Leonard Bentley
The Motor Problem
This is a Raphael Tuck undivided back postcard printed in Saxony and published in 1901 or 1902. The artist was Lance Thackeray the famous postcard illustrator who painted nearly 1000, mostly comic postcards. He was the founder of the London Sketch Club and at the age of forty joined the Artists Rifles at the start of the first world war. He died in 1916 after a long illness. The postcard depicts part of the “Motor Problem” as it was called then, especially in rural areas. Complaints of speeding cars causing dust clouds in summer and frightening horses and other livestock were rife. In 1903 Parliament passed the “Motor Car Act” which among other things introduced the offence of reckless driving, registration of vehicles and driving licences. It also introduced a 20mph speed limit which increased the limit from 14 mph set down in the “Locomotives on Highways Act 1896”. Before this Act the speed limit was 4 mph and you had to have a man waving a red flag in front of the vehicle as it progressed. The method of determining the speed of a vehicle by the Police was to record the time it took to travel a measured furlong, so a fairly straight stretch of road was required. This method was used in 1905 by a Sergeant 2AR from Cannon Row who tackled speeding motorists in Constitution Hill where the speed limit was 10mph. Local authorities had the power under the “Motor Car Act” to set other speed limits in order to cater for local circumstances.
The Motor Problem
This is a Raphael Tuck undivided back postcard printed in Saxony and published in 1901 or 1902. The artist was Lance Thackeray the famous postcard illustrator who painted nearly 1000, mostly comic postcards. He was the founder of the London Sketch Club and at the age of forty joined the Artists Rifles at the start of the first world war. He died in 1916 after a long illness. The postcard depicts part of the “Motor Problem” as it was called then, especially in rural areas. Complaints of speeding cars causing dust clouds in summer and frightening horses and other livestock were rife. In 1903 Parliament passed the “Motor Car Act” which among other things introduced the offence of reckless driving, registration of vehicles and driving licences. It also introduced a 20mph speed limit which increased the limit from 14 mph set down in the “Locomotives on Highways Act 1896”. Before this Act the speed limit was 4 mph and you had to have a man waving a red flag in front of the vehicle as it progressed. The method of determining the speed of a vehicle by the Police was to record the time it took to travel a measured furlong, so a fairly straight stretch of road was required. This method was used in 1905 by a Sergeant 2AR from Cannon Row who tackled speeding motorists in Constitution Hill where the speed limit was 10mph. Local authorities had the power under the “Motor Car Act” to set other speed limits in order to cater for local circumstances.