Road Traffic Act, 1933

PART IV.

Speed Limits for Mechanically Propelled Vehicles.

Ordinary speed limits.

46.—(1) The speed of twenty-five miles an hour shall be the ordinary speed limit for light motor vehicles when being used for the traction of another vehicle.

(2) The following speeds shall be the ordinary speed limits for heavy motor vehicles of which all the wheels are fitted with pneumatic tyres, that is to say:—

(a) in the case of any such vehicle which is a large public service vehicle—

(i) if it is fitted with a floor for the seating of passengers the whole or any part of which is vertically above the whole or any part of another such floor, the speed of twenty miles an hour, or

(ii) if it is not so fitted, the speed of thirty-five miles an hour;

(b) in the case of any such vehicle which is not a large public service vehicle—

(i) when it is used for the traction of a vehicle of which all or some of the wheels are not fitted with pneumatic tyres, the speed of ten miles an hour,

(ii) when it is used for the traction of a vehicle of which all the wheels are fitted with pneumatic tyres, the speed of twenty miles an hour,

(iii) when it is used otherwise than for the traction of another vehicle, the speed of twenty-five miles an hour.

(3) The following speeds shall be the ordinary speed limits for heavy motor vehicles of which all or some of the wheels are not fitted with pneumatic tyres, that is to say:—

(a) when it is used for the traction of another vehicle, the speed of ten miles an hour;

(b) when it is used otherwise than for the traction of another vehicle, the speed of fifteen miles an hour.

(4) The following speeds shall be the ordinary speed limits for locomotives, that is to say:—

(a) in the case of a locomotive of which all the wheels are fitted with pneumatic tyres or other tyres of a soft or elastic material and which is being used either for the traction of one other vehicle only or otherwise than for the traction of another vehicle, the speed of ten miles an hour;

(b) in any case to which the foregoing paragraph does not apply, the speed of five miles an hour.

(5) In this Act the expression “ordinary speed limit” means the speed which is by virtue of this section the ordinary speed limit for the mechanically propelled vehicle in relation to which the expression is used and in the circumstances to which the context refers.