What if the Automobile was limited?

[GreaterMars8844]

Context:
When cars were first put on the road, most roads were a mix of trollies, carages, and people. Drivers tended to accidentally run over people a lot, since there was no difference between walking spaces and driving spaces. In response, some cities were considering limiting the vehicle to prevent more people from dying. To save themselves, the Automobile industry started a campaign to make the streets cars only, and even invented and new word: Jaywalker (this was actually really offensive at the time, since "Jay" ment something along the lines of "Dirty Hillbilly"). The rest is history, where cars rule the streets and we're stuck to the sidewalks.
Timeline:
In this alternate timeline, the Cars-Only campaign fails, leading to several cities creating legislation from limiting the speed of Automobiles to 5mph in city limits to banning the vehicle between certain hours. Then Congress passed the Street Saftey Act of 1926. This legislation banned civilian vehicles between the hours of 6am and 9pm on urban streets, limited the speed of automobiles to 5mph, and made driver's training mandatory for the purchase of an Automobile. However, Police and Fire Automobiles would be allowed 10mph and be allowed to run at all hours of the day. Simular laws were picked up by other nations, such as Britain, France, and Germany.
Some technologies, such as tanks and transports, would still be around due to their use in WW1--civilian vehicles and police cars are the main ones affected in this timeline. (Aka, WW2 is the same).
In this timeline, trains and trollies would still be the best options for mass public transportation and overland cargo (The Trains would be better in this timeline). Police Cars would be mostly used as Squad Cars, transporting police to situations requiring lots of officers (such as riots). Fire trucks would definitely be around like normal. The civilian car would die out in the cities, while the countryside would likely look pretty similar to today, with trucks and tractors being used on farms and between them. The Automobile industry would look very different, mainly making vehicles for Police, Firemen, and Farmers. Urban areas would be more compact, since you would have to eather walk, bike, or ride the Trolley to work each morning. A consequence of this is that the suburbs don't exist.
In Short: The Automobile would be less developed than in our timeline, while the Train and Trolley would be more developed. Cities would be more compact and the Automobile industry would be much smaller.

 

[marathag]

in 1925 there were 17M cars and 2M trucks registered in the USA.

This is a TL where Henry Ford gets to be President, on the Votes of how the Urban Elites were keeping down the honest American and his car, and by car, the 45mph capable Model T, that by 1918, was half of all the cars in the USA, and at this time was nearing on 12 million produced

28M voted in 1924, 17M for Republicans

Here, they would vote for Ford, who would run and ridding the US of laws like you propose

 

[DominusNovus]

No way in hell Congress - especially in 1926 - would pass a bill like that. Even if they did, Coolidge would veto it in a heartbeat.

I don’t think anyone seriously viewed setting city speed limits as the purview of Congress back then. I doubt you’d even find many that would now.

 

[fscott]

No way in hell Congress - especially in 1926 - would pass a bill like that. Even if they did, Coolidge would veto it in a heartbeat.

I don’t think anyone seriously viewed setting city speed limits as the purview of Congrss back then. I doubt you’d even find many that would now.

Yet Congress does.

 

[1940LaSalle]

Until relatively recent times, traffic laws were strictly the purview of individual states and municipalities. Congress, 90 years ago, would not touch anything of this sort. Sorry, but this one's a non-starter.

 

[fscott]

Until relatively recent times, traffic laws were strictly the purview of individual states and municipalities. Congress, 90 years ago, would not touch anything of this sort. Sorry, but this one's a non-starter.

1942 is not exactly recentl times

Also the Pennsylvania Turnpike was built with bonds guaranteed by the federal government it had a speed limit 35 miles an hour but I'm not sure if that was part of the mandate of the federal government as part of the guarantee to back the bonds. Since the service plazas were 35 miles roughly I think it was.

 

[DominusNovus]

1942 is not exactly recentl times

Feel free to enlighten us.

 

[DrakonFin]

If the scenario proposed in the OP happened for some strange reason, the result would be the European car industry riding roughshod over the American car makers, and many Americans travelling to Europe just to ride the German autobahns and experience those huge speeds in excess of 20 mph. The US would become seen as the backwater of motoring.

...Which would have been one of the arguments used to shoot down any calls for such ridiculous policies in America.

 

[Viper91]

I have to agree with others, this would need a much earlier POD to work effectively. By 1926 cars and the technology behind them where already so widespread and advanced that in order for this to work, you would essentially have to dismantle the US auto industry and forcibly confiscate millions of vehicles.

 

[nbcman]

1942 is not exactly recentl times

Also the Pennsylvania Turnpike was built with bonds guaranteed by the federal government it had a speed limit 35 miles an hour but I'm not sure if that was part of the mandate of the federal government as part of the guarantee to back the bonds. Since the service plazas were 35 miles roughly I think it was.

The speed limits set by the US Government in 1942 was a "Victory Speed Limit" set during WW2 (to conserve gas and tires) and was lifted after the end of the war. It wasn't until 1974 that the US Government set speed limits in response to the Oil Crisis. Having a 1926 Congress vote a 5 mph speed limit in without an extreme emergency is a non-starter-especially when Tin Lizzies were already capable of 40 mph.

 

[fscott]

Feel free to enlighten us.

Not much to enlighten federal government set a national speed limit of 35 miles an hour.

 

[Toraach]

If the scenario proposed in the OP happened for some strange reason, the result would be the European car industry riding roughshod over the American car makers, and many Americans travelling to Europe just to ride the German autobahns and experience those huge speeds in excess of 20 mph. The US would become seen as the backwater of motoring.

...Which would have been one of the arguments used to shoot down any calls for such ridiculous policies in America.

Rather italian autostradas Better climate, better views, more tourist atractions

 

[DominusNovus]

Not much to enlighten federal government set a national speed limit of 35 miles an hour.

The one mentioned by @nbcman ? I find that line of reasoning very unconvincing, as it was an emergency measure during total economic mobilization. There's no conceivable way you'd get the 1926 Congress in the same mindset, absent a World War. Further, when Congress finally did pass a national speed limit, it was really only relevant to highways. Not only that, but it was infamously not followed (over 80% noncompliance across many different states). Even further, my understanding is that the national speed limit of the 70s-90s was enforced through the classic 'do this or you don't get highway funding' technique that was clearly not available prior to federal highway funding.

Even in the late 20th century, an era far more amenable to expansive federal regulation than the 1920s, 55mph was hated. 5 mph in cities in any era? I honestly think at least one person who voted for it would be run down in a car going 5 mph, just to make a point.

 

[DrakonFin]

Rather italian autostradas Better climate, better views, more tourist atractions

One could see both. One could see most of Europe in a time it would take to drive across a single medium-sized state back in the US.

 

[Toraach]

One could see both. One could see most of Europe in a time it would take to drive across a single medium-sized state back in the US.

Contrary to what you think Europe isn't that small A single medium sized state in the US is probably like 250k km2, when Poland is now 320k km2, Italy nearly the same. France over 500k km2, Germany 350k km, Spain even slighly more.

 

[DrakonFin]

Contrary to what you think Europe isn't that small A single medium sized state in the US is probably like 250k km2, when Poland is now 320k km2, Italy nearly the same. France over 500k km2, Germany 350k km, Spain even slighly more.

But then in the US you would be travelling comparatively very, very slowly. At least if you followed the official speed limits. In truth, though, I believe in the case of the OP happening, breaking the ridiculously low speed limits would become a national pastime in America.

(I do know that driving across Europe takes some time. I live in a country that's geographically large in European context and has the smallest population density in the EU to boot. Driving from Helsinki to Utsjoki is a long day's work, even if one could go the national maximum speed limit of 120 km/h all the way. And most of the way all you see is trees, some lakes, and more trees.)

 

[Galba Otho Vitelius]

On the POD, you pretty much need a different cultural attitude towards the automobile and the streets in industrialized western countries. IOTL, everyone adopted the "streets are for cars" idea. A possible exception is Japan so I limit this remark to western industrialized countries. It is probably human nature that everyone views a new fast mode of transportation as Mr. Toad does, so this may be ASB. But for this to work, it has to be bottom up and not US federal legislation, people universally have to not embrace the car.

One POD might be more elitism, so that privately owned cars are a hobby for rich people and things just stay that way. Ford and his counterparts mass manufacture something else.

Also you might misunderstand suburbs. Post World War 2 suburbs were a cheap, quick way to solve a serious housing crisis, plus disperse the population so that people are not clustered in city centers when atomic bombs started dropping in what everyone expected to be the next war. The post World War 2 suburbs were car oriented because they could be developed quickly and cheaply without waiting for the streetcar lines extensions. They could do this because mass ownership of cars was happening anyway. You are still going to get the suburbs ITTL because the population fo the USA is still going to more than double between World War 2 and the present day and the extra population still has to go somewhere. But it will probably be a spidery pattern of suburbs strung out along long mass transit lines stretching deep into the countryside.

 

[CountDVB]

On the POD, you pretty much need a different cultural attitude towards the automobile and the streets in industrialized western countries. IOTL, everyone adopted the "streets are for cars" idea. A possible exception is Japan so I limit this remark to western industrialized countries. It is probably human nature that everyone views a new fast mode of transportation as Mr. Toad does, so this may be ASB. But for this to work, it has to be bottom up and not US federal legislation, people universally have to not embrace the car.

One POD might be more elitism, so that privately owned cars are a hobby for rich people and things just stay that way. Ford and his counterparts mass manufacture something else.

Also you might misunderstand suburbs. Post World War 2 suburbs were a cheap, quick way to solve a serious housing crisis, plus disperse the population so that people are not clustered in city centers when atomic bombs started dropping in what everyone expected to be the next war. The post World War 2 suburbs were car oriented because they could be developed quickly and cheaply without waiting for the streetcar lines extensions. They could do this because mass ownership of cars was happening anyway. You are still going to get the suburbs ITTL because the population fo the USA is still going to more than double between World War 2 and the present day and the extra population still has to go somewhere. But it will probably be a spidery pattern of suburbs strung out along long mass transit lines stretching deep into the countryside.

Well, there's other Asian locales as well, including Southeast Asia where cars aren't as impactful as they are here in the west.

Though the idea of only the elites owning the cares could take hold and instead have people support public transportation instead with cars eventually going to emergancy services.

How would suburbs look like in transit lines? Would we avoid urban sprawl?