The Horseless Carriage Struggle
Tacoma motorists revolt against council ordinance forcing them to halt for passing horse-drawn traffic.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Automobile owners of Tacoma appeared before the police and license committee yesterday in protest against the passage of an ordinance introduced in the council at the last meeting. The ordinance is one regulating the operation of automobiles in this city. The committee stated that there was no objection to reasonable rules, but there was strong opposition to the requirements of the ordinance. Among the most objectionable features were the speed limits, the size of the license numbers, and requiring machines to stop whenever requested to do so by drivers of teams. After much discussion, several amendments satisfactory to the committee were made, but the most obnoxious section of all, that requiring machines to stop whenever requested to do so by drivers of horses, was retained. Under the ordinance, drivers of fish wagons, delivery carts, etc., by the holding up of a hand, can immediately cause the fashionable gasoline wagons to come to a stop. All of which is declared by the owners to be unfair and somewhat nonsensical.
“Drivers of fish wagons, delivery carts, etc., by the holding up of a hand, can immediately cause the fashionable gasoline wagons to come to a stop.”
Early 20th-century traffic laws reflected the deep anxiety triggered by the transition from animal-powered to motorized transit. Today’s debates over micromobility and pedestrian safety in Tacoma echo these same foundational questions about who owns the right-of-way in a changing urban landscape.
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