Cyclist fined 10 shillings...

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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.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
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.
 

youngoldbloke

The older I get, the faster I used to be ...
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

Guru
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 :smile:

Vintage-Classic-Car-parking-Light-Ford-Anglia.jpg


Shaun
 

pawl

Legendary Member
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
 
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
 

NorthernDave

Never used Über Member
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

Never used Über Member
[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

Kilometre nibbler
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

Legendary Member
Location
Ireland
[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.
 
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