The Early Days Of Driving...
Back in the early days of the automobile, there were no driving rules, no stop signs, no traffic lights, no speed limits, no driver training, and you did not need a drivers license or car insurance. That made every day driving a true scuff and bluff event. Here is a little more insight into what it was like in those early days...
Detroit as always been one of the premier automotive cities, even as far back as 1908. So it makes sense that Detroit should end up being of of the first cities to transform from the horse and buggy era, to the new fast-paced age of motor vehicles. But that would prove to be a lot more difficult than anyone could have imagined.
Early motorized vehicles were noisy, and often scared the horses and the buggy owners causing havoc on city streets. The problem got worse as the number of automobiles increased. Politicians, police and judges debated how to control the situation. What was the law of the road, and who was guilty or innocent in cases of lawsuit and litigation?
A serious debate also went on in newspaper stories and editorials over whether the automobile was inherently evil. The state of Georgia's Court of Appeals wrote: "Automobiles are to be classed with ferocious animals and … the law relating to the duty of owners of such animals is to be applied ... . However, they are not to be classed with bad dogs, vicious bulls, evil disposed mules, and the like."
In 1917, Detroit and its suburbs had 65,000 cars on the road, resulting in 7,171 accidents and 168 fatalities. Three-fourths of the victims were pedestrians.
Detroit differed from New York City and the east coast, where most automobiles were driven by uniformed chauffeurs hired by the wealthy. In Detroit... everyone from nearly all incomes and ages were driving.
One family was driven around Detroit by their 11-year-old son. It was also common for light truck delivery wagons to be driven by 14-year-old boys who were constantly badgered to get deliveries done by driving faster.
One young woman was detained by a policeman after driving on a Detroit sidewalk and killing several people. It had been her 26th arrest for reckless driving. She said she suffered from blackouts.
Streetcars, which ran up the center of the streets, were becoming the most dangerous place in the city for pedestrians. Disembarking streetcar riders had to sidestep cars, trucks, motorcycles and horse-drawn buggies to cross the street safely. Pedestrians were having trouble estimating how close a fast-approaching car was to them and often scrambled like scared chickens to get out of the way.
The most appalling tragedies were the number of children struck and killed by autos as they played in the street, many times in front of their own homes. In the 1920s, 60 percent of automobile fatalities nationwide were children under age 9. One gruesome Detroit article described an Italian family whose 18-month-old son was hit and wedged in the wheel well of a car. As the hysterical father and police pried out the child's dead body, the mother went into the house and committed suicide.
"Five children, ranging in age from 2 to 9 years, were injured when a red touring car crashed into the group of little folks … while they were playing in the street on Saturday afternoon. … When the driver crashed into the group of children he apparently stalled his machine...so he leaped out, cranked it and sped away.,,"
The main cause of motor vehicle accidents was often excessive speeding. Until 1909 there was no regulation of street traffic in Detroit. The courts and police decided to address the problem with a simple approach: Set the speed limit to match the pace of horse-drawn wagons, such as 5 miles per hour. Make the streets as slow and safe as they were before cars. That plan failed in part because the "normal" speed from the horse age was so slow that automobile owners had difficulty keeping their cars from stalling out.
The focus then became how to get people across the street without getting hit by automotive traffic.
As automobile traffic continued to increase the police struggled to keep even the major streets safe and slow. The initial police effort was called the Broadway Squad, copying a program started in New York City. Nine older policemen were assigned to help people, typically elderly, cross the now-treacherous downtown intersections.
That plan was soon abolished and replaced with the Traffic Squad, one Sergeant and 12 officers who rotated in four-man shifts, initially at Woodward and State Street. They devised a signaling method to unravel traffic "tangles" and "blockades," both terms from the horse and buggy days.
"The few drivers who happened to notice the signals of the officers did not seem to understand what was wanted and drove by, making it necessary for the traffic officer to run after them and explain the meaning of the signal. The officers had to show considerable patience."
By 1916, one-fourth of the entire Detroit police force — 250 officers — was now used for managing traffic. On May 25, 1920, Detroit was the second city in the United States after New York to start a traffic court. It was announced that same day that the 17th person had been killed in the first 24 days of May. Zeana Coatley, age 4, was struck in front of a post office — the eighth child killed that month.
After World War I, as accidents continued to soar, drivers were being labeled in newspapers as "remorseless murderers," their danger to public safety likened to an epidemic disease. In Detroit and other cities angry mobs were dragging reckless drivers out of cars.
One notable example in Detroit was John Harrigan, a wealthy 26-year-old from Grosse Pointe who, while driving drunk, hit and killed a city street worker. He was convicted of manslaughter and paraded in handcuffs by police in the Safety Parade of 1922.
The Detroit Safety Council in 1919 had bells on fire stations, churches, schools and City Hall ring twice a day in memory of the street auto fatalities. Teachers and sometimes police officers would read to school classes the names of children killed and how they died. Other cities printed "murder maps" showing locations of automobile deaths. Maudlin posters for "No Accident Week" showed young mothers covered in their child's blood and beckoning to heaven.
Safety parades, started in the 1920s, became an emotional relief valve for public loss. The busiest downtown Detroit intersections were labeled with giant "A," "B" or "C" cards to remind people to "Always Be Careful." Thousands watched as hulking wrecks of cars were towed down Woodward with placards that read "He tried to make 90!" or "Follow this one to the cemetery."
Some wrecks featured mannequin drivers dressed as Satan and bloody corpses as passengers. Children crippled from accidents rode in the back of open cars waving to other children watching from sidewalks. Washington, D.C., and New York City held parades including 10,000 children dressed as ghosts, representing each a death that year. They were followed by grieving young mothers who wore white or gold stars to indicate they'd lost a child.
In addition to the dangers drivers, parking and blocked streets were also becoming a problem in Detroit. Multi-storied commercial buildings had no parking spaces for their employees and customers, and there were no laws or rules of etiquette for parking; people simply stopped their cars in front of a building and left them for hours.
In some cities the courts had considered implementing engine-mounted governors to limit a vehicle's speed, a plan not popular with the car manufacturers who insisted the strongest sales appeal of autos was their speed.
And as long as pedestrian deaths were attributed solely to drivers, the automobile industry had a huge public relations problem. In Detroit, one of their own stepped up to find solutions: former Ford Motor Co. executive James Couzens.
Couzens was a short, cigar-chomping Canadian who was considered one of the most pugnacious executives in the auto industry: He quit his job as Ford's vice president of finance after years of friction and a final shouting match with Henry Ford. He resigned in 1913 with stock worth $38 million, and signed on to become Detroit's commissioner of street railways, and later its police commissioner, mayor and, eventually, U.S. senator.
Couzens attacked the problem of poor driving and increasing numbers of vehicles in two ways. First, he insisted that at least adult pedestrians were just as guilty as drivers of causing accidents through careless street crossing and jaywalking. He insisted that pedestrians cross at designated corners. This caused push back from people who hated the cars. City Council Alderman Sherman Littlefield fought Couzens, remarking, "They dog the people enough as it is. I'm not in favor of trying to herd people into certain places to cross streets."
The second approach Couzens and others began to develop was a way to manage the streets without direct police interaction, which had become impossible citywide. They sought out new ideas using new technology for the streets. By the mid-1920s Detroit would be recognized as one of the most innovative cities in the country for traffic management and safety. Couzens' bulldog personality got changes implemented.
Many accidents and pedestrian casualties were caused by "corner cutters" — drivers who did not make a left turn by driving through an intersection and then turning left into the far, perpendicular lane as we do today. Corner cutters made quick left turns the same way we make right turns, hitting unsuspecting pedestrians and other cars. Thus began the early drivers education training classes for future drivers.
Detroit police drew national attention for using tennis court line marking equipment to establish "crossing zones," "safety zones" and "no parking" areas. The first center line on a U.S. highway appeared in Michigan in 1911.
The first traffic lights, at the time called Street Semaphores, were invented and developed in Detroit. At first they had to be manually switched, but by the 1920s the city had converted to electric switching, eliminating the need to have them manually controlled.
Also in 1911, Detroit claimed to be the first city to successfully experiment with one-way streets. It began in Eastern Market to improve traffic flow and deliveries, but it also gained popularity on Belle Isle as people cruised around the island. Less successful was the idea of "channelizing" streets — dedicating certain streets to one type of vehicle, mostly delivery trucks or taxi cabs.
The first U.S. stop sign was installed in Detroit in 1915. The original design was a green metal circle with green light and a red metal star with red light. A policeman stood on a crow's nest platform above the street and manually changed the signal from red to green. The first was set up at Woodward and Grand Boulevard.
Illegal parking continued to be a persistent problem. As Couzens wrote for a 1917 annual police report: "Educational methods did not bring about the desired results, so it was deemed advisable to institute a system of intensive disciplinary training." In short, he ordered illegally parked cars towed for the first time. Within six months the new Detroit Towing Squad hauled 10,737 cars to a vacant lot.
By the mid-1920s a national, uniform approach to street and highway safety was formed under the direction of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. Automobile manufacturers began to improve reliability and adopt safety features such as turn signals, brake lights, safety glass, and standard head lamps. States required drivers to take tests and to be licensed. In the 1930s driver's education began to be required.
Then Comes Automobile Insurance...
In Connecticut, a driver involved an accident resulting in injury or property damage (greater than $100), was required to demonstrate financial responsibility (at a minimum level of $10,000) according to Connecticut Public Acts, Chapter 183 in 1925.
According to Connecticut law, the driver could comply with the financial responsibility demonstration by:
Purchasing motorist liability insurance in this required amount, providing a bond at this amount when required to do so, depositing bonds, stocks, or other negotiable financial instruments of this amount or greater, or depositing currency in this amount.
If the automobile owner didn’t perform any of these actions to demonstrate financial responsibility, his license was suspended. If an injured person didn’t complain after being involved in an accident, the state simply didn’t know about it!
Although the law stated that motorists weren’t required to demonstrate financial responsibility until after an accident occurred, many people decided that preparing for an accident before it happened was an excellent way to transfer risk. That’s why, at least in the beginning, auto insurance was considered an optional risk management tool. That is also why Connecticut’s lawmakers maintained the optionality of auto insurance as a measure of free will.
Up until 1955, Massachusetts was the only state that required auto insurance by law. New York followed by passing a law in 1956. North Carolina then joined the group in 1957. (that is hard to imagine today)
Soon afterward, all states (except Wisconsin, Tennessee, and New Hampshire in the year 2000) required auto insurance for all drivers.
By 2010, 49 states and the District of Columbia required compulsory auto insurance. New Hampshire, the Live Free or Die State, still allows drivers the choice to drive uninsured. It remains steadfast in its support of each driver’s financial responsibility to operate and drive an automobile.
Driver's License Requirement
As the number of motor vehicles reached tens of thousands, state and local governments assumed a new power: authorizing vehicles and drivers. In 1901, New York became the first state to register automobiles; by 1918 all states required license plates. States were slower to require a license for drivers.
Only 39 states required a drivers license by 1935 and very few of those states required a test, despite widespread concern about incompetent drivers. Early motorists were taught to drive by automobile salesmen, family and friends, or organizations like the YMCA. By the 1940s, public high schools began offering driver education training.
Automobile Registration and License Plates...
New York was the first state to require automobiles have license plates, beginning in 1901. These early plates were made by the car owner, (usually with the owner's initials) rather than being issued by state agencies as they are today. The early New York plates were typically handcrafted on leather or metal (iron) and were meant to denote ownership via the initials. The State of New York began issuing license plates beginning in 1910.
Meanwhile... in 1903, the first state-issued license plates were distributed by the state of Massachusetts. The very first plate, featuring the number "1," was issued to Frederick Tudor.
The early Massachusetts license plates were made of iron and covered in a porcelain enamel. The background was colored a cobalt blue and the number was in white. Along the top of the plate, also in white, were the words: "MASS. AUTOMOBILE REGISTER." The size of the plate was not constant; it grew wider as the plate number reached into the tens, hundreds, and thousands.
Massachusetts was the first to issue license plates, but other states soon followed. As automobiles began to crowd the roads, it was necessary for all states to find ways to start regulating cars, drivers, and traffic. By 1918, all states in the United States had begun issuing their own vehicle registration plates.
Today, vehicle registration license plates are issued solely by the states' Departments of Motor Vehicles. The only time a federal government agency issues these plates are for their federal vehicle fleet or for cars owned by foreign diplomats. Also some Native American tribes issue their own registrations to members.
Although the first license plates were meant to be semi-permanent, by the 1920s, states had begun mandating renewal for personal vehicle registration. Also the individual states began experimenting with different methods for creating the plates. The front would typically contain registration numbers in large, centered digits while smaller lettering on one side dictated the abbreviated state name and a two- or four-digit year, the registration was valid.
By 1920, vehicle owners were required to obtain new plates from the state each year. Oftentimes these would vary in color year to year to make it easier for police to identify expired registrations. Today most states issue annual renewal stickers to go on vehicle plates and the plates themselves are good for up to five years.
Summary...
This entry is by no means a legal description of the driving laws and registration laws of the United States...I just wanted you to stop and think about what is was like to drive in the era when your antique vehicle was new. The way we drive has definitely changed in the past fifty years, mostly for the better. We are safer driving our antique cars now (most of the time) than when they were new.
So now you may have a little more appreciation for the cars and trucks that survived in those early days.
And remember if you lived in a rural area in those early days you might have been exempt from the traffic, but there were very few paved roads in the country so you fought mud and the bad weather. You also had very few road signs to guide you on your travels so you had to stop and ask the locals for directions.
We have things pretty good today by comparison.
