Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
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Source: July 1995 Volume 33 Number 3, Pages 120–124


"Scorching" to West Chester

Hob Borgson

Page 120

The problems of automobile traffic in our area and speeding vehicles on our roads are virtually as old as the automobile itself. That they have been a concern for many years is reflected in items from the local newspapers of ninety years ago in the first decade of the century.

As previously noted in an earlier issue of the Quarterly [July 1980, Vol. XVIII, No. 3], in August of 1901, for example, there was this item in the short-lived Main Line Limited, published in Berwyn. Under the headline "Dangerous Vehicles Upon the Highway", it was reported:

When Daisy Aiken, of Berwyn, was driving her father, Dr. [James] Aiken, on one of his rounds last week they stopped in front of one of the houses near Paoli on the Lancaster Pike. While her father was in the house, some one serving milk left his team standing immediately in back of theirs and unhitched. An automobile containing three men came along at a terrific rate of speed. The horse attached to the milk wagon became frightened and ran into the Doctor's wagon, dragging it some distance and forcing it against a telegraph pole and doing great damage to both the horse and wagon.

Fortunately Daisy jumped out of the wagon when she saw the automobile approaching and escaped uninjured. The amount asked to repair the wagon is $30, and the doctor will be deprived of its use for a month.

The occupants of the automobile never stopped to inquire what harm was done, but flew through the toll-gate without paying a toll. If there are no laws in existence governing the management of such vehicles, it is high time that there should be.

Page 121

(The Daisy Aiken who was driving her father and jumped out of the wagon was eleven years old at the time of the incident. Ten years later she married the Rev. William Potter VanTries, the pastor at the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Berwyn. She later was also an active member of the History Club in its early years.)

Within two years, there were such "laws in existence governing the management of such vehicles". In April of 1903 the State Legislature recognized that "it is of the utmost importance to the rights of the people of this Commonwealth that the public highways of the cities, boroughs, counties and townships of the Commonwealth shall be as free as practicable from the reckless use of dangerous vehicles".

Accordingly, it passed an act, signed into law by Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker on April 23, 1903, "relating to automobiles, or motor vehicles", and providing "for the registration thereof", "regulating the speed limits upon the public highways within the Commonwealth", and "providing for the licensing of operators" of such vehicles.

Speed limites of 20 miles an hour outside of cities and boroughs, and of eight miles an hour within such places, were set in Section 5 of the act:

No person or persons shall be allowed to use, operate or drive any motor vehicle, as aforesaid [meaning a vehicle 'commonly called any motor vehicle, as aforesaid [meaning a vehicle 'commonly called an automobile, whether propelled by steam, gas, or electricity], upon any of the public highways of the cities, boroughs, counties or townships of this Commonwealth at a speed greater than eight miles an hour within the corporate limits of any of the cities and boroughs; outside the corporate limits of any city or borough, as aforesaid, the rate of speed shall not exceed one mile in three minutes: Provided, however, That upon sharp curves, sharp declines, upon the immediate approach of any person or team, and at the intersection of any cross-road, the speed shall not exceed one mile in six minutes: And provided further, That nothing in this section shall permit any person or persons to drive an automobile at a greater speed than is reasonable, regarding traffic, danger or injury to property, at any time or at any place.

It was also specified, in Section 8 of the act, that

Every such automobile shall carry, during the period from one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise, at least two lighted lamps, showing white lights, visible at least one hundred feet to the direction towards which such automobile is proceeding, and shall also exhibit at least one red light, visible in the reverse direction. Every automobile shall also be equipped with good and efficient brake or brakes, and shall also be provided with bell, horn or other signal device. He [the driver] shall sound a gong or other alarm when approaching a street-crossing or road-crossing; and shall have no more right of way, or preference as to the use of such street or road than the driver of the vehicle about to be passed, but shall stop the motor-vehicle, when signaled to do so by the driver of any horse or other animal, until the animal or animals have passed.

Page 122

In legislation enacted two years later, the speed limit in the corporate limits of any cities or boroughs was increased to ten miles an hour ("a mile in six minutes"), and provision was made to enable the township commissioners in first-class townships to limit speeds to that same rate in designated sections of the township. As a part of Section 5 of that act, it was inserted:

Provided, That in townships of the first class the commissioners thereof may, by ordinance, fix a speed limit of not less [more?] than one mile in six minutes, in such sections of said township as they may deem such rate necessary for public safety; [and] Provided, however, In the sections where such speed limit is fixed, the commissioners shall cause signs to be placed, at distances of not over one-half mile apart, which signs shall be readable from the highways, and shall set forth the speed limit and the penalties for violation thereof.

The provisions of the act, approved by Governor Pennypacker on April 30, 1905, were to "take effect on the first day of January, Anno Domino one thousand nine hundred and six".

(Neither Tredyffrin or Easttown was a "township of the first class", but Radnor Township, adjacent to both townships on the east, had been a first class township since March of 1901. Less than a week before the new state act was to go into effect, on December 26, 1905, it adopted an ordinance limiting the speed of automobiles or motor vehicles to "not [to] exceed one mile in six minutes", or ten miles an hour. The penalty for the first violation of the ordinance was $25, and for each succeeding offense, $50. On the opposite page is a tracing, reduced in size, from a bronze stencil or pattern used to make the required signs to "set forth the speed limit and the penalties for violation thereof".)

Despite these state-wide regulations there were still "scorchers" as speeders were then known, on the road. Here are some excerpts from a letter to the Editor of the West Chester Daily Local News, October 24, 1907. It was written by Harry F. Taylor, Justice of the Peace in East Goshen Township, and appeared under the heading "Automobile Facts":

For over two years, the State Road [now known as the Paoli Pike, or sometimes referred to as Old Route 202] covering the nine miles between West Chester and Paoli has been considered the best racing ground to be found in eastern Pennsylvania for speeding automobiles. One University student told me in my office that college boys last year often made the run in from twelve to fifteen minutes. Before the recent raids were made on the autos in East Goshen Township, it was very common to hear West Chester autoists boast about covering the nine miles in twelve to twenty minutes. Now they claim it takes from twenty minutes to half an hour.

Several Philadelphia motorists have, in the past, been brought before me; some were fined, some were excused on good grounds, and some reprimanded.

Page 123

Tracing, reduced in size, from stencil used to post speed limit in Radnor township Courtesy of Owls Head Transportation Museum Owls Head, Maine

Page 124

A Philadelphia attorney who represented many of these autoists afterwards told me that he knew this was a racing ground, and he believed all that I fined were deserving of it. A few West Chester autoists banded themselves together and tried, by employing attorneys, to tear down the laws made by the General Assembly for the protection of the traveling public. ...

Can one imagine a wife, a mother or a daughter driving alone along a country highway, and meeting an automobile dashing by at a speed of nine miles in twelve minutes?

For that matter, can one imagine going from Paoli to West Chester on Old Route 202 in twelve minutes today?

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Postscript

The "raids" against the "scorchers" in East Goshen apparently had their effect. In his letter to the Local Taylor also noted that "fortunately things have changed", adding that:

Since the first movement has been made to enforce the law, it is very gratifying to note that of the many hundreds of motorists who [now, in 1907] travel these roads only a small proportion have been charged with violating the law.

It was "a racing strip" no more!

 
 

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