Popular name for the Locomotive Act of 1865, which put severe restrictions on the steam carriages then being developed. They were limited to 4 mph (6.4kph) in the country and 2 mph in towns, and they had to be preceded by someone on foot, at least 60 yards (55m) ahead, carrying a red flag. Early developments of the car in Britain were effectively stifled by these rules until the repeal of the act in 1896 – a liberation commemorated annually in the *Brighton Run.
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