What is a ‘vehicle’? 

The term ‘vehicle’ is to be given its ordinary dictionary meaning as ‘carriage or conveyance of any kind for use on land’.

It includes a bicycle and could even include a pram or scooter.

Anything can be a vehicle in the right circumstances, even a chicken shed on wheels (Garner v Burr 1951), or a hut used as an office pulled by a tractor (Horn v Dobson 1933).

What is a ‘mechanically propelled vehicle’? 

A vehicle propelled by mechanical means. Not defined in law and is ultimately for a court to decide.

The test as to whether a vehicle is ‘mechanically propelled’ is one of construction rather than use (what it is made as, not what it is used for).

This is based on what the vehicle was constructed to do, not the intention of the owner (Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset v Fleming 1987).

• A moped with a nonworking engine and no fuel was still mechanically propelled even though it was being pedalled to a friend’s house for repair (McEachran v Hurst 1978).
• A car with an engine removed did not cease to be a mechanically propelled vehicle (Newby v Simmonds 1961).

The prosecution bears the burden of showing that a vehicle meets the requirements of being ‘mechanically propelled’ (Reader v Bunyard 1987).

What is a ‘motor vehicle’? 

Defined as ‘a mechanically propelled vehicle intended or adapted for use on the roads’.

The question to ask when deciding if something is a motor vehicle – would a reasonable person say that one of its uses would be general use on a road (Burns v Currell 1963)?

• In Nichol v Leach 1972 the owner rebuilt a car solely to be used for auto-cross racing, never intending it to be used of a road. It was held that the car did not lose its original character and remained a ‘motor vehicle’.
• In Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police v Saddington 2001 a ‘Go-Ped’ (motorised scooter) was held to be a ‘motor vehicle’. It was sold with instructions not to be used on the road. Despite this the court decided that its design and capabilities e.g., opportunity to move through traffic quickly meant that general use on the road had to be contemplated. It was therefore a ‘motor vehicle’ and the rider’s conviction was upheld.
• An electric bicycle with no pedals or other means of manual propulsion (DPP v King 2008).
• Segway (Coates v CPS 2011).
• A motor vehicle continues to be such if it is towed by another vehicle (Cobb v Whorton 1971).

• A diesel dumper truck used solely for construction work and not intended to be driven along parts of the highway open to the public was held not to be a motor vehicle (MacDonald v Carmichael 1941).
• Electrically assisted pedal bikes are not motor vehicles (s. 189 of the Road Traffic Act 1988).