Before mass motorisation - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 69

driving were increased and compulsory third party insurance introduced. However these
initiatives did not halt the escalating toll of road injuries and the Pedestrians Association
in particular continued its lobbying campaign. In 1934 it secured legislative reward with
the re-establishment of a speed limit within built-up areas (but raised to 30 mph), the
introduction of a test for new drivers and provision for local authorities to install zebra
crossings on which pedestrians would have priority. These innovations have proved
remarkably long-lasting. Further and progressively more stringent regulations have been
imposed on drivers and motor vehicles in the decades since, including in the mid-1960s a
70 mph speed limit on motorways, road-worthiness tests on motor vehicles, the fitting of
seat-belts, and the creation of a new offence of driving in excess of defined blood alcohol
levels.
Another long-lasting legacy of the 1930s has been the tension between cyclists and
motorists over their respective 'rights' in the use of road space. Initially the two groups
collaborated as members of the Road Improvement Association but differences in social
class as much as in the requirements of the two transport modes resulted in increasing
antipathy between them. Despite their much smaller number, motorists managed to assert
the view that cyclists were a nuisance and deserved to be banished to segregated tracks.
Cyclists then and since have campaigned against such treatment - not least because it
renders them even more vulnerable at side crossings and main junctions where no special
provision is made. Amazingly even in 2007 the Transport Minister was questioned over
the wording of the Highway Code as to whether cyclists should use separate facilities
where they existed on the basis that this could leave cyclists open to prosecution in the
event of an accident where they had exercised discretion not to use them (LTT 469).
In the event only a few segregated cycle tracks were built alongside new arterial roads.
In the postwar decades, despite the comprehensive replanning of many areas, provision
of any kind for cyclists was omitted partly so as not to appear to encourage what was
perceived to be a dangerous form of transport! Only in one or two new towns were wholly
segregated networks created. More generally, as road layouts were enlarged and traffic
volumes and speeds increased, the number of cyclists declined rendering those who
remained an even more endangered species. Unsurprisingly, despite latter-day attempts at
resuscitation in the interests of sustainability, cycling as a utility mode has become virtually
extinct in many parts of the country.
4.5 Regulating urban passenger transport
Urban passenger transport has always been primarily road based. Even before the
motor vehicle, towns were generally too compact, and journey distances therefore too
short, for rail travel to be a worthwhile option. In the large conurbations there was
however a flurry of suburban rail construction and electrification in the early decades
of the 20th century, notably in London. Living and commuting by rail from the more
pleasant rural environments at and beyond the urban edge was and remains a more
expensive middle class prerogative.
The richest section of society never had to resort to public transport of any kind,
utilising instead their own horse-drawn carriages, often kept in mews along the back of
their terraced houses. Those who were better off but without their own transport could
hire horse-drawn cabs - the forerunner of present day taxis - or travel in short-distance
stagecoaches. Urban transport only came within reach of the bulk of the population with
the introduction of trams - initially horse-drawn - which permitted larger 'omnibus'
vehicles and lower fares.