is an overreaction to the actual issues. But to paint it as the
result of industry lobbying rather than a reaction of horror to the
obvious possibilities of injury requires argument and references to
sources, not assertion.

-- 
 Glen Turner <http://www.gdt.id.au/~gdt/>