Britain Catches Its First Speeder. A Policeman Chases Him on a Bicycle.

The motor car had arrived. The speed limit was still travelling at walking pace.

On Tuesday, 28 January 1896, Walter Arnold drove his Benz through Paddock Wood in Kent.

The car was moving at about 8 miles per hour.

That was not impressive by modern motoring standards. It was, however, roughly four times the legal limit.

Britain's Locomotive Acts treated early motor vehicles as road locomotives. In towns and villages, the applicable speed limit was 2 miles per hour. The rules also required a person carrying a red flag to walk ahead of the vehicle.

Arnold had no such pedestrian escort.

A constable saw him pass and began a pursuit on the available high-speed police vehicle:

a bicycle.

The chase continued for several miles before the officer caught him. Arnold was brought before magistrates on Thursday, 30 January—not on the Tuesday when the offence occurred—and convicted on several motoring charges.

The National Motor Museum records the episode as Britain's first speeding offence, while Guinness describes Arnold as the first person charged with speeding. The labels vary slightly; the documented core does not. An early motorist exceeded the 2-mile-per-hour limit, and a cycling policeman went after him.

The law was already struggling to keep pace with the machinery it regulated. Later in 1896, the Locomotives on Highways Act removed the red-flag requirement for qualifying light locomotives and permitted local speed limits of up to 14 miles per hour.

Arnold's case therefore sits at an awkward moment between two transport eras.

The car was fast enough to break the law.

The police bicycle was still fast enough to catch it.