“Automobile accidents in the majority of cases are due to some carelessness on the part of the drivers,” says Paul B. Huyette, president of the Quaker City Motor Club, who has formulated ten rules of the road, which, if closely adhered to, he believes, will reduce the number of motor smash-ups to a minimum.
Police courts are overburdened, declared Mr. Huyette, with the trials of traffic offenders, who could avoid the annoyance, expense, and trouble if they followed regulations.
His Ten Rules follow:
First. Keep to the right, especially on turns. This does not mean right center. In the event of an accident, nine times out of ten, if you’re on the right, you’re in the right.
Second. Stay clear of the car tracks and you’ll save tires as well as the tempers of those in the trolley behind. Remember that the track
Is reserved chiefly and primarily for the trolley.
Third. The traffic policeman is your friend. Regard him as such. Co-operate, don’t hinder. The blue coat in the center of the street has the same relation to you as the watchman at a railroad crossing,.
Fourth. Don’t indulge In friendly races in city streets. The results are too frequently painful in more ways than one.
Fifth. Don’t attempt to beat tho ‘stop-go’ sign just as the policeman is changing the signal. If you’re traveling south the driver of a car going east may also attempt to pass the corner as the sign turns.
Sixth. Use your horn judiciously in warning pedestrians. The average automobile horn has the effect just the opposite of what is desired; it frightens and causes indecision.
Seventh. You and your car will have a longer life if you give the benefit of the doubt to the other vehicle. We need more courtesy of the road, anyway. The Long Island Railroad says ‘Better wait a minute at a crossing than an hour in a doctors office.’ The same
applies on the streets.
Eighth. A wet street is a danger trail. On rainy days most drivers are careful. The time to watch also at night in spring and summer when you pass hero and there through a street just flushed, when your tires, of course, are without chains.
Ninth. Be careful in leaving your car on a steeply Inclining street.
Tenth. The traffic courts are over burdened with trials of offenders who might have avoided trouble easily if they had observed some simple regulations.
Source: These ten rules appeared on page 25 of the March 12, 1919 issue of Evening Public Ledger in Philadelphia.
The wonderful work of archivists have preserved far more material than we usually see. Our goal here is to unearth and present some of the stuff we never saw in school.