Traffic Report

Detail from "Smitty" by Walter Berndt, distributed by Chicago Tribune July, 19, 1925

It's time to buckle your seat belts, because today's Graphical History Tour destination is July, 1925. Let's hit the road, shall we?

"Right of Might" by Winsor McCay in New York Herald Tribune, ca. July 18, 1925

The automobile had gone from novelty to everyday life in the space of a single generation, wresting  roadway dominance from horses and pedestrians. Once upon a time, if a pedestrian's destination were directly across the street, one crossed then and there. Children played in rural roadways and city streets. Horses, unless they were at full gallop, easily went around them.

Carriages, horsed and horseless, couldn't maneuver quite so easily. With the ubiquity of the automobile came a nationwide push for laws against what was now called "jay walking": crossing the street anywhere other than at a controlled intersection.

"Will It Come to This" by Orville P. Williams in New York American, July 14, 1925

Nor were the new regulations of pedestrian traffic a strictly American feature:

"Ein Zukunftsbild" by Arthur Johnson in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, July 12, 1925

Besides pedestrians, cross-country motorists had to contend with a patchwork of local roadway systems. U.S. numbered highways did not yet exist. Anyone with the time and sufficient buckets of paint could mark "auto trails" on power poles and name them whatever they wanted. Some, like the Lincoln Trail and Dixie Highway, actually crossed country; others were local, like the Three C Highway, which connected Cleveland to Cincinnati. A transcontinental highway might follow an old wagon trail, such as the Oregon Trail route, or a railroad, as the Union Pacific Highway for example.

Upkeep of the auto trails was largely up to the localities they passed through. A trail set up by some entrepreneur hoping to lure travelers to his tourist trap, on the other hand, might turn out to be a deeply rutted dirt road taking you through creeks instead of over them.

"Let's Build These Highways" by Orville P. Williams in New York American, ca. July 30, 1925

In 1925, the Joint Board on Interstate Highways, in cooperation with the American Association of State Highway Officials (founded in 1914), began work on creating a national numbering system for what would become U.S. Highways. Implementation of their project began within two years.

"Another Badly Needed Road" by Winsor McCay, ca. July 21, 1925

The super highways envisioned by Orville Williams on behalf of eager motorists would still be several years in the future. In the meantime, Winsor McCay offered another recommendation of a needed road. (Note the hat impaled on this guy's fender.) 

"Read Them And Weep" by Denis McCarthy, ca. July 12, 1925

Driving the point home, Denis McCarthy drew a cemetery shared by reckless drivers and careless pedestrians.

(When I last posted cartoons by Denis McCarthy, he seemed to have begun working at the Fort Worth Record after leaving the New Orleans Times Picayune; but his work wasn't appearing in either newspaper by the summer of 1925. I find his cartoons in newspapers that also ran the work of Hearst cartoonists, so I surmise he may have joined Hearst's syndicate.)

"Out Where the Worst Begins" by Tom Foley in Minneapolis Star, July 3, 1925

On the more automobile-friendly side, Tom Foley observes that roads do not remain in pristine condition very long, which is especially true in the land of ice and snow. Why Minnetonka Boulevard had more or deeper potholes than, say, Hennepin Avenue or Lake Street I don't know; perhaps it just happened to be the route Foley took to and from work every day.

"First Impressions Are Lasting" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, July 28, 1925

Old-fashioned cobblestone streets, while picturesque, are not very automobile-friendly. (I doubt that they got along all that well with horses, either.) Say what you will about them, however, they were probably more effective at depressing traffic than stop signs on every block, roundabouts, or those "Your Speed" monitors, which explains why speed bumps are becoming so popular with urban planners these days.

"Sing Ho, for the Wide Open Spaces" by Denis McCarthy, ca. July 19, 1925

If pedestrians were confounded by ordinances telling them how to cross a street, Denis McCarthy spared some sympathy for motorists baffled by restrictions on how and where to park their car.

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I can't leave today's topic without first checking what was going on in the quintessential autophile newspaper cartoon, "Gasoline Alley" 100 years ago today:

"Gasoline Alley" by Frank King in Chicago Tribune, July 26, 1925

Alas, the gang wasn't gathered around their cars that particular Sunday. Instead, Walt Willet was wandering the great wide open spaces with his foundling son, Skeezix, on foot.

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P.S.: Yes, I know that seat belts were not a thing until 1959.