Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-05
SPEEDING AUTO
HARD TO RESIST
STILL FRoWN ON AUTOMOBILE
AS UNSAFE
Careless and Reckless Drivers TWO
Great Offenders-Then Comes
the Absent-Minded Slow
Poke
BY ID. w. SFMPLE


While the antipathy toward auto
mobiles, and particularly toward au-
tomobile drivers, has to a large extent
worn away, whether with better judg-
ment exercised by drivers of machines
or the fear of the effective ordinances
that have been enacted governing
speed limits or not is a matter of con-
lecture there remains the fact that
in the eyes of some pedestrians the au-
tomobile is like a runaway locomotive
off the track, tearing around the
streets and boulevards, seeking whom it
may knock down or run over
This conception is not far wrong,
either, when an automobile is driven by
those who are so thoroughly inoculated
with the bug Of speeding over good
roads and Streets those who are
naturally careless of either themselves
or the rights of others, and the last
of the great class of offenders-the
naturally reckless.
With the present appliances with
which all modern automobiles are
equipped there is but little danger in
running an automobile at the rate of
twenty-five miles per hour on drive
where there is no one to be seen, but
there are but few places in a crowded
city where some person may not most
unexpectedly come on the driveway,
either afoot or in some vehicle, Whch
makes accidents imminent and fire.
high speed in endeavoring to obviate
a collision, being driven up on the
curb or suddenly sWerved so that some
other accident Is as likely to occur as
the one endeaVored to be avoided, such
as running into a lamp post, tree or
wall, smashing the machine or over
turning the occupants.
The apparently safe conditions of
roads or driveways set apart for fast
speeding have resulted in some OF the
worst accidents recorded of the auto
mobile. Therefore high speeding is
dangerous except in places set apart
for the especial purpose OF speeding
The careless driver is continually in
hot water and that his accidents are
so few is due not to any credit on MS
part but rather to the care and Watch-
fulness of others. Conversing with oc-
cupants, especially with those seated
in the tonneau of the car they are dry
ing, is one of their greatest faults,
and such drivers usually find them
selves in critical position with thelI
machines and in endeaVoring to avoid
one difficulty run into another. Ihese
people are constantly frightening the
public and to a large extent cause the
exaggerated fear that pedestrians have
for the automobile The careless
driver, while not probably so culpable
as the reckless driver, is fully as dan
gerous as the vicious one.
The reckless driver Is OIL a CLASS LlleII
should be entirely eliminated from the
driving of cars, for he is continual
menace to foot passengers on the high
wav and to the drivers of other We
hicles. particularly to every one cross
ing a highway. With almost malicious
intent he seems absolutely to dlsre-
gard the safety of others. He seems
to try how near he can come to a
pedestrian without hitting him and
lakes pleasure in seeing how near he
may come to injuring people without
actually doing so. He laughs at the
fright of others who have narrowly
escaped being run down by him, and
his conduct naturally increases the
prejudices of the public toward the
automobile.
II is invariably the case that these
drivers are seldom owners of the cars
they are guiding about the thorough
fares or roadWays and continuing TO
make life a burden for pedestrians it
can only be surmised that their con-
duct is approVed, else they would not
be continued in service by their
employers. The remedy for TINS OF
course. is that it is the duty OF the
ennlover to satisfy himself that his
enopIove is as careful when alone, or
even more so, than when the owner is
seated in the car.
The tremendous growth of the auto
mobile output accentuates the danger
of placing the operation OF aulolnoplles
in the hands of persons too young to
realize the danger of fast driving and
unfamiliar with the rules of the. road:
This danger attaching to speeding or
automobiles has another side to it
also for in many cases pedestrians are
at fault They cross the streets
good deal like sheep, paying no atten-
tion to any object approaching them
and an absent-minded individual VINO
lunges into the street as though he
were alone in a ten-acre lot or the
only moving object in the town. And
again there is the poky walker, who
never loses his accustomed stride, and
if the horn is blown looks about with
a scowl on his face bearing every word,
"why don't you get off the earth?
And the deliberate fellow who crosses
in front of you as much as to say
'run into me If you dare" But these
are some Of the things which the care
fuI driver will take into consideration
and watch them, as well as the other
things he would avoid. Fast speeding
has its pleasures and its discomforts,
MANY of them trying in the extreme.