The Automobile Ventures Into the Country
In the early 1900’s a motor trip for any considerable distance into the country was an uncertain undertaking. To run out of fuel was disastrous and might entail a walk of several miles to the nearest hardware or paint store. Mechanical service was practically unobtainable; blowouts and tire punctures were frequent and not easy to repair. Dust was a major nuisance in dry weather. Most embarrassing of all, there were no comfort stations, and tourists were dependent on private kindness or the more secluded portions of the right-of-way for sanitary accommodations.
The automobile, to the dismay of road officials, was unexpectedly damaging to macadam and gravel roads. According to Director Page:
. . . The driving wheels of motor cars moving at high rates of speed exert a powerful tractive force on the road surface, which displaces the materials composing the surface. The result is that the finer particles and dust are thrown into the air to be carried off by cross currents of air. The rubber tire of the automobile does not wear any appreciable amount of dust from the rock fragments, and consequently, the loss of rock dust is a permanent loss to the road. Under these conditions, the road soon ravels, making travel difficult and allowing water to make its way to the earth subgrade or foundation.[1]
The initial reaction to this destruction of the rural roads was a clamor to bar automobiles from the highways or severely limit their speed. Fortunately, calmer counsels prevailed, and some observers, such as the editor of American Highways magazine, actually viewed dusting as a blessing in disguise:
. . . However, the motors are unquestionably here to stay and are going to play an important and very useful part in the lives of coming generations, and instead of trying to bar them off the roadways or misusing their owners, highway commissioners should attack the problems they present and should solve them as they have former problems. It is rather fortunate than otherwise that the motors have appeared on the scene before road-building in the better sense engaged public attention. Had their advent been postponed until the country had built up a complete system of roads a tremendous expense would have been incurred for tearing up the old material and relaying it.[2]
It was, perhaps, inevitable that the early motorists should come into conflict with the farmers. Despite the fact that most surfaced rural roads built after 1900 had been made possible by State aid, paid for largely by city people or by urban support for county bond issues, many rural residents looked upon the motorists as intruders. This feeling was exacerbated by a minority of the motorists who used the roads for racing, often with mufflers cut out, frightening livestock and teams and raising clouds of dust. Some of the farmers countered by refusing to yield for overtaking, forcing motorists to creep along behind them for miles. It was even alleged that some farmers buried spikes and glass in the roads to puncture tender tires.
This division between farmers and urban motorists affected the solidarity of the Good Eoads Movement, and was not finally resolved until the farmers themselves became motorists along with everyone else, and motoring ceased to be regarded as a rich man’s pastime. The final burying of the hatchet came with the enactment of the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916.
The Problems of Automobile Registration and Regulatory Laws
In the early years of this century, pleasure driving was restricted by a host of State and local laws and ordinances, as well as by the condition of the roads and other hardships. New York was the first State to require registration of motor vehicles, and in 1901, the first year a fee was charged, this State collected nearly $1,000 from its motorists.[3] The New York law was primarily a measure for legal control rather than for revenue, but in later years New York and other States collected sizable amounts of money in registration fees.[N 1]
As other States began charging registration fees, problems of reciprocity between the States arose to plague motorists. New York, the leader in the registration movement, allowed any vehicle to use its roads, provided that vehicle was registered in its own State, and provided that State granted the same privilege to cars registered in New York. At this time, New York had full reciprocity with 15 other States but not with New Jersey. As a result, thousands of New Yorkers who had summer homes on the Jersey coast had to register their machines for the full year in both States.[5] A similar relation existed with Massachusetts and 17 other States which did not grant full reciprocity.
Lack of reciprocity was a serious hindrance not only to pleasure travel, but also to interstate commerce which was just beginning to use the roads again after a lapse of 60 years. As the secretary of state of New York said in 1911:
. . . It seems to be a failure to recognize the importance of the automobile, when a tourist is confronted by the necessity of carrying with him on a tour throughout the States the license of each State he enters. . . . The automobile gives opportunities of seeing the country which the people have never had to such an extent before. It leads to many small interesting places which even the railroad with its great facilities has not been able to make sufficiently accessible. It enables the people to know their country better. It brings people into closer contact. Especially is this true of the commercial vehicle. Trips from New York to Philadelphia are very frequent. It surely will not be conducive to the growth of this phase of the industry and to business generally if a merchant in Philadelphia, desiring to carry goods to New York City, will have to have his machine registered in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York and to pay a fee in each State. . . .[6]
In many States, registration fees were not the only imposts on motor vehicle owners. Some cities and villages required the motorist to pay a “wheel tax” of $10 to $20 per year for the privilege of driving on their streets. A number of States collected a personal property tax on the vehicle in addition to the registration fee.
- ↑ In the first 10 months of 1911, 35 States collected a total of $3,746,938 in registration fees and operator license fees from 516,977 owners of motor vehicles. The amounts collected ranged from $986 in Utah (442 owners and 51 operators) to 2,975 in New York (81,665 owners and 33,485 operators).[4]
After he had solved the registration and tax problems, other hazards confronted the motorist when he ventured beyond the limits of his own city. The individual municipalities had their own ordinances regulating speeds, parking, the use of bells, horns and
- ↑ L. Page, Roads, Paths and Bridges (Sturgis and Walton, Co., New York, 1912) p. 216.
- ↑ Editorial, American Highways, Vol. 2, No. 8, Jan. 1908 (American Highways Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.) p. 239.
- ↑ A. Rose, supra, note 5, p. 102.
- ↑ E. Lazansky, A Model State Motor Vehicle Law, Papers, Addresses and Resolutions Before the American Road Congress (Richmond, Va., Nov. 1911), (Waverly Press, Baltimore, 1912) p. 151.
- ↑ Id., pp. 153, 154.
- ↑ Id.
