ROAD TRANSPORT LIGHTING (AMENDMENT) (Hansard, 26 November 1957)

§ Mr. R. Gresham Cooke (Twickenham)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend sections two and three of the Road Transport Lighting Act, 1957, so as to permit the use of amber coloured reflectors on the pedals of bicycles and tricycles. The term "bicycles" here includes motorised bicycles and auto-cycles.

I think and believe that the proposed Bill is a non-contentious and a useful Measure for the promotion of road safety. Those hon. Members who have been abroad recently will have noticed that on the Continent there is a growing practice of fitting amber coloured reflectors to the pedals of bicycles as an additional safety precaution. This is to supplement the reflector which is carried in the normal place on the back mudguard. As the pedals revolve the reflectors pick up the light from the headlamp behind them.

It happens, however, that this practice, so popular on the Continent, is illegal in this country, because the Road Transport Lighting Act, 1957, which merely codified former transport lighting Acts, contains a provision that reflectors facing to the rear must be red and that such reflectors must not be attached to a moving part of a vehicle. It is on these grounds that an amendment of the law is required to enable these amber coloured reflectors to be fitted.

Despite the illegality of these reflector pedals, there are many thousands of bicycles and mopeds, as they are called, in this country at present which have these reflectors fitted because they are fitted to the great majority of such cycles imported from abroad. Indeed, if, Mr. Speaker, you were to go into New Palace Yard you would find such reflectors fitted to two or three cycles which all belong to police officers.

I do not think I need argue the fact that, particularly on unlighted roads, these reflectors are an additional safety precaution, and the Bill would merely legalise their use on a voluntary basis. The Bill would not compel their use, but merely would allow what is growing up as an existing practice. I hope that if permission be given for the Bill to be introduced and if, in due course, it becomes 994 law, the use of these reflectors will become more widely adopted.

I am told by my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Croydon, North-East (Vice-Admiral Hughes Hallett) that many enthusiastic and safety-conscious cyclists would like to fit them if they became legal and that he himself would like to put them on his bicycle; and I hope that we may persuade the Postmaster-General to put them on his. I believe that it might become standard practice for manufacturers to fit them on new cycles.

The colour amber has been chosen because, as one cannot depend on the pedal always facing in one direction and so there have to be reflectors on each pedal, and as one pedal will face forward while the other will face back and one cannot show a red light to the front, one has to choose a neutral colour, namely, amber.

The Bill has been drafted in conjunction with officials of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, and I have the permission of my right hon. Friend the Minister to say that he will not oppose it. Indeed, he thinks that good will be done by the Bill. I am also bringing it forward as a non-party Measure, because so many of the discussions on the Road Traffic Bill. 1956, in the Standing Committee, of which I was privileged to be a member, took place in a non-party atmosphere, affecting, as it did, questions of road safety; and, indeed, the proposed Bill has the support of Members on both sides of the House. I have consulted the interests concerned, both manufacturers of cycles and representatives of cyclists, and I expect their support.

I trust, therefore, that the House will give me leave to introduce the Bill and will give it its First Reading, realising, of course, that if such leave were given the Bill would have to go through the normal processes of Second Reading, Committee, Report and Third Reading.