It must have been a shocking scene to witness on that dark night in December 1931.(1) It was a Saturday so people were enjoying the evening off work while walking along Victoria Dock Road in Canning Town. Suddenly, a motor coach skidded and lurched onto the pavement. A man in his sixties was immediately killed. A teenager died from fatal head injuries. Two suffered complex leg fractures: a boy of thirteen and a man in his thirties. In an instant, two lives lost, two lives tragically changed.  

Accidents like these were common in the early 1930s. In 1934 there were 7 343 deaths on Britain’s roads.(2 ) Compare this with the 1,695 fatalities in 2023, despite a tenfold increase in car traffic. And there was a surprising tolerance of the carnage. When an eighty six year old woman was knocked down by a car the coroner commented that old ladies going about like that ‘endanger others’.(3) Car drivers, dubbed ‘middle class killers’(4), by the historian Plowden dominated the motoring organisations and persuaded gullible magistrates that they were creeping along at 15mph. Half the fatalities were pedestrians and in most newspaper reports they were described as ‘careless’.(5)  

What was the government doing about this? Not much. The Road Traffic Act of 1930 had removed the 20 mph speed limit. The new Highway Code implored drivers to behave with ‘good manners and consideration’. The Minister of Transport appealed to the public to ‘voluntarily’ take care to reduce accidents.(6) When it came to motoring, the policy was laissez faire.  

And what happened to the driver of the motor coach? He was found to be under the influence of drink and incapable of having proper control of his vehicle. He was fined £5 and costs but he kept his licence and avoided prison.  

So the change of policy which crystallised in the 1934 Road Traffic Act was nothing short of revolutionary. It brought about a raft of improvements to road safety: driving tests, stricter insurance and a firmer highway code. Its effects were long term; still visible in our streets today. It established the principle that pedestrians had right of way at crossings, a symbolic overthrow of the status quo. But more fundamentally it transformed the relationship between government and citizen in the acceptance of state controls.  

The most important clause of the Road Traffic Act of 1934 was the imposition of a national speed limit of 30 mph in built up areas. This was an enduring change. Nowadays we know that speed kills: modern research suggests that for every 10 mph of increased speed, the risk of dying in a crash doubles.(7) But in the parliamentary debate in 1934 there was scepticism about the efficacy of a speed limit, with one MP claiming that not a single life would be saved. The 20mph limit in force until 1930 had been ineffective. But this measure, more practical and better supported, did have an impact: a reduction in road traffic injuries by 12,805 and deaths by 822 in the following twelve months.(8) Speed was clearly the main factor. Recently opposition to the twenty mile limit in Wales has been muted by the estimate of 500 fewer road casualties.(9) Speed limits keep people safe on the roads. This is a principle established in 1934 and not seriously challenged since. 

Before the 1934 Act the ascendancy of the private motorist was supreme. They were a privileged minority: average car prices being around £280 and average wages well under £200. In the House of Commons Lieutenant Colonel Moore Brabazon argued that many dogs and chickens used to be killed on the roads but they had adapted to the traffic.(10) Over time, people would too. But the Minister of Transport, Hore Belisha, backed now by most of the public, refused to accept this ‘mass murder’ on the roads.(11) The bill was passed and the social balance of power transformed.  

Furthermore, this act reflects the moderate, liberal Britain of the 1930s which is still just visible in the Britain of 2025. In this decade Hitler and Mussolini’s dictatorial regimes were showcasing ambitious motorways. Our Minister of Transport in Britain’s coalition government, a Liberal and a Jew, left a legacy in the flashing ‘Belisha beacons’ at pedestrian crossings. The priority was the safety of the man in the street, a reflection of British values then and, we can hope, now.  

Not all the repercussions of the 1934 Act were positive. As car ownership grew, with 1 in 15 Britons owning cars by 1938, a larger swathe of the public found themselves in trouble with the law. Cyclists could be fined for lack of reflectors, commercial drivers for inadequate insurance and even pedestrians for crossing the road at the wrong place. The friendly bobby became the nagging policeman. A public relations campaign fronted by ‘courtesy cops’ had to be deployed to win over the disgruntled.(12) 

Furthermore, increasing government power at the expense of individual liberty is controversial. Should competent adults be coerced to stay safe and healthy? Was this the thin edge of the wedge? Seat belts, breathalysers and speed awareness courses are all the grandchildren of the 1934 Act. Opponents of the ‘nanny state’ imposing a plethora of rules and restrictions in the cause of health and safety deserve a hearing.  

Yet the riposte to this is clear. The average European road fatality rate is 45/million; in the UK just 25.(13) Britain’s record of road safety should be a matter of pride. Of course, since then, airbags, cats eyes, seat belts and all sorts of other advances have played their part. But remember those bodies lying on that pavement in Canning Town in 1931. That level of slaughter has never been acceptable since.  

Given the huge scope of choices, the Road Traffic Act may seem a surprising policy to choose. It’s not exciting or incendiary. But it is unquestionably important and surely there can be few more positive impacts on society than the saving of human lives. 

1. Report in the Essex Newsman Herald, January 3, 1931. 

2. Plowden, W.,(1971), The Motor Car and Politics, The Bodley Head, p.264. 

3. Plowden, W.,(1971), The Motor Car and Politics, The Bodley Head, p.267. 

4. Plowden, W.,(1971), The Motor Car and Politics, The Bodley Head, p.257. 

5. O’Connell,S.,(1998),The Car in British Society: Class, Gender and Motoring 1896-1939, Manchester University Press, p.140. 

6. O’Connell, S., (1998),The Car in British Society: Class, Gender and Motoring 1896-1939, Manchester University Press, p. 129. 

7. https://www.emcinsurance.com/losscontrol/insights-d/2020/08/speed-increases-risk 

8. Thorold, P., (2003), The Motoring Age: The Automobile and Britain 1896-1939, Profile Books, London, p.209 

9. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/18/wales-20mph-speed-limit-lives-money-policy#:~:text=In%20September%202023%20the%20Welsh,now%20had%20slower%20speed%20limits. 

10. Hansard: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1934-04-10/debates/c2c5402a-42ee-46b5-90b8-29e3691c42ec/RoadTrafficBill 

11. Grimwood, I.R. (2006), A Little Chit of a Man: A Biography of Leslie Hore-Belisha, Book Guild, Lewes, p.42. 

12. Plowden, W.,(1971), The Motor Car and Politics, The Bodley Head, p.283. 

13. International road safety rates https://www.brake.org.uk/get-involved/take-action/mybrake/knowledge-centre/uk-road-safety