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If My Life Ever Depends On Knowing How To Parallel Park, Remember Me Fondly
I love to read about the early days of the automobile. There’s a great article in The Detroit News titled “1900–1930: The years of driving dangerously”.
It was a free-for-all.
In the first decade of the 20th century there were no stop signs, warning signs, traffic lights, traffic cops, driver’s education, lane lines, street lighting, brake lights, driver’s licenses or posted speed limits. Our current method of making a left turn was not known, and drinking-and-driving was not considered a serious crime.
There was little understanding of speed. A driver training bulletin called “Sportsmanlike Driving” had to explain velocity and centrifugal force and why when drivers took corners at high speed their cars skidded or sometimes “turned turtle” (flipped over). — Bill Loomis, The Detroit News
A new technology was dumped into the public domain and spread so rapidly that rules to govern its use couldn’t keep up.
Sound familiar?
Nobody had to worry about parallel parking back then because they were just trying to stay alive. If you could park the vehicle at all, it was considered a win.
