Road Traffic Act 1934
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1934 c. 50 |
| Year | 1934 |
Road Traffic Act, 1934
(24 & 25 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 50.
An Act to amend the Road Traffic Act, 1930, and section thirty-four of the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, and for purposes incidental thereto.
[31st July 1934]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I.
Regulation of Motor Vehicles.
1 General speed limit of thirty miles per hour in built up areas.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, it shall not be lawful for any person to drive a motor vehicle on a road in a built up area at a speed exceeding thirty miles per hour.
For the purposes of this Act a length of road shall be deemed to be a road in a built up area—
(a ) if a system of street lighting furnished by means of lamps placed not more than two hundred yards apart is provided thereon, unless a direction that it shall be deemed not to be a road in a built up area is in force under this section; or
(b ) if a direction that it shall be deemed to be a road in a built up area is in force under this section;
and not otherwise.
(2) If any person acts in contravention of the foregoing subsection he shall be deemed to be guilty of an offence under section ten of the Road Traffic Act, 1930 (in this Act referred to as the principal Act).
(3) The Minister may by order increase or reduce the rate of speed fixed by subsection (1) of this section (either as originally enacted or as varied by an order under this subsection) as the limit of speed to be observed under this section:
Provided that an order under this subsection shall be of no effect unless and until it has been approved by a resolution passed by each House of Parliament.
(4) A direction that a length of road shall be deemed not to be a road in a built up area notwithstanding that such a system of lighting as aforesaid is provided thereon, or that a length of road shall be deemed to be a road in a built up area notwithstanding that such a system of lighting as aforesaid is not provided thereon, may be given—
(a ) as respects any length of road elsewhere than in the London Traffic Area as constituted by the London Traffic Act, 1924 , by the local authority, by means of an order made by them after giving public notice of their intention to make an order under this subsection and after consultation with the chief officer of police and with the consent of the Minister;
(b ) as respects any length of road in the said London Traffic Area, by means of an order made by the Minister after giving public notice of his intention to make an order under this subsection and after consultation with the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee;
and a direction so given may be revoked by a subsequent order made in the like manner.
(5) If the Minister is satisfied that the local authority have failed to give a direction that a length of road shall be deemed not to be a road in a built up area in a case in which such a direction ought to have been given, or have failed to revoke a direction that a length of road shall be deemed to be a road in a built up area in a case in which the direction ought to have been revoked, he may make an order giving or revoking the direction, as the case may be:
Provided that, before exercising his powers under this subsection, the Minister shall give to the local authority notice of his intention of exercising those powers and, if within such period as may be specified in the notice the local authority represent to him that the direction ought not to be given, or ought not to be revoked, as the case may be, he shall hold a local inquiry, and the provisions of section forty-seven of the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933 , shall apply in relation to the inquiry as if it were an inquiry held for the purposes of that Act.
(6) A direction given by an order under the last foregoing subsection may be revoked by a subsequent order made in the like manner.
(7) It shall be the duty of the local authority—
(a ) to erect and maintain the prescribed traffic signs in such positions as may be requisite in order to give effect to general or other directions given by the Minister for the purpose of securing that adequate guidance is given to drivers of motor vehicles as to the places where a length of road begins, and ceases, to be a road in a built up area, or as to a direction being in force as respects a length of road that it shall be deemed to be, or not to be, a road in a built up area; and
(b ) to alter or remove traffic signs as may be requisite in order to give effect to such directions as aforesaid, either in consequence of the making of an order by the Minister under subsection (5) of this section or otherwise;
and if the local authority make default in executing any works required for the performance of the duty imposed upon them by this subsection, the Minister may himself execute the works and recover summarily as a civil debt from the local authority the expenses incurred by him in so doing.
(8) The power conferred on the Minister by subsection (2) of section forty-eight of the principal Act to prescribe the size, colour, and type of traffic signs shall include power to make regulations providing for the illumination of traffic signs to be erected under this section, or for the attachment of reflectors thereto.
(9) In this section the expression ‘local authority’ means, as respects any length of road in the following areas, the following authorities respectively, that is to say, in the administrative county of London as regards the city of London the common council of the city of London and as regards a metropolitan borough the council thereof, in a county borough, in a non-county borough possessing a separate police force or having a population according to the last published census of over twenty thousand, and in an urban district having such a population as aforesaid, the council thereof, and elsewhere the council of the county.
(10) This section shall continue in force until the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and no longer, unless Parliament otherwise determines:
Provided that on the expiration of this section subsection (2) of section thirty-eight of the Interpretation Act, 1889 , shall apply as if this section had been repealed by another enactment taking effect at the time of the expiration thereof.
2 Amendments of s. 10 of, and First Schedule to, the principal Act.
(1) The First Schedule to this Act shall be substituted for the First Schedule to the principal Act, and references to that Schedule in any enactment shall be construed accordingly.
(2) In subsection (1) of section ten of the principal Act the words ‘and if any person acts in contravention of this section he shall be guilty of an offence’ shall cease to have effect, and after the said subsection (1) the following subsection shall be inserted:
(1A) A person convicted of driving a motor vehicle on a road at a speed exceeding a speed limit imposed by or under any enactment shall in respect of that offence be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds, and in the case of a second or subsequent conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.
The provisions of this subsection shall have effect in substitution for any provision made by or under any other enactment relating to a speed limit for determining the punishment by way of fine or imprisonment to which a person convicted of driving a motor vehicle as aforesaid is to be liable in respect of that offence.’
(3) The following subsections shall be substituted for subsections (2) and (3) of the said section ten:
(2) A first or second conviction for driving a motor vehicle on a road at a speed exceeding a speed limit imposed by or under any enactment shall not render the person convicted liable to be disqualified for holding or obtaining a licence.
(3) A person prosecuted for driving a motor vehicle on a road at a speed exceeding a speed limit imposed by or under any enactment shall not be liable to be convicted solely on the evidence of one witness to the effect that in the opinion of the witness the person prosecuted was driving the vehicle at a speed exceeding that limit.’
(4) The following proviso shall be substituted for proviso (a of the said section ten:—
‘(a ) the Minister shall not have power by regulation under this subsection to vary the speed limit imposed on motor vehicles by section one of the Road Traffic Act, 1934, as respects the driving thereof on a road in a built up area, or to impose on motor vehicles, in the case of which no speed limit is provided by the First Schedule to that Act, any speed limit as respects the driving thereof on a road not in a built up area; and’.
(5) The references in subsections (5) and (6) of the said section ten to an offence under the said section, and the reference in subsection (6) thereof to an infringement of the provisions of the said section, shall be deemed to include references to driving a motor vehicle on a road at a speed exceeding a speed limit imposed by or under any enactment.
3 Exemption of fire engines, &c., from speed limits.
3. The provisions of any enactment, or of any statutory rule or order, imposing a speed limit on motor vehicles shall not apply to any vehicle on an occasion when it is being used for fire brigade, ambulance or police purposes, if the observance of those provisions would be likely to hinder the use of the vehicle for the purpose for which it is being used on that occasion.
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