From the archive: AA is formed to help drivers evade speeding fines

"Solicitor: Now tell me, Mr Policeman, what would happen if you did not press the button until the unsuspecting motorist was halfway through the furlong, or even after he had proceeded some 10 or 20 yards past the commencement of the measured furlong? 

"If such a question were put to the innocent policeman, he would immediately reply: 'I always press the button, sir, immediately the front wheels pass my line of vision.' So on the other end of the furlong.

"Truthful policeman! The court is convinced, and although the motorist may assure the magistrate that he dare not send the car round corners at such speeds are as attributed to him on a greasy road, and although he can show an undefiled licence, yet – 'Certainly, I fine you £15 [today around £1840!]. You were timed by an electrical apparatus.'"

And Gibbons' gripes didn't end there; he knew that the wire in use for his fine had already been in use for twelve months and therefore would have become cracked, and so "what is known as an earth would quickly arise". Also unreliable, he believed, were the "miserable specimens" the forces used for stopwatches.

Neither the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) nor the Motor Union appeared inclined to enter into this fight, he said, and so a new organisation ought to be formed – perhaps named the Motorists' Protection Association.

Giving the Brighton Road [today the A23/M23] as an example well known to be plagued by police traps, he put forward his vision: "The representative appointed for the district would have on his books the names of cyclists who are free for the weekend. They would act as scouts and patrol the police-infested distrcts, and on discovering a police trap they would place various people, honest working men of the neighbourhood, one at each end of the trap, to give warning to all motorists.

"The subscription, I would suggest, should be £5 per annum [about £610 today]. What motorist would not be pleased to pay this amount? It would be a huge saving, for otherewise he would most assuredly be fined, and the cost would be very considerably more.

"P.S. – The scouts and men employed to give warning would of course wear special badges."

A few weeks later, a reply to Gibbons appeared from Charles Jarrott, a famous racing driver and importer of cars, most notably for the French company De Dietrich. He'd had his own brushes with coppers, too, having been summoned for furious driving four years prior.

"With a view of assisting the public to regulate the speed so as not to contravene the Motor Car Act," Jarrott wrote, "we have arranged for a special staff of cyclists bearing red flags to patrol the Brighton Road and caution all those whom they consider are travelling at a speed which is illegal or dangerous. This will, no doubt, be very helpful to motorists, as the cyclists who are employed are skilled in judging speed and will be able to indicate to any driver is travelling at a speed which will cause the intervention of the police.

"We hope that our efforts will remove any reason for complaint in a way which will cause no irritation to the public and will satisfy the police that it is unnecessary for them to continue the use of traps. And in order that we may ascertain whether our scheme is effctive or not, we shall be glad if the motorists on the Brighton Road will inform the cyclists if they should come upon any specially arranged speed traps.

"The cyclists will start to patrol the road on Saturday the 15th and will continue on Sunday the 16th, and also during the Easter holidays."