[PRCo] Modern conveniences

[Fred Schneider]

 From the 100 year ago section of tonight's Lancaster (PA) New Era.    
The original appeared July 14, 1908.

"GLIDDEN TOUR;  Large crowds of spectators lined Lancaster City  
streets as the Glidden automobile tourists passed through town on  
their annual trek.   The tourists left Buffalo, New York, in 56  
cars.  Their route was to cover 1,669 miles in 15 days.   ... [They  
would pay tolls on the Lancaster & Lititz and Lancaster & Oregon  
Turnpikes before leaving Lancaster County ... Fred]  ... Officials in  
Reading, meanwhile, had vowed to enforce the 10 mph speed limit  
there.  "No faster than a mile in six minutes," the police chief  
warned.  "Any driver who goes faster will have to drop out long  
enough to be arrested and quare things with the mayor.""

Note the breathtaking speeds.  They averaged 111 miles per day or  
perhaps about 10  to 12 miles per hour.

I have a friend who, about 1957, decided he wanted his bicycle at  
Villanova University so come September he shipped his clothing and  
necessities ahead and then pedaled from Englewood, New Jersey  
(northwest of the George Washington Bridge in Bergen County, NJ) down  
through Newark, Princeton, Trenton, Morristown, Philadelphia and out  
to Villanova.   He did it in one day and claimed he averaged 10 miles  
an hour.   Of course he benefitted from paved roads in 1957 and the  
Glidden tour in 1908 did not.

There are a few web sites below that you might find interesting.   I  
was looking for early automobile history in Pennsylvania.   I found  
one that says by 1929 the speed limit was 20 in towns and 40 on the  
open road.   I remember growing up with 25 and 50.  I don't remember  
war-time speed limits but I was told about them.Chadd's Ford, by the  
way, is on US 1 in Chester County south of Media; that's four lane  
and divided today.


http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/roads2/page1.asp?secid=

http://www.chaddsfordhistory.org/history/roads.htm