THE HORSELESS AGE
E.P. Ingersoll, Publisher
Publication Office:
Franklin Building, 9-15 Murray St.,
NEW YORK
Telephone: 6203 Cortlandt
Cable: “Horseless,”
New York and London.
Western Union Code.
Editorial Department:
P. M. Heldt, Chief
J. C. Chase.
N. B. Pope.
Advertising Department:
C. W. Blackman, Manager
H. W. Doherty.
Geo. H. Kaufman.
J. W. Buckmaster
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Compulsory Lights for All Vehicles.
A movement is now on foot in various sections of the country, particularly in Massachusetts, to have more stringent legislation enacted with regard to the compulsory carrying of lights on all road vehicles at night. A number of collisions have recently occurred at night between automobiles and unlighted horse vehicles. and also a number of cases where automobilists were forced to steer into the ditch or assume other risks in order to avoid collision with an unlighted cart or truck suddenly looming up out of the dark. The same question is being agitated in England, owing chiefly to the recent rather serious accident to a member of the royal family while traveling in his car in the vicinity of Edinburgh. It appears that there is a law on the statute books of most States requiring road vehicles to carry lights after dark; but the enforcement of these laws is very lax, and they are often disregarded. In order to remedy the present evil it would be well to have these laws revised, fixing, perhaps, more severe penalties for violations, and above all to urge a strict enforcement. A universal vehicle light law of this nature, strictly enforced, would be even more of a blessing to horse drivers than to automobilists, because the latter almost invariably carry powerful lights when driving at night and usually spy an unlighted horse vehicle soon enough to avoid it, so that collisions between horse vehicles and autos at night are comparatively rare. There must be many more such collisions between horse vehicles, but these, of course, do not receive the attention in the press that a collision of a horse vehicle and an automobile would, and one does not hear so much about them. This also disposes of the argument that if automobilists carry sufficiently strong lights and keep close watch of the road ahead they will always notice an approaching vehicle in time. In order to insure the greatest degree of safety to road traffic in general, all vehicles should be compelled to carry lights, as in marine practice. It is therefore to be hoped that the efforts now being made in Massachusetts to have a general vehicle lighting law passed may prove successful, and that automobilists in other States may follow suit and urge the passage of similar laws.
The Dangerous Electric Cabs.
The electric cabs operated in New York city have lately been forcibly brought to public notice through a series of accidents in which they have figured, accidents sometimes of a serious nature. Within the past few months at least two pedestrians have been knocked down and killed by them, and on one occasion two cabs came together in a head-on collision, which resulted in the serious injury of the occupant and operator of one. At the time these cabs were new they may have represented advanced ideas in methods of transportation, in spite of their great weight and bulk, and their general clumsiness, but that was some years ago, when motor vehicle design was still in a relatively undeveloped state. Today conditions are changed, and the cabs have become a relic of an earlier period of automobile development, and appear freakish in comparison with the many examples of modern construction to be seen on the streets. The great objection to them, however, resides in the fact that they are dangerous. These cabs have a seating capacity of only two passengers, in addition to the operator, and weigh, empty, 2½ tons; they have a 5 foot wheel base and a very high centre of gravity, and most of them are equipped with lever steering without the
