Government and the Automobile By: John E. Aibel

Ever since the first self-propelled vehicle rolled down the road government has been there to influence the development and use of vehicles. 

England, where it all started, had the worst of all laws concerning vehicles. Until the year 1896 vehicles were restricted to a speed of a walking red flag-carrying human being. Government rational for this was that the noise of these vehicles could scare a horse and cause mass trouble for horse drawn carriages. Naturally this had the effect of stopping the development of the modern automobile. 

Fortunately for the Brits, the law was changed. The English were so pleased by this change of law that a group of auto-loving people drove their cars from London to Brighton to celebrate the repeal of the “Red Flag Law”. This event is still being celebrated to this day!

Not to be stopped by this “repeal”, governments all over the world started to pass laws affecting cars. This was a way for a government to raise money. A registration fee was imposed on cars based on weight, engine size, engine power, or value of the vehicle. The category used depended upon the whims of the government in power.

Responding to these fees, auto manufactures came up with ways to minimize the impact of the fees. Engine power was used by governments that used complex formulas to determine power rather than actual measured power. Thus, long stroke small cylinder bores permitted more actual power than the formula measured. A manufacturer could show a five or six taxable horsepower while in reality the engine achieved twenty-five or thirty real horsepower! These long stroke engines limited the development of high speed efficient engines. 

It was not until the 1950s that high-speed short-stroke engines start to be introduced in passenger cars. Racing engineers knew the benefits of these engines for years, but because of antiquated laws new technology had to wait for the laws to catch up.

Whole industries developed in England because of unusual laws. Four wheel vehicles were taxed much more heavily than three wheel vehicles. This led to a profusion of three wheelers being built. The Morgan Company capitalized on the law to build a very successful automobile with three wheels. Other manufactures including Berkeley, Bond, and Allard built three wheelers just to get cheaper taxes.

Another industry that grew because of a law was the kit car makers. Factory built cars are and were taxed very heavily by governments. These laws do not cover vehicles built by individuals. Thus, Lotus, TVR, and many other manufactures sold complete knock down complete cars to be assembled by customers. To this day kit built cars are a big business in the United States.

In Japan the government so tightly regulated engine size that 360cc limit proved to be a large segment of the vehicles manufactured. The next size of about 660cc were considered large by their standards. For those uninformed with engine size this relates to an engine of a very small scooter or motorcycle!

Now in the US the government is giving large tax credits to people who purchase electric or electric gas generator cars.  Thus all taxpayers subsidize those few who spend large sums of money for these cars. It is true the emissions of these vehicles are zero to nil; however, government does not consider the power plants run by large utility companies who supply these electric cars with the energy to run.

You cannot get away from laws, but they are passed by people who have no clue of the engineering they are affecting.