Cyclist fined 10 shillings...

[marshmella]

...for cycling at night without a rear lamp..in November 1943! Just been sorting mums loft and come across old newspapers and this was one article that caught my eye. That must have been half a weeks wages or something

 

[MichaelW2]

But didn't we have a blackout at the time, with German spies dressed as nuns, cycling round villages identifying targets for the luftwaffe and ordering sausage and beer by mistake? Riding with lights could be seen as high treason.

 

[marshmella]

But didn't we have a blackout at the time, with German spies dressed as nuns, cycling round villages identifying targets for the luftwaffe and ordering sausage and beer by mistake? Riding with lights could be seen as high treason.

Apparently not the case in Walsall

 

[tyred]

The age old conundrum - if the cyclist had no lights, how did the policeman see him?

 

[mjr]

Rear lamps were first introduced BECAUSE of the blackout IIRC. It was felt that more restricted wartime slit car headlights would no longer reliably spot the white rear mudguards of bicycles, so rear lights were required, overruling CTC objections.

With the exception of a few years I think, we've been stuck with compulsory rear lights enabling motorists driving faster than they can see at night ever since.

 

[mjr]

https://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/visibility-in-context/ has more about the history.

 

[youngoldbloke]

ref the above link - I have a hazy memory of cars needing to have a parking light fixed to the offside of a car if parked at night showing white to the front and red to the rear. I sure I remember Joseph Lucas selling one you could clip over the top of a front window

 

[midlife]

ref the above link - I have a hazy memory of cars needing to have a parking light fixed to the offside of a car if parked at night showing white to the front and red to the rear. I sure I remember Joseph Lucas selling one you could clip over the top of a front window

Yep, that was my job as a kid. Go out, wind down the window and hook on the parking light

Shaun

 

[pawl]

ref the above link - I have a hazy memory of cars needing to have a parking light fixed to the offside of a car if parked at night showing white to the front and red to the rear. I sure I remember Joseph Lucas selling one you could clip over the top of a front window

Correct.I had one of these on a mini with a clapped out battery. Came out of a car maintenance class to find the battery dead.Had to ask the instructor to jump start the car,most embarrassing

 

[ufkacbln]

Rear lamps were first introduced BECAUSE of the blackout IIRC. It was felt that more restricted wartime slit car headlights would no longer reliably spot the white rear mudguards of bicycles, so rear lights were required, overruling CTC objections.

With the exception of a few years I think, we've been stuck with compulsory rear lights enabling motorists driving faster than they can see at night ever since.

Pedantic point......

The CTC did not object to the requirement for lights

They objected to the transfer of responsibility

Prior to the law it was the responsibility of the driver to see cyclists and after the law it was the responsibility of the cyclists making themselves visible to the driver

 

[mjr]

The CTC did not object to the requirement for lights

They objected to the transfer of responsibility

While my wording was ambiguous, I think the quotes on the link are quite clear on that, but thanks for putting it in the thread.

 

[NorthernDave]

ref the above link - I have a hazy memory of cars needing to have a parking light fixed to the offside of a car if parked at night showing white to the front and red to the rear. I sure I remember Joseph Lucas selling one you could clip over the top of a front window

Some cars still have them (or certainly did until recently), but incorporated in the car lights now.
Push the indicator stalk up or down in a Vauxhall and it will put the front side light and tail light on that side of the car on. Other makes too - Mercedes rings a bell, possibly.

Isn't there a law that requires cars parked on roads with a speed limit of more than 30mph after dark to have a light on? Something rings a bell about an over zealous (or bored) copper ticketing a load of cars on the Leeds Outer Ring Road one night for failing to show a light and the outcry in the local paper, with his Inspector subsequently canceling all the tickets and offering him "words of advice"...

 

[NorthernDave]

[QUOTE 4503691, member: 259"]German cars in general, used to need a parking light until very recently. Most times, you just left your indicator on and the park light would come on.[/QUOTE]

That would make sense since Vauxhalls are just rebadged Opel's.

 

[Dogtrousers]

ref the above link - I have a hazy memory of cars needing to have a parking light fixed to the offside of a car if parked at night showing white to the front and red to the rear. I sure I remember Joseph Lucas selling one you could clip over the top of a front window

I remember there used to be one of those in a box in my dad's garage.

 

[tyred]

[QUOTE 4503691, member: 259"]German cars in general, used to need a parking light until very recently. Most times, you just left your indicator on and the park light would come on.[/QUOTE]

Anorak and pointless trivia alert - the MKIII Cortina was the first car to have built in parking lights but the standard fitting of rear reflectors which started in the late 1960s made it unnecessary under UK law.

My various elderly Volkswagens have had this feature and I like it if I ever have to park along an unlit road.