Red flag traffic laws

~ Coming of the automobile, anything but a welcomed site, opposition from special interest groups (e.g., railroad corporations and stagecoach lines) to regulate motorized vehicles, prompted English lawmakers to impose command and control policies under the guise of safety, for which to regulate the newfangled contraptions.

~ The result was Britain's Red Flag Law, a policy requiring self-propelled vehicles to be led by a pedestrian, waiving a red flag, or carrying a lantern, to warn-off bystanders of the vehicle's approach. These Red Flag Laws precipitated incentive for engine builders to develop means of combustion alternative to the steam diligence units blamed, for frightening horses and livestock.

~ In the UK, repealed in 1896, the Red Flag Laws were short lived. By then fossil fuel combustion was well into its infancy (Olyslager, 7 & 23).

~ Early 20th Century, little enthusiasm existed for the coming of the automobile. In the United States, the state of Vermont passed a similar flurry of Red Flag Laws, in 1894, two years before the UK repealed theirs. Notably, the most infamous of the Red Flag Laws, circa 1896, Quaker State legislators unanimously passed a bill through both houses of the Pennsylvania state legislature, which would require all motorists piloting their horseless carriages, upon chance encounters with cattle or lifestock to (1) immediately stop the vehicle, (2) "immediately and as rapidly as possible... disassemble the automobile," and (3) "conceal the various components out of sight, behind nearby bushes" until equestrian or livestock is sufficiently passified (Olyslager, 7 & 23).

~ The bill did not survive. Pennsylvania's governor defecated upon it, with an executive veto.

~ The advent of mass produced automobiles with headlamps, standardized braking systems, and later the advent of hydraulic brakes, and ever greater terminal velocities would ensure marginal benefit of revenue derived, from traffic ticket revenue, would far exceed the marginal cost, of whimsical, nonsensical Red Flag Laws. Today, supplanted by bountiful streams of traffic ticket revenue which constitutes a multi-billion dollar endeavor, lining local government coffers, efficacy of Red Flag Laws was, or never will be, apparent - A. Samuel Joseph III, Geospatial Econometric Analyst 04:11, 20 March 2007 (UTC).


Sources, References & Works Cited:


Bailey, T., and Kennedy, D. The American Pageant.
Lexington: D. C. Heath, 1994.

Olyslager, P. and Sir J. Brabham. Illustrated Motor Cars of the World.
New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1967.