• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Old Speed Limits

Share this page

PAUL161

PAUL161

Great Pumpkin
Silver
Country flag
Offline
Remembering back when I was a kid, the top speed limit was 50 MPH and that was only on major highways. 10 to 15 MPH within town limits. I remember My dad getting chewed out by Grandma for doing 40 in the country, she told him to slow down were going to have an accident! o_O LOL.
 
"Man was never meant to travel sixty miles an hour!"
 
Tom was there when they first came up with them.



I have pictures of my Mom & Dad going from
California to South Dakota in their '49 Mercury.I didn't
think it was a big deal until I realized that the speed limit
then was something like 45 mph.
 
I remember when they changed the speed limits on interstate highways to 55 mph to save gas. Hawaii had to increase the speed limit on H-1 to 55.
 
DavidApp said:
It was a little slower in the UK at one time.
Click to expand...
My home town in western PA had a similar law, still on the books as I understand. A flag bearer was required to precede the 'motor carriage' at a distance of fifteen to twenty feet during daylight, at night to carry a lantern. All to warn the horses and pedestrians of the dangerous approach.
 
One of my granddad's best friends drove a D model IH pickup from Oklahoma to New Mexico to deliver it to his dad back in the 30s. I believe the story was that it took him over a week to get there.
 
Last edited:
The 1996 London to Brighton run had over 650 entrants. It is amazing that there are that many road worthy cars that were manufactured before 1905.

David
 
DavidApp said:
The 1996 London to Brighton run had over 650 entrants. It is amazing that there are that many road worthy cars that were manufactured before 1905.

David
Click to expand...
That was because they were made of wood and iron, it doesn't deteriorate as fast as British tin! :devilgrin:
 
AngliaGT said:
As it's been said before -
"Why do they have an Interstate in Hawaii?"
Click to expand...
So Hawaii would get it's share of interstate highway funds?
The story I heard is to provide a highway for the military to quickly get from one side of Oahu to the other..
 
There weren’t many speed limits on major roads in the 1950’s and 60’s in the uk. And the first motorways had no limits and the astons and e-types could max out.
very dangerous as families in their A35 doing 45/50 could be past by sports and racing cars doing 150mph

a lady near Guildford used to complain to the police about a loud red car speeding.
they said they needed the cars registration number next time it happened.
she got the number the following Sunday and reported it. It was no. 9

turns out it was a 1930’s ERA being tested by the local garage.
 
John Turney said:
So Hawaii would get it's share of interstate highway funds?
The story I heard is to provide a highway for the military to quickly get from one side of Oahu to the other..
Click to expand...
Basically yes -- the "interstate" designation is basically just a poor choice of words. It has more to do with standards (curve radii, width, markings, speed limits, on/off ramps) and as you say, federal dollars, than with touching more than one state. The military need was a primary decider, but also commerce (getting people to and from population and commerce centers) factored in.

I think there are a few "Interstates" in the contiguous 48 that are only in one state. Texas has at least two, not counting "3-digit" connector interstates.
 
This came up on the tube because I watched another London to Brighton run.
There is a piece on Lord Montague in the video.

On another note my dad planted a sweet chestnut in the garden. It must have been one that did not get eaten at Christmas and later that spring it sprouted. Several years later it was obvious the tree was going to be way too big for the garden so he set about finding a new home for it. This was way Pre internet days.
Somehow he contacted a local estate who were interested in the tree. On the agreed day someone arrived in a beat-up Land Rover to get the tree and to my dad's great surprise it was Lord Montagu himself not the gardener. He looked at the tree and said that it was a great specimen and he had the exact spot for it. He dug it up and wrapped the root ball in burlap that he had in the Land Rover.

 
I have a small collection of vintage road maps, mainly Canadian ones as that is where I live... I have 1950's road maps of every province of Canada, I even finally acquired a 1950's Newfoundland road map (been looking for one for years!)

In many parts of Canada the vast majority of 1950's highways were gravel, certainly no freeways yet... I have road maps of Ontario prior to any of the 400 series highways being built... Back then travel between cities would have been far more difficult

Closer to home for me on the Canadian prairies, 100 years ago, there was hardly even any road networks in western Canada, people still got around

Note: I wasn't born until 1972, but I own many things far older than me, I just love history

One photo from 1915 from my own vintage photo collection, rural Alberta, the town of Youngstown (not the Ohio one), I have about 50 photos of these young people and their cars, ca. 1915

Found_1669.jpg


One more...

Found_1687.jpg
 
About thirty years ago, I was visiting my French Canadian friends on Pictu Island off Nova Scotia.
After my visit, I traveled with them to their winter home in Montreal.
I was astonished at the lack of paved roads as we traveled through New Brunswick.
They said that the only reason they had any roads was for the logging industry.
Also, the closer we got to Montreal, the less English they spoke.
When we got to Montreal they refused to even have any conversation.
 
equiprx said:
About thirty years ago, I was visiting my French Canadian friends on Pictu Island off Nova Scotia.
After my visit, I traveled with them to their winter home in Montreal.
I was astonished at the lack of paved roads as we traveled through New Brunswick.
They said that the only reason they had any roads was for the logging industry.
Also, the closer we got to Montreal, the less English they spoke.
When we got to Montreal they refused to even have any conversation.
Click to expand...
I don't know anything about New Brunswick, but most/if not all major highways in Canada were paved by the 1970's... People do need to get around, and not all of us are loggers... ;)

But there are still lots of gravel roads in Saskatchewan on back highways... :D
 
Back
Top