Subject: apology (was Re: Did US drive on the left?)
From: aas7@po.CWRU.Edu (Andrew A. Spencer)
Reply-To: aas7@po.CWRU.Edu (Andrew A. Spencer)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc5.ins.cwru.edu
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In a previous article, dh3q+@andrew.cmu.edu ("Daniel U. Holbrook") says:

>>i'm guessing, but i believe in the twenties we probably drove mostly down
>>cattle trails and in wagon ruts.  I am fairly sure that placement of the 
>>steering wheel was pretty much arbitrary to the company at that time.....
>
>By the 1920s, there was a very active "good roads" movement, which had
>its origins actually in the 1890s during the bicycle craze, picked up
>steam in the teens (witness the Linclon Highway Association, 1912 or so,
>and the US highway support act (real name: something different) in 1916
>that first pledged federal aid to states and counties to build decent
>roads. Also, the experience of widespread use of trucks for domestic
>transport during WW 1 convinced the government that good raods were
>crucial to our national defense.  Anyway, by the 20s there were plenty
>of good roads, at least around urban areas, and they were rapidly
>expanding into the countryside.  This was the era, after all, of the
>first auto touring fad, the motel, the auto camp ground, etc. Two good
>books on the subject spring to mind - Warren Belasco "America on the
>Road" (title may not be exact - author is) and another called "The Devil
>Wagon in God's Country" author I forget.  Also, any of John Flink's  or
>John Bell Rae's auto histories.

i'm sorry, as i have never heard of any of this.  Guess they don't think
it's important enough for a classroom, and i was going on what i've seen
in pics.(some movies--real nice scource there, huh?)  I just always 
recall thinking that GOOD roads of asphalt didn't come around til the
Interstate Hiway Act, or whatever they called it(60's?), and that wood and
cobblestone roads were fairly rare up through the depression, except in
overpopulated places like England and US cities.  Obviously netwisdom
says i am wrong.

>As to placement of the steering wheel being arbitrary, by the early
>teens there were virtually no American cars that did not have the wheel
>on the left.  In the early days, cars had the wheel on the left, on the
>right, and even in the middle, as well as sometimes having a tiller
>instead of a wheel.  This was standardized fairly early on, though I
>don't know why.

i knew it was almost always done, but i knew of no reason that it might not
be done the other way by DeSoto for their car.  Seems like they had some
other deviations from the norm too, at times :-)

>Dan
>dh3q@andrew.cmu.edu
>Carnegie Mellon University
>Applied History
>
>"World history strides on from catastrophe to catastrophe, whether we
>can comprehend and prove it or not."
>               Oswald Spengler

thanx for corrrecting me, and again, i aplogize for harebraned post.
DREW
