No. 34

Introduction: Some things in life just never change!

Taken from the Friday, July 17, 1908 edition of the Cape May County Gazette, this post includes a short article titled “TO CURB AUTOMOBILES”.

Kindly take a few moments to read the article depicted above.  In addition, and as a way of some background information, please keep in mind that by the end of the first decade of the 20th century there were no stop signs, warning signs, traffic lights (the first would appear in Cleveland, Ohio 6 years later in 1914), driver’s education, lane lines, street lighting, brake lights, driver’s licenses or even posted speed limits. 

That being said, we also know that in 1908 the number of automobiles on America’s roads surpassed the number of horse-drawn vehicles.  According to the Automobile Club of America, we discovered that in 1909 there were approximately 200,000 motorized cars in the United States.  Now jumping forward to the current year of 2023 some 115 years later, we learn that there are 290,000,000 vehicles on our roads today!

So the question we might ask is:  “Have you ever felt, observed or voiced the idea that maybe today there are too many reckless drivers on the roads?”  Perhaps we too might have voiced similar concerns about motorists driving habits as described in the article if we had been living and driving back in 1908.  Can it be that some things in life just never seem to change?  Just food for thought!