1-192-948 - National Motor Museum/Heritage Images

London to Brighton Emancipation Run, 1896. A huge crowd gathered on the street. In Britain in the 1890s, the law still required motor vehicles to be preceded by a pedestrian carrying a red flag to warn other road users, which effectively restricted the vehicles' speed to 4 mph. A number of pioneer motor car enthusiasts campaigned actively to have the law altered. In 1896 the Locomotives on Highways Act came into force and the preceding pedestrian was no longer required. This was celebrated by the Emancipation Run from London to Brighton on 14 November 1896, where the participating motor cars were given their starting orders by the symbolic tearing up of a red flag by the Earl of Winchelsea.