The Crackdown on 'Fast Riding' in Old Seattle
When rowdy horsemen turned Front Street into a racetrack, the city police decided the era of reckless riding in the city center had to end.
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.
Yesterday a party of men from across the mountains came into town, and in the afternoon decided to sell some of their horses, and to show their merits rode two of them very rapidly up Front Street. Mr. Minnick soon appeared upon the scene and arrested the men for fast riding. They were taken before Justice Scott, and after hearing the testimony and finding them to be strangers, the Chief of Police said he would not demand anything for his trouble in arresting them, and consequently their fine and costs only amounted to one dollar each. We have seen of late, on several occasions, both gentlemen and ladies riding through the streets faster than the law allows, and we are requested to state that the law against this dangerous practice will be more rigidly enforced in the future. A word to the wise is sufficient.
“We have seen of late, on several occasions, both gentlemen and ladies riding through the streets faster than the law allows.”
Long before the modern battle over bike lanes and reckless driving on 1st Avenue, 1878 Seattle was already struggling with the friction of public safety versus the 'fast' spirit of the frontier. The transition from a small-town street used for horse racing to a regulated urban thoroughfare is a recurring theme in Seattle's civic history.
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