Name/Title
Booklet for Brighton Borough Police on the 1930 Road Traffic Act - January 1931Entry/Object ID
134Description
Small pocket booklet with light blue coloured cover and staple binding with 104 pages, titled "County Borough of Brighton Police - General Order on the Provisions of the Road Traffic Act 1930', also marked "Issued to PC Prescott 42" and dated "1st January 1931. "PC Prescott" is handwritten and inside is also written "John Prescott PC 42" and "PC Pettit 158". Size 80mm wide x 125mm high.Use
A pocket guide to the 1930 Road Traffic Act for a police officer to refer to.Context
By the late 1920s there was an increasing number of motor vehicles on UK roads and increasing numbers of accidents and fatalities. However there had been not change in legislation since the 1903 Motor Car Act, despite the huge changes in the meantime. So following a Royal Commission report, the 1930 Road Traffic Act was passed. This was a significant piece of work and it is not surprising that guides to implementing it were necessary. One significant thing about the 1930 Act is that it did away with speed limits altogether for motor cars and motor cycles, the previous limit of 20mph deemed too slow, though a new 30mph was retained for larger vehicles. However due to the ever increasing number of fatalities on the roads a national speed limit was again introduced for all vehicles in built ups areas of 30mph.
This booklet would have been produced as personal issue to every officer in Brighton as a guide to the 1930 Road Traffic Act, presumably in this size so that it could be easily carried in a tunic pocket. This particular example appears to have been used by at least two officers, PC 42 Prescott and PC 158 Pettit