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Write a response mini-essay of at least 150 to 300 words on one of the discussion topics identified. Take a position and defend it. (Specify a thesis and support it very briefly with evidence)
The response essay should provide one example from the contemporary world to support your
Position. Ideally you have a source reference for your example. You must have a source reference if you
Refer to any material which is neither common knowledge nor personal experience. essay should be typed using APA style feature with a title page and list of references if any are used.
Topics :
1.
The Automobile and the City Everything about the layout of the contemporary Canadian city is due to the automobile. Carriage ways have given way to urban thoroughfares. These in turn have speeded up traffic flow, but at a huge cost in social regulation. At the same time, the automobile itself is the single most dangerous stalker of Canadian streets, killing and injuring more people than anything else. Thinking about the tradeoffs identified in the article ( article attached) , determine if the automobile has been good or bad for Canadian cities.
2.
2. Changing technology and the changing city One of the points the arrival of the automobile indicates is how much a new technology changed the face of the city. If the Canadian city owes its origins to the railway, it is the automobile that has given it its current shape. What is true in both cases is that no one could have planned for or understood in advance the changes these technologies left behind. Currently the North American way of life is being affected by the new digital communication technologies. Do you see these as having an effect on the way cities develop in future? Why or why not? If so, in what way do you see these changes as likely to take place?
Abstract
“Reckless Walking Must Be Discouraged”:
The Automobile Revolution and the Shaping of Modem Urban Canada to 1930
Stephen Davies
The introduction of the automobile at
the tarn of the century revolutionized
all aspects of Canadian life from sound
and smell, to housing design, to street
patterns and congestion. In addition to
the physical changes brought about by
its presence, the automobile radically
altered established rural-urban
relationships, and its proliferation also
necessitated an increasing regulation of
society as a whole. Thus, given the wide
range of changes created by the
automobile, few Canadians remained
unaffected by its introduction in the
first decades of the 20th century.
Résumé
L’apparition de l’automobile au Canada à
l’aube du vingtième siècle a révolutionné
l’existence dans tous ses aspects, de la
qualité de l’air à l’environnement sonore
en passant par les grilles de rues, les types
d’habitat et… la congestion. Au delà des
transformations du cadre physique,
l’automobile a bouleversé les relations
entre le rural et l’urbain, et la
généralisation de son usage a resserré le
quadrillage réglementaire imposé à la
société dans son ensemble. L’éventail des
changements est tel que rares sont les
Canadiens qui sont restés à l’abri de leurs
effets.
“Civilization,” wrote Dr Frank Crane in 1918,
“is a matter of transportation. The true
symbol ot the twentieth century, the sign of
its soul, the indicator of its spirit, is the
wheel.” And, as Crane went on to argue, the
greatest adaptation of the wheel was the
automobile.’
In the three decades that followed its
introduction into Canada at the turn of the
century, the automobile revolutionized all
aspects of Canadian life. However, in a
society in which the presence of the
automobile has become an inseparable part
of daily life, the nature and magnitude of
change created by its rapid proliferation is
readily overlooked. The following is an
exploration of the automobile’s impact on
Canadian society during the first three
decades of the 20th century.^ One can easily
comprehend the physical alterations: road-
building, traffic signs, and the ever-growing
problem of congestion. But there is another
aspect to be considered, one which must be
balanced against the unbridled enthusiasm
and optimism of individuals such as Crane.
Change cannot always be directed or
controlled, and the automobile, like other
major innovations, also brought unanticipated
and, in many instances, undesired
consequences.
Net all change was as physically apparent
as, for example, the automatic traffic signals
that began to appear in Canadian cities
during the 1920s. There was also a crucial,
though less obvious, cultural and social
reorientation. What must not be overlooked is
an element of irony ccnnected with the
automobile’s proliferation, in that many of the
changes were the opposite of what the
auto’s introduction had promised. One of the
unforeseen by-products of the automobile’s
appeal was the increasing number of
restrictions and regulations imposed upon
the Canadian public. The growing array of
regulatory detail created one of the great
paradoxes of the automobile: a vehicle
ostensibly designed to increase freedom and
personal mobility could become a means for
The automobile’s mobility meani an escape from ihe cily to reereaiion areas removed from ihe urban environmeni.
However, as ihis riverside oaiside Toronia indicates, escape did noi necessarily mean soliiude. CTA. James 1237.
Í23 Urban History Review/Revue d’hisioiie urbaine Vol. XVIII. No. 2 (Odober 19i
Reckless Walking Must Be Discouraged
the increased restriction cf society. Rather The diffusion of the automobile in Canada The last years of World War I and the several From an economic point of view, an The attendant expansion in ownership meant Highway at Long Branch Park, an average of One overlooked alteration to the urban Even roads removed from the larger urban 124 Urbmt History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine Vol. XVIII, Nn. Reckless Walking Must Be Discouraged As automobile registrations increased, so too did urban traffic congesii.
competitor, the horse. CTA, James 1116.
I/I. But as this street scene from Toronto points out, the automobile did not immediately replace its nearest
125 Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine Vol XVIII, No. 2 (October ¡989) Reckless Walking Must Be Discouraged The automobile’s presence created an unprecedented need for the regulation oj cUy streets by the tune of the First World War. Significantly though, as this scene from Toronto irtdictaes,
it meant the regulation of pedestrian traffic as much as vehicular traffic. CTA, James 1008
126 Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine VoL XVIII, Afe. Reckkss Walking Must Be Discouraged
Guelph-Owen Sound Road saw the number The decline of horse-drawn vehicles was Traffic congestion by the automobile was not By the end of the first decade of the century, greatest concentration of automobiles in Growing automobile congestion meant that Yet even as the Canadian Motorist was Vehicles should be prohibited from Automobile parking was only part of the
larger crisis imposed on urban planning by
the automobile’s presence. Civic In 1926 Toronto’s chief constable, still 127 Urban Hislory Review/Revue d’kisloire urbaine Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (October I9S9) Reckless Walking Must Be Discota-aged
Such alterations provided the city of 1930 One of the rarely considered legacies of the The merits of such an arrangement has Thus along with the more obvious changes The automobile’s introduction had, however 387 motor fatalities, a figure that represented 35
The cities had the most lethal concentration The new element of danger did not pass Playgrounds are becoming more a Hamilton had established its first playground Should we encourage properly Playgrcunds, like the addition of automatic The evert physical alteration of the urban However because of the inherently 128 Urban Hisiory Review/Revue d’hisioire urbaine Vol. XVIII. No. 2 Ü Reckless Walking Must Be Discouraged the countryside became the logical looation The aftraction of the rural environment for the Who is the owner of an aufomobile who Moreover, the opportunities opened by the industrialized era, automobiles provided a The automobile had become a presence on Canadian streets by 1910. though often the streets themselves left much to be desired. CTA, James 41.
129 Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire tirbaine Vol. XVm. No. 2 (October 1989) Reckless Walking Must Be Discouraged and urban interests to create the “middle Copywriters often waxed eloquent about the There’s a shady woodland nook awaiting A Ford advertisement nine years earlier had Nature’s loveliest beauty spots, Such advertisements, while seemingly more Advertisements with an outdoor theme did some inviting spot amid the beauties of City streets for a playground, or the open Thus the assessment that the countryside Advertisers did not so much create the With the new relationship fostered by the view. Oertainly one would never surmise from The fascination with space, particularly with 130 Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine Vol. XVIII, Nn. 2 ù Reckless Walking Must Be Discouraged of space and spatial diversity, as well as an Until the 1920s in Ontario, when the The unwary traveller might pass through Since the post office at Green River The indigenous population, however, there already existed a cleariy defined local One further paradox ot the automobile was In any consideration ot the mobility and Judging trom police reports and newspaper Ontario’s aotions to deal with motorists in 131 Urban History Review/Reme d’hisloire urbaine Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (October 1989) Reckkss Walking Must Be Discouraged , these service .Mionsfrom the 1920s indicate, the mtc .monpart ojthepos,-Wo,id Wa, One cityscape. CTA. SC48S-3653.
132 Urban History Rcvicw/Revue d’histoire urbaine Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (a Reckkss Walking Must Be Discouraged nucleus of all subsequent motor vehicle In Ontario the Motor Vehicles Act of 1912 Legislation such as the 1912 act rejected the While the provincial legislatures gradually What emerged from this delegation of society. The Canadian Motorist pointed out in
1914:
Regulations governing the use of motor In February 1915 the same journal noted Automobile legislation was unique in an 133 Urban Hisfury Review/Revue d’kisioire urbaine Vol. XVIII. No. 2 (October 1989) Reckless Walking Must Be Discouraged fhe furn of the century, each claiming priority has the first right cf the road. The Yet within a decade, as the number of motor not yet graduated from the parochial, or Education alone did not appear tc have a Toronto polioe pointed out that 75 per oent of By 1920 changes were undenway to redefine The sooner this House or the cities wake Biggs, a bcisterous good-roads advocate By the onset of the Great Depression, decisions, the long-term consequences of 134 Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine Vol. XVIII. No. 2 (Oçt Reckkss WaUdng Must Be Discouraged
SINE S GARAGE L LI VERY RED INDIAN HI-TEST
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^ »UTO
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AUTO I urbar, History R«ie.lRe,ue ä’histoire urbairu: Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (October 1989, Reckless Walking Must Be Discouraged Appendix I 1903-30.*
Year Registrations
1903 178 1 176 11 339 101 845 • These figures include the number of Source; Ontario, Sessional Papers. Appendix 2
Province
Saskatchewan
Manitoba Number
5 773 17 750 35 Motor Vehicles 1:94
1:100 Source: Canadian Motorist (April 1914); 168.
Appendix 3 1903-30*
Year
1903 1 176 13 775 115 596 1 030 880 Notes
* Passenger automobiies aiso include taxi cabs.
Source; Historical Statistics of Canada, 2nd ed..
Series T 148.
Canadian Motorist (hereafter CM) (June 1918): 387.
The termination date of 1930 has been chosen Edward Sapir, “Culture, Genuine and Spurious,” Ontario, Sessional Papers, 1942, Annual Report of the C/W (April 1914): 168.
Preiiminary Report: Registration ol Motor Vehicles, Ibid.
Don Kerr and Stan Hanson, Saskatoon: The First Tfte Automobiie Industry in Canada 1924 The Automobile Industry in Cardada 1921 (Ottawa. 136 Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine Vol XVIII, No. _’ ‘ Reckkss Walking Must Be Discouraged Ontario, Sessional Papers. 1 9 2 3 , President’s A d d r e s s , O n t a r i o , Sessional Papers. 1 9 1 5 , A n n u a l R e p o r t o n Q n t a r i o , Sessional Papers. 1 9 1 5 , A n n n u a l Report o n Report of the Toronto and York Roads Commission O n t a r i o , Sessionai Papers, 1915, A n n u a l R e p o r t o n T h e rise of t h e a u t o m o b i l e at t h e e x p e n s e of t h e A n n u a l R e p o r t of t h e Chief C o n s t a b l e of t h e City of
Toronto, 1 9 0 7 , 1 9 1 0 .
20 CM (Feb. 1918); 71 ; J . H . Taylor, Ottawa: An iilustrated 21 C/W (July 1918): 4 4 5 .
^2 CiW ( D e o . 1916): 4 9 6 .
23 Annual Report ot the Chiet Constable ot the City of 2′ ibid.. 1927.
25 J a m e s L e m o n , “Tracey D e a v i n L e m a y : Toronto’s First 25 Blaine B r o w n e l l , ” U r b a n P l a n n i n g , t h e Planning 2′ /otó, 69.
39 Annual Report ot the Chief Constable of the City of 3′ Taylor, O t t a w a : 4 8 .
3^ Report of the Advisory City Planning Commission 33 C/W (Oct. 1915): 345.
3″ CM (Sept. 1915): 3 0 6 . T h e Canadian Motorist a l s o 35 Deaths Due to Motor Vehicle Aooidents ( O t t a w a .
1934),
36 tbid.. Annual Report ot the Chiet Constable of the City 3? Deaths Due to Motor Vehicle Accidents ( O t t a w a ,
1934).
38 M a c / e a n s (July 1 9 1 3 ) .
33 Hamilton Times. 6 July 1918.
“0 Hamilton Spectator. 27 Feb. 1923.
•” Hamilton Spectator. 6 M a y 1 9 2 4 .
« B r o w n e l l : 7 2 .
« G/ofae, 21 M a r c h 1 9 0 8 .
“̂ A n analysis of Macleans a d v e r t i s i n g s h o w s that rural *^ R o l a n d M a r c h a n d , Advertising i/ie American Dream
(Berkeley. 1985): 10.
•’S A,T. Poffenberger, Psychology in Advertising ( C h i c a g o . “” Saturday Evening Post (hereafter SEP) ( 1 5 M a r c h “B T h e t e r m ” m i d d l e l a n d s c a p e ” is f r o m P.D. Goist, From “9 Macleans {^ M a y 1929).
50 Mac/eans(15 0ct. 1920).
5> Macleans ( J u n e 1924).
5̂ Canadian Magazine ( M a y 1924).
53 M a c f e a n s (July 1924).
^ /Wacteans (July 1913).
5̂ J o s e p h Interrante, Y o u Can’t G o To T o w n i n a 137 Urban Hisiory Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine Vol. XVIII, /Vo. 2 (October 1989} Reckkss Walkmg Must Be Discouraged
Wolfgang Shivelbusch, The Railway Journey: Trahs
and Travel in Ihe 19th Century (New York, 1979):
2 5 – 2 7 .
Siegfried Gideon, ” T h e N e w S p a c e C o n c e p t i o n :
S p a c e – T i m e , ” in Aspects ot Time. ed. C. A. Patndes
(Manchesler, 1 9 7 6 ) : 8 5 .
P.E. Doolittle, ” T h e Pleasure of Erecting Road Signs,”
C M (April 1914): 146-47,
ËI For an examination of t h e urban “strip” in light of the
physical, architectural, a n d e c o n o m i c characteristics
peculiar to it, see R.P. Horowitz, The Strip (Lincoln,
Neb., 1985).
63 J a m e s G r a n t h a m , ” T h e Law a n d the Motor,”
/ W a c t e a n s ( M a y l 9 1 4 ) : 2 9 .
63 Macleans (1 May 1927); Canadian Magazine
(April 1927).
G’t SEP (24 Sept. 1921).
es S £ P (26 M a y 1923).
66 Hamilton Herald, 14 J u n e 1911 ; Harrtilton Herald,
19 A u g . 1912.
6′ G r a n t h a m 30.
68 T h e 1 9 2 3 act consolidated t h e various disparate
streams of automobile legislation into a single
c o h e s i v e unit. Under the one act w e r e c o m b i n e d the
Motor Vehicles Act a n d its a m e n d e d acts, the Loan of
Vehicles Act a n d its a m e n d e d acts, the Traction
Engines A c l , a n d the Highway Travel Act. In doing so,
the one act incorporated virtually every c o n c e i v a b l e
n u a n c e of motorized vehicle legislation. T h e act itself
was divided into ten sections: two of the largest w e r e
c o n c e r n e d with vehicles – the first was broken d o w n
into 26 separate sections a n d subsections, outlining
items from registration p r o c e d u r e s to details of proper
licence plate display, a n d the s e c o n d , the equipment
section, with 32 sections a n d subsections, defined the
physical necessities ot the automobile including
brakes, mirrors, tires, a n d mufflers. 13-14 G e o . V, c.
4 8 . S. 67.; 13-14 Geo- V, c. 48, S. 3-16,
69 2 G e o , V, c. 4 8 , S. 2 6 .
‘O The information required for a chauffeur’s licence, for
example, included the now standard personal
questions such as age, weight, height, and eye and
hair colour. It also included, however, questions
concerning a criminal record, the use of alcohol, and
whether or not the individual was addicted to the use
of morphine or other drugs. CM (January 1914): 9.
” Geo. VII, c. 47, S. 2.
‘2 CM (Aug. 1914): 319.
” CM (Feb. 1915): 40.
”” CM (Feb, 1916): 38.
5̂ CM (May 1916): 163.
‘6 Toronlo Daily Star. 10 March 1910.
” CM (Aug. 1916): 292,
‘8 CM (Jan. 1923): 31, CM (March 1924): 119.
9̂ CM (Jan. 1925): 19.
80 CM (Jan. 1 9 2 3 ) ‘ 3 1 .
si Ontario, Legislative A s s e m b l y , Debates, 8 M a r c h
1 9 2 1 .
83 C M (Feb. 1923): 8 9 ,
¡38 Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine VoL XVIII, No. ‘> Copyright of Urban History Review / Revue d’Histoire Urbaine is the property of Becker Associates and its
content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s
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than creating freedom, the automobile
created the myth of carefree moforing.
Mobility must not be confused with, ncr
mistal
prior to 1930 was phenomenal. Ontario
enjoyed the distinction of having the highest
number of passenger vehicles of any
province. Thus it was often in Onfario that
changes, generally en a scale greater than in
the other provinces, were first observable.
The 535 automobiles registered in Ontario in
1904 increased to 31,724 by 1914,155,861
by 1920, 303,736 by 1925,and 490,906 by
1930.” The number of autos remained
considerably lower in the other provinces, but
at the outbreak of World War 1 Ontario rani
years immediately following it represented
the crucial period of expansion for
automobile ownership in Canada. That
growth can be attributed to a combination of
both intellectual and economic factors. At
one level the automobile’s rapid spread
reflected an alteration cf perceptions
regarding its role in Canadian society By the
1920s it was no longer simply a rich man’s
toy and had been transfcrmed, as the
Canadian Motorist argued in 1915, into a
necessity rather than a luxury.^
important consideration was the effect the
war had on the automobile’s rise in numbers.
Wartime inflation and demand had increased
automobile prioes in Canada, but that rise
was more than offsef by higher wages. By
1920 automobile prices had begun to drop.
This decline, and the introduction of new
financing plans, such as that extended by
GMAC beginning in 1919, stimulated
automobile purchases. In the four years
following 1920, the selling price of the
average automobile dropped by
approximately 38 per cent.s In fact
automobiie prices dropped continuously
throughout the 1920s. The average selling
prioe for an automobile in 1921 was $906, a
figure which declined fo $695 by 1926.10
a physical alteration of the urban landscape
in one manner or another The most obvious
change was the increased number of
vehicles visible on the streets of Canada’s
cities. As registrations rose, so too did traffic
ccngestion. While the growth of the former
was generally lauded as concrete proof of
the country’s progress, the latter was
accepted as an unfortunate by-product of
that progress. A ccmparison cf traffic on
Dundas Street ten miles west of Toronto in
1908 and 1912 graphically illustrates the
changes in traffic patterns wrought by the
automobile. In a ten-hcur period in mid
August 1908, one site on Dundas witnessed
the passing of six aufomobiles. By 1912, 382
automobiles passed fhat same spot within
the ten-hour period, leading the president of
the Ontario Good Roads Association to
remark how the automobile had
“revolutionized traftio conditions
everywhere.”!’ Yet the true revolution was yet
to come, as comprehensive traffic surveys
conducted in 1914 and 1922 demonstrate. In
these studies more than 200 stations were
monitored on various roads throughout
southern Ontario during the summer months.
Two examples suffice tc convey a sense of
how dramatioally traffic had increased in only
eight years. Cn the Toronto-Hamilton
268.8 automobiles a day passed in 1914,
with the maximum for one day reaching 382.
That same spot in 1922 witnessed an
average of 8,236.4 automobiles a day, with a
maximum of 12,296 on Labour Day A survey
conducted af Fruitland, on the Hamilton-
Niagara Road, arrived at similar figures. In
1914 that road bore an average of 189
vehicles a day, with a one-day high of 253.
By 1922 the traffic passing the same spot
had risen to a daily average of 2,849.8 with a
one-day maximum ot 5,030.’^ Taken
together traffic surveys and registration
figures create some understanding of the
physical implications of the automobile.
Undoubtedly it heralded an age cf personal
mobility, but it also introduced a new range of
problems, of which increased fraffic flow and
the resultant congestion were only a part.
environment, and indeed to the oountry as a
whole, was the decline ot the automobile’s
nearest competitor, the horse. The traffic
censuses of Ontario conducted in 1914,
1922, and 1925 give some notion of the shift
undenway At Port Credit on the Toronto-
Hamilton Highway, the daily average of
horse-drawn vehicles in 1914 was 158.7,
which by 1922 had declined to 25.3.13 in
Toronto the change was even more startling.
A sun/ey cf traffic on Dundas Sfreef at Bloor
in 1914 showed 349 automobiles and 248
horse-drawn vehicles passing in a day By
1925 the daily total of aufomobiles had risen
to 7,943, while horse-drawn vehicles had
declined to a mere 15. “One noticeable
feature of this tabulation.” noted the Toronto
and York Road Commission, whioh had
undertaken the Dundas and Bloor survey “is
the constant dwindling, almost to the
vanishing point, cf horse-drawn fraffic on the
main roads, pointing to the conclusion that
the main roads of the future must be
designed primarily tor motor traffic.”!”
centres witnessed a decline of horse-drawn
vehicles. For instance, a survey on the
of horse-drawn vehicles decline to 30.2 per
day in 1922 from a level of 39.0 in 1914.i5
The declines varied from area to area and
were sometimes only slight, particularly in
predominantly agricultural areas. At best the
number of horse-drawn vehicles in use
remained static in the face of a rising
population.’^
indicative of fundamental changes taking
place in cities, towns, and villages. The
movement from horse to horseless carriage
meant that urban life acquired a quicker
pace in the first decades of the 20th century.
Along with this faster pace of life, the
dominance of the automobile meant a
distinct change in urban sights, sounds, and
smell. Taken together, such changes had
created by 1930 a greatly altered urban
environment.
a significant problem in Canada prior to
1910. The chief constable of Toronto
reported in 1907 no problems with
congestion, though he was perturbed about
automobile speeding. A 1910 report on
transit in Toronto could still conclude that, as
for ordinary vehicular traffic, there existed no
“extraordinary congestion.””
however, indications were already present
that increasing automobile traffic was to have
a serious impact on Canadian cities. As the
Civic Improvement Committee for Toronto
reported in 1911, problems engendered by
the automobile’s proliferation were becoming
increasingly clear The report noted that a
“courageous endeavor” was required if the
transportation problem was not to prove
detrimental to the interests of the city.’s
Apparently this growing apprehension had
some effect, for in 1913 members of the
Toronto police force were sent to New York
City and London, England, to learn how to
handle traffic more effectively” Though
concern was not limited to Toronto, it had the
Canada and generally experienced problems
of congestion first and to a greater degree.
Even Ottawa, which had less than 1,900
automobiles at the end ot V\/orld War I, was
reporting serious traffic problems by 1923.2°
two new topics had come to the fore in
urban planning. One was where to park
vehicles and the other was how to keep
them moving quickly and efficiently By 1916
the Canadian Motorist, a publication
representing motorists aoross Oanada, was
noting how parking was a problem for all
urban centres. “The automobile,” the
Canadian Motorist editorial pointed out, “is a
latecomer in the general scheme of things
and the best must be made of inadequate
parking facilities. Cities of the future no doubt
will be planned in such a way as to provide
for the parking of cars in convenient and
accessible parts of the business district.”2i
putting forward its case, the Toronto City
Council, equally aware of the problem, had
already designated streets where parking
was permissible. On all other streets, in an
effort to reduce traffic slowdown, drivers
could be given a summons by the police for
leaving their automobiles unattended tor
more than a few minutes.22 This approach,
however, offered little more than a temporary
solution. Toronto’s chief constable lamented
in 1926 that the city’s streets were “just an
open air garage.”23 By the following year the
problem had intensified, prompting the chief
constable to call for a strict enforcement of
parking bylaws:
standing unattended in that district
[downtown] or for a period longer than
necessary to take on or discharge
passengers, or load or unload
merchandise.^*
bureaucracies became increasingly
preoccupied, from World War I onwards, with
the problems created by automobile traffic.^s
As Blaine Brownell has argued in the case of
the United States, and it is a point equally
applicable to the Canadian situation, one by-
product of the automobile’s rapid spread was
a significant evolution in urban planning.26
Planning for the automobile was, according
to Brownell, an evolutionary process,
whereby “most planners perceived at least
the broad outlines of the motor vehicle’s
impact, and even the necessity of
redesigning the city to accommodate the
innovation.”2′ In that context the automobile
held yet another unexpected influence, since
the growing necessity for traffic planning
helped advance the status — not to mention
the business — of urban planning and
consulting.28
concerned with regulating traffic in the city,
introduced recommendations that would
quickly and permanently alter the urban form.
Noting that traffic problems were common in
most cities, he suggested “Mechanical
Automatic Controls” for all street
intersections in the downtown Toronto area.^’
Acting on that recommendation, in 1928
Toronto installed automatic traffic signals at
71 intersections.^” In addition, given the
realization that, as the chief constable
expressed it, “our present streets were not
laid out with any idea of the amount of traffic
they would be called upon to carry.”
recommendations were put forward to
improve traffic flow by revising existing street
patterns. That trend had been underway in
many cities since the early 1920s. Ottawa’s
planning commission, for example, had been
busy throughout the decade “rounding
corners” to facilitate a faster movement of
traffic.3′ Toronto’s planning commission
responded in a similar fashion to the new
problems of the automobile, noting that the
primary need of the city was the
development of a series of through and
paved streets for modern vehicular traffic.^^
with a look that unmistakably distinguished it
in appearance from the city that had existed
only two decades previously.
automobile has been its impact on the form
of urban residential structures. “As an
architectural unit,” the Canadian Motorist
argued in 1915, ” the garage ¡s rapidly
coming into its own.”33 The automobile
garage was not merely a useful accessory
but by 1915 was touted as an essential
component of housing design. Carages were
no longer an afterthought but were being
integrated into new housing structures
whenever possible. This integration had,
according to the Canadian Motorist, gained
favourable acceptance. As the journal noted:
gained wide popularity for this style of a
garage. In the new residential districts cf
our Canadian cities thousands of such
are to be seen. Sometimes they are
located under verandas and porches,
frequently under conservatories, sun
rooms, dens, breakfast rooms, etc. When
so located they are, of course, part of the
architectural scheme of the house –
indeed part of the house itself. ‘̂’
in street appearance and structure, the
automobile ushered in a new era of housing
design whereby residential structures were
altered or entirely redesigned tc
accommodate the new technology
far more serious implications than the
transformation of housing styles. Its presence
introduced a new element of risk and
destruction to Canadian streets, for as the
number of automobiles grew, so too did the
number of related deaths and injuries. By the
late 1920s Ontario, with the largest
automobile population in the country, was
experiencing the highest number of such
fatalities. In 1927 for example Ontario had
more than 40 per cent of Canada’s
automobile-related deaths. In terms of fatal
motor accidents per 100,000 persons,
Ontario with 12.1 ranked second behind
British Columbia (with 13.4). With a
significantly smaller population than Ontario,
however, British Columbia had only 77 such
fatalities.
of motor vehicles. Although Toronto
experienced only one motor fatality in 1907,
the number had reached 17 by 1912, 48 by
1922, and 87 by 1927.36 j h u s , in 1927
Toronto accounted for more than 10 per cent
of the country’s total number of deaths
related to motor vehicles. And yet Tcrcnto did
not have the highest number of urban
automobile fatalities. Montreal held that
dubious distinction with 126 deaths. Nearly
one-quarter of all Canadian automobile
fatalities occurred in the two cities.37 Such
was the paradoxical nature of the automobile
that a vehicle which promised increased
freedom and mobility also meant death and
injury for thousands.
unnoticed. When, in 1913, advertisements for
the Hupmobile pointed out that the
countryside was “better cleaner and safer
than city streets,” it was net merely
advertising rhetoric.38 City streets had
become dangerous, particularly for children.
Inspired by the presence of the automobile,
and partly as an aftempt to instill a degree of
moral and social guidance in the young, local
playground movements developed in the
early 20th century. In an editorial
ccmmenting on the opening of a new
playground in 1918, a Hamilton newspaper
underscored the role which the automobile
had played:
necessity than ever The automobile and
the motor truck have driven the children
oft the streets.39
in 1909, but the streets, as advertisers
pointed out, nevertheless remained a
dangerous place for children. Even with the
establishment of subsequent playgrounds
throughout the city, Hamilton children, as did
the children of al! urban centres, continued to
fall victim to the automobile. From January to
September 1922, 789 street accidents
occurred in that city. Of those, 162 involved
children under the age of 14, of whom 41
were injured while playing on the streets.
From June to August that year automobile
accidents claimed the lives cf six Hamilton
children.”” Influenced by the growing number
of fatalities an editorial queried:
supervised playgrounds, or, by neglect,
make of the streets unhealthy “plague”
grounds, a menace to the safety and
sanity of child life?<'
traftic signals or the newly designated traftic
routes, contributed to a new look for the
urban environment of the post-1920 period.
Many of the physical changes caused by the
automobile were minor or of a subtle nature,
but their cumulative effect was to alter the
Canadian city by 1930.
environment was only part of a much wider
societal transformation created by the
automobile’s presence. The automobile, or
more specifically the new mobility provided
by the automobile, caused a reassessment
and reorientation of established spatial
norms. Of all the changes brought about by
the automobile, the alteration of established
spatial relationships, particularly the
relationship between rural and urban society,
perhaps held the greatest consequences.
Within a relatively short period of time the
automobile became synonymous with a new
freedom of space, distance, and speed.
restrictive nature of the urban environment.
to experience the new boundaries cf mobility
as defined by the automobile. The rural
environment’s suitability as an outlet for
automobile mobility was often augmented by
urban planning which, as Blaine Brownell
has pointed out, de-emphasized the truly
revolutionary nature of fhaf mobility. Urban
arteries were often designed on the infiexible
models cf rail transit systems whioh failed to
exploit the range of fhe automobiie’s mobility
to the degree possible in a rural environment.
Major street and highway plans emerged
from the urban core in a line arrangement
which, as Browneii noted, stifled the
automobile’s capacity for iaferal mobility.”̂
Such designs, ccupled with speed
restrictions obligatory in an urban
environment, meant that it beoame virtually
impossible to experience, legally the
sensations of rapidly diminishing space or to
feel the exhilarating freedom of speed in the
city; the rural environment with its open
spaces and unchecked speeds became the
ideal location to experience the full potential
of fhe automobile’s ability for spatial
reorientation.
urban dweller was not based solely on the
possibilities of speed. While the countryside
represented the appeal of the outdoors with
all the associated virtues (independence,
open spaoe, and a slower pace of iife), the
automobile remained the key to enjoying
those virtues. A1908 article in the Toronto
Giobe rhetorically asked its readers.
has not many a time used it to hurry far
away from the madding orowd to the
quiet spots of nature, where he can
breathe freely and receive the endiess
inspirations of fine scenery?”^
automobile were themes reinforced by fhe
advertising process. Automobile advertising
placed an emphasis on the virtues of rural
spaoe, forming a crucial element in the
renegotiation of the rural-urban relationship.
Automobiles were portrayed as the means of
escape from the urban maelstrom – they held
out the hope of tranquiiity in a hurried world.
In an increasingly urbanized and
tenuous reaftirmation of urban sooiety’s
pastoral links. The emphasis on the
automobile as a souroe of mobility,
particularly as a mechanism of escape from
fhe oity, biossomed into a fasoinafion for fhe
countryside. This feafure is particularly
apparent in automcbiie advertisement after
1920.”^ Advertisements prior to 1910 were
generaiiy based on objective information
concerning the produot, whioh emphasized
features, price, and performance. By 1914
adverfisers had begun, as Roland Marchand
points out, “to appreciate the advantage of
selling the benefit instead of the product.””^
The new direction was an attempt by
manufacturers and advertisers alike not only
to seil a produot but also to shape
consumer’s desires, so muoh so that by
1920 it had become common for advertising
firms fc hire psychological ccnsultanfs.”^
Mobility was promoted as a familial
necessity, for without an automobile,
according to Chevrolet, a family became
“prisoners on a limited range – like hobbled
horses in a pasture.””‘ Given that philosophy
as their guide, manufacturers also fused rural
landscape,” which was increasingly apparent
in automobile advertising illustrations.”^
joys to be tound in the non-urban
environment. Some appeais were
straightforward. One Chevrolet advertisement
in 1929 reminded the reader:
you. Beside the blue waters ot a placid
lake are rest and relaxation. A laughing,
leaping brooi< is calling you to come!
Break down the barriers of everyday.
There's happiness ahead."
enticed the reader “out beyond the
pavement” to “the unexplored woodlands
and remote farmlands.” The automobile
became a necessity to explore such areas,
for as Ford pointed out:
her choicest hunting grounds are far
removed from the railroads, away from
the much travelled highways.̂ f̂
contrived than effective, were nevertheless
based on a belief that the automobile and the
countryside were intimately linked, and that
the countryside was the suitable outlet for the
automobile’s potential. Thus a slogan such
as Overland’s “the owner of an Overland
owns all out of doors” was not entirely
advertising hype — it expressed concisely
and clearly the notion of freedom of mobility
believed to be intrinsic to automobile
ownership.^’
more than comment on the superiority of the
outdoors: by implication, if the rural
environment was healthy, the urban
environment must be unhealthy. A Chevrolet
advertisement in 1924 urged readers to
escape “from the dust of the city” to where
one could “drive through the fresh air to
nature.”52 Some advertisements were more
forceful in denouncing the city, juxtaposing
the benefits of the country with the iiabilities
of the city, and making the choice between
the two appear obvious. That year Ford
asked potential consumers, “which shall it be
this summer?” and then went on to lay out
two choices:
country where the air is perfumed with the
scent of growing things and the butterflies
dance in the sunshine? The Ford oar is
the friend of childhood — the modern
Magic Oarpet that will transport them and
you from the baking asphalt to the shady
country lanes whenever you wish to go.53
represented an environment that was,
according to Hupmobiie, “better, cleaner and
safer than city streets” was not simple
advertising rhetoric, particularly in light of the
death toll previously discussed.s”
contrast between urban and rural
environments as they exploited themes
already prevalent in society and adopted
them as marketing techniques. And, as the
ease of travel from one locale to another by
the automobile created a greater interaction
between the two environments, comparisons
were made increasingly easy By contrasting
the two environments, advertisers reinforced
the differences, real and imagined, between
the two.
automobile came a growing interchange
between urban and rural areas,
characterized by an increased enthusiasm
for the rural environment by the urban
population. That new relationship manifested
itself in many ways throughout Canadian
society, particularly through advertising.
However, the advertisements presented a
naive interpretation of rural space, one seen
almost exclusively from an urban point of
the advertisements that there was a conflict
over the use of rural space, the controversy
of workplace versus playground. Yet for the
rural population, the Intrusion of motorists
was a concern. According to Joseph
Interrante. motor touring was seen by
farmers as an invasion by upper-class
urbanités, and the resulting conflicts were
struggles over the definition and use of rural
space.55
the ability to traverse increasingly larger
distances, made the country appear, in
relative terms, smaller The redefinition of
spatial boundaries had many unforeseen, but
not necessarily unwelcome, impiications.
Limited mobility had meant limited
accessibility to non-urban environments for a
significant proportion of the population, which
in turn created a perception of the
countryside as a homogeneous, but little
understood, environment. For city dwellers
before the automobile age, the countryside
could seem a jumble of farms, forests, and
open spaces, images often culled second-
hand from a variefy of sources. For many the
sense of the countryside was the product of
glimpses obtained on a railway journey, but
the sharp linearity of the railway removed the
individual from the true irregularity of the rural
environment, alienating the Individual from
the landscape through which he or she
passed.56 The automobile, by contrast, made
the rural landscape generally accessible and
removed the barriers between the traveller
and the landscape. A realization that the
countryside could no longer be considered a
homogeneous entity came with the
increased contact made possible by the
automobile. The automobile replaced
impressions with new specifics of spatial
awareness. A more profound contact was
essentiai for a proper appreciation of the
nature of the rurai environment, for. as
Siegfried Gideon has pointed out, “In order to
grasp the true nature of space the observer
must project himself through it.”5′ The
automobile meant an enhanced appreciation
expansion of traditional boundaries whioh,
when considered collectively, redetined the
idea ot the “countryside” in the early 1920s.
The irony was that iust as urban tamilies
came to experience the countryside, they
changed it.
provincial government assumed
responsibility tor highway traffic and
locational signs, private crganizaticns such
as the Ontario Motor League undertook the
task ot erecting signs throughout the
province. Road signing to aid touring
motorists often unintentionally altered the
character of rural society. Sign campaigns
threatened a sense ot identity which for
many small rural communities had remained
unchanged for years betöre the coming ot
the automobile. Illustrative ot this possible
consequenoe of the mctor league’s sign
efforts was the case of Green River, Ont.:
and go for miles beyond still looking tor it,
did he not know that the church set
among the trees on one side of the
stream and the small general store on the
opposite side ot the stream, eaoh hidden
trom the other, were two positive
evidences that it was a village.*«
displayed no sign, the members ot the motor
league arbitrarily decided where to place a
name sign announcing the village, a
necessary step “so that the travelling tourist
might know when he came to certain
villages.”59
displayed little enthusiasm tor the process.
When a nearby farmer was asked whether it
was an appropriate place tor a Green River
sign, he replied, “Well, beys, I guess it is as
good as any as the store and post office are
across the crick.”™ The apparent
indifference ot local inhabitants was
understandable, given that injheir minds
identity ot plaoe and oiroumstance, even it it
went unsigned. Although identity had been
looal and unoffioial, it none the less had been
sufficient tor those who lived and worked in
the immediate environment. It signs did net
oréate an identity tor such communities, they
did so tor outside interests suoh as touring
motorists. Signs, and the motorists they
served, meant that communities suoh as
Green River were slowly integrated into the
wider fabric of provincial lite with their “new”
identity. But in turn such communities were
foroed to sacrifice some ot the local identity
that relative isolation and anonymity had
provided.
that while it expanded spatial accessibility it
simultaneously debased space. A desire to
be outdoors and away trom the oity meant
that the inten/ening space (the transitional
spaoe between rural and urban
environments) became important only so tar
as it represented a zone to be traversed to
reach one’s ultimate goal. Intervening
transitional spaoe was devalued as an
inoreased range of mobility extended
aooessible locations turther trom the urban
environment. Whereas the transitional zone
had once been important tor leisure activity,
being the area oomtortably reached by
personal non-meohanized transportation, the
inoreased mobility provided by the
automobile, as well as the expansion ot the
oity, removed the aesthetioally desirable
leisure areas turther trom the city. What had
onoe been a destination beoame simply a
transitional zone for motorists eager to
escape towns and cities tor a day or a
holiday Transitional zones had not yet
assumed the identity ot “the strip,”
characteristic ot the urban fringe in the
seoond hait ot the 20th-century, but
boundaries became prcgressively blurred as
they exhibited characteristics ot bcth urban
and rural environments but belonged to
neither.6′
treedom provided by the automobile, the
question ot speed is crucial. Speed, and the
tascination with it, were integral parts ot the
early 20th-oentury ccnsciousness. And the
automobile was. as Macleans noted in 1914,
“the sign ot a quicker-moving age.”«^ Speed
naturally became an important selling teature
(tor some manufacturers the prime selling
point) in automobile advertising. The Auburn
billed itselt as “America’s Fastest Stock Car,”
while the Willys-Knight pointed out that its
six-oylinder model “Accelerates like a Flash
— 5 to 40 miles in 1 Vk seoonds.”^’ Under
the headline “One Hundred Horsepower is
Waiting Your Oommand.” the manutacturers
ot the Latayette traded on the lure of speed,
boldly guaranteeing drivers that “No one oan
keep ahead ot you it you only choose to go
around. No one can pass you.”6” Likewise
the Stephens cited its easy leap to 60 miles
per hour “when you need acceleration — or
want exhilaration.”66
aooounts, owners certainly were partaking ot
the sensations a speeding auto provided. It
soon became apparent that regulation was
necessary to oheck the appetite tor speed.
By 1911 Hamilton employed plain olothes
policemen on the city’s thcroughtares to time
the speed ot, and to apprehend, offending
“buzz wagons.” Shortly thereaffer the
Hamilton police resorted to using officers
disguised as tramps in order to time
suspected speeders, an eariy instance ot
unmarked speed traps.™ Despite official
checks and traps, the public’s thirst for speed
appeared unquenched. The difficulty lay in
controlling the belief that, as it was expressed
in Macleans, “the automobile has been
invented in vain it it is to be torbidden to
travel quickly”6′
general, and not iust speeding drivers, were
typical of the regulatory revolution that the
country as a whole undenwent. In 1903 the
province introduoed its tirst motor vehicles
act (3 Edw. VII c.27) which formed the
mbiic introduced ne« physical/orrm which became a M
legislation. The 1903 act ccnsisted of 12
sections; 7 were concerned with
administrative details and the remaining 5
dealt with items such as speed limits. By
1912 the Motor Vehicles Act cf Ontario had
expanded to 55 sections, and by 1923 to 227
sections, subsections, and clauses; this
expansion highlighted the province’s growing
concern for all aspects of automobile use.
Motor vehicle acts as inclusive as the one in
1912, and particularly that of 1923, ensured
that motoring relinquished much ot the
simplicity that had characterized its
introducticn. Driving was no longer a matter
of paying a registration fee and taking the
vehicle directly onto the road. Despite a lack
of testing or licensing requirements for the
general public, driving was gradually
transformed into an involved affair; it became
difticult to have more than a rudimentary
understanding of all the legislation bearing on
tbe operation of a motor vehicle.^^
represented a turning point in the relationship
between the motorist and the province, or
more appropriately between the public and
private spheres. Through various aspects of
the act, government Intruded into private life.
According to the act, for example, notice cf
any conviction was to be filed with the
Provincial Secretary’s Office (in the case of a
chauffeur including the name, address, and
description of employerj.^ä j h a t particular
provision may not appear so startling in itself,
but it was important for what it represented.
Along with the collection of reports on births,
deaths, and marriages, registration of drivers
helped to establish the wider role of
government in society by its collecting a
variety of records for a growing portion of the
population. This process marked the
separation of 19th-century government
practices from those of the 20th century; it
exemplified a progressively bureaucratic
state within which segments of the public
were on file in a growing range of records.™
casual ad hoc approach to automobile
legislation of the early years of the
automobile. The 1912 act was the first to
legislate to the needs of this remarkably
dynamic situation. Merely undertaking to
register all drivers, and then to record their
changing status following convictions,
entailed a tremendous amount of paperwork.
From a government perspective, the detail
involved a significantly expanded
bureaucratic structure. By 1916 in Ontario
the enormity of the task had outgrown the
Provincial Secretary’s Office, under whose
jurisdiction the act initially fell, thereafter
control of the act fell to an expanded
Department of Public Higbways.” Such a
paftern was repeated acrcss the country,
although the timing of bureaucratic growth
varied. The automobile’s proliferation placed
novel demands on government sen/ices at
all levels, and this situation in turn
necessitated gcvernment expansion and the
consolidation of control to cope adequately
with a myriad cf new problems.
realized the importance of retaining
regulatory ccntrol of major concerns
regarding the autcmcbile, they were willing to
leave some minor areas to local option and
enforcement. Indeed almost as soon as the
automobile became prominent, attempts
were made by municipalities to assert their
primacy in tbe mafter of the automobile.
Local option was acceptable under certain
circumstances, as provincial governments
realized that local conditions at times
required allowing municipal or county
councils to regulate within their respective
jurisdictions.
authority was an increasingly regulated
urban environment. The substance of the
regulations, and, as importantly, their form,
would alter early 20th-century Canadian
vehicles in Canada at the present time
vary in each Province of the Dominion,
and motorists who have occasion to drive
from one province to another are
frequently perplexed and sometimes
greatly inconvenienced by the divergent
laws as to speed, display of numbers and
lights, and other less important features of
motoring.̂ 2
with approval the plan undertaken by the
Association of Police Chiefs of America tc
develop a standard set of rules and
regulations with respect to the automobile.”
Tbe following year it endorsed the
compilation of a standard code of traftic
regulations by the street traftic commiftee of
the Safety First Federation of America, which
would “be welcomed by everyone
conversant with the present chaotic
conditions caused primarily by the varying
traftic ordinances in force in our
municipalities.”^” The commiftee was hopeful
that such regulation would be enforced in
every city in North America with 5,000 or
more residents.’^ Thus the automobile had,
by the time of the World War I, set in motion a
process that would revolutionize the
character of the urban environment. Local
characteristics wcuid never be entirely
eliminated, but mere and more cities came to
resembie one anotber under the intluence of
a commonly shared technology Ironically it
was the very technology which purported to
be an expression of individualism that
contributed significantly towards a
homogeneity ot environment.
important respect, in that it often meant the
regulation of Canadian society as a whole,
non-motorists as well as motorists. A case in
point was the reduced status cf the urban
pedestrian. Animosity quickly developed
between the motorist and the pedestrian after
over the other In the struggle tc asseh their
claims, pedestrians gained an early
sympathy in some quarters. The pedestrian,
as the Premier of Ontario made clear in
1910,
chauffeur who thinks that, because he
gives warning ot his approaoh, he is
entitled to the road, is ufterly and entirely
wrong. He comes after the pedestrian
and even after the man on the bicycle. It
is net the pedestrian who must get out of
the way cf the automobile, but the
automobile that must get out cf the road
of the pedestrian, even if he is standing
vehicles grew at an unprecedented rate, a
reversal of positions was underway Initially
oalls were made for the “re-education” of the
pedestrian. One contributor to the Canadian
Motorist in 1916 argued fhat the automobile’s
presence required a change of attitude
amongst pedestrians, but unfortunately a
large number cf pedesfrians had
colonial, cr wayback attitude, whatever
one may call it, in spite of the enormous
increase in all kinds of vehicular traftic.”
significant effecf on reducing the conflict
between the two, partioularly in light ot the
rising number of pedestrian-related
automobile accidents. Many arguments in
support ot automobiles were built upon
accident statistics to demonstrate that, if
automobiles were indeed dangerous,
pedestrians brought that danger upon
themselves. Thus, motorists argued, the
problem rested not with the automobiie but
with the person on the street. Early in 1923
the Ontario Motor League alleged that 70 to
90 per cent of “so-called” aufomobile
accidents in whioh pedestrians were injured
were the fault of the viotims; a year later the
accidents in which pedestrians were injured
were the faulf of the pedestrians.’» By 1925
the Canadian Motorist argued that “reckless
walking” must be discouraged and
“pedestrian traffio, like all other traffio,
regulated.”‘9 It was not surprising, therefore,
that the journal should smile upon legislation
passed in Connecticut that made “reckless
walking” an indictable offence.«” The logical
extension of this aftitude regarding
pedesthan educaticn, and one increasingly
favoured by many was the regulation of the
pedesthan.
the relationship between pedestrian and
motor vehicle in Canada’s cities. F.C. Biggs,
the Minister of Pubiic Wori
up and ask pedestrians to cross the street
at street intersections and nc’t anywhere
they have a mind to hop off fhe sidewalk,
the sooner we are going to get away from
90 per cent of the accidents in the
Province.8′
and auto enthusiast, was a biased witness to
events. Nevertheless, his statement signalled
an official reccgnifion cf a change of aftifude
due to the automobile. Moreover Biggs was
not aione in demanding the regulation ot the
non-motorist. What provided freedom and
mobility for one segmenf of fhe urban
population brought regulation and loss of
freedom for another Claims of prior rights by
pedestrians were dismissed by an editorial in
the Canadian Motorist in 1923 as “so much
idle praftle.”82 By that time it had become
evident that pedestrians had lost the primacy
ct consideration to motorists on the nation’s
streets.
Canada had experienced major alterations
brought about by the automobile’s presenoe.
It was a transition filled with ccnfiicts and
which had been unfcreseen. Given the
pattern of concentration, it was to be
expected that the urban environment would
exhibit striking examples of fhat ohange. In
everything from sound and smell, to housing
design, to street pafterns and congestion, the
automobile profoundly aftected urban life.
Although the potential for increased mobility
was immediately recognized, the degree to
which it ultimately would alter established
pafterns of temporal and spatial reality
(patterns based on 19th-century
transportation technology) went
unappreciated. The automobile irreversibly
altered stable established forms of interaction
between the rural and urban environments.
Similarly the presence of the automobile
required a greater level of societal control
than had previously existed, in turn bringing
about far-reaching developments. The
effects of regulation spread beyond the
motoring public, and all city dwellers were
subject tc restriction forced by fhe
automobile. The automobile was fraught with
irony partioularly evident in the paradox of
freedom versus regulation — a technology
that traded heavily on the possibilities of
personal liberation, simultaneously
introduced an escalating level ot restriction
on personal conduct. The introduction of the
automobile into Canadian society not only
demonstrated how unpredictable a
technology’s ultimate effects might be but
also underscored how technological
innovations affect the public in ever-widening
and increasingly complex circles.
EXPERT REPAIRS ON ALL CARS –
AUTO Oil-
LIVERY
Passenger vehicle regislralions in Ontario
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
535
553
1 530
1 754
2 452
4 230
16 268
23 700
31 724
42 346
51 589
78 861
127 860
155 861
181 978
210 333
245 815
271 341
303 736
343 992
386 903
429 426
473 222
490 906
foreign automobiles registered in
Ontario, which presents a truer
indication of the number of vehicles
on Ontario’s roads.
1942, Annual Repori ofthe
Department of Highways,
Report of Motor VefiJcle
Registrations, 1941.
Alberta
British Goiumbia
Ontario
Quebec
New Brunswick
Nova Scotia
Prince Edward Island
5 010
3 600
3 081
8 652
1 268
1 435
Per Population
1:114
1:140
1:156
1:254
1:305
1:343
Passenger vehicle registrations in Canada
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
Registrations
178
535
553
1 530
2172
3160
5 890
20 367
29 295
45 716
60 688
77 963
157 079
196 367
251 945
333 621
368 510
513 075
573 204
641 186
736 729
830 001
930 619
1 061 500
because most ot the changes precipitated by the
automobile were either already in place or at least
underway by that date. As well, the exceptional social
and economic conditions ot the Great Depression
and their impact on the spread ct the automobile in
Canada would in themselves require a separate
study.
Amencan Journal oi Sooiology. 29 (Jan. 1924): 408.
Department of Highways, Report of Motor Vehicle
Registrations, 1941.
1922-24.1926-56 (Ottawa, 1956).
Half-Century (Edmonton, 1982): 258; CM
(Feb. 1915): 35.
(Ottawa. 1925).
1922); Automobile Statistics tor Canada 1926
(Ottawa, 1927).
E l e v e n t h A n n u a l C o n v e n t i o n , O n t a r i o G o o d R o a d s
A s s o c i a t i o n ,
H i g h w a y I m p r o v e m e n t , 1 9 1 5 , a p p e n d i x D; 1 9 2 3 ,
A n n u a l R e p o r t o n H i g h w a y I m p r o v e m e n t , 1 9 2 2 ,
a p p e n d i x G . T h e 1 9 1 4 c e n s u s w a s c o n d u c t e d tor
a 1 2 – h o u r p e r i o d , f r o m 7 a.m. t o 7 p.m. H o w e v e r ,
b e c a u s e of t h e p r e v a l e n c e of n i g h l traffic, t h e 1 9 2 2
c e n s u s w a s c o n d u c t e d f r o m 6 a.m. to 1 0 p.m.
H i g h w a y I m p r o v e m e n t , 1 9 1 5 , a p p e n d i x D; 1 9 2 3 ,
A n n u a l R e p o r t o n H i g h w a y I m p r o v e m e n t , 1 9 2 2 ,
a p p e n d i x G . In t h i s c o m p a r i s o n I h a v e c o n s i d e r e d
o n l y o n e – h o r s e c a r r i a g e s , w h i c h m o s t c l o s e l y
c o r r e s p o n d t o t h e p a s s e n g e r a u t o m o b i l e . H o w e v e r
e v e n t w o – h o r s e v e h i c l e s , w h i c h w o u l d b e u s e d in
h a u l i n g or for light industry, a l s o d e c l i n e d at
a p p r o x i m a t e l y t h e s a m e rate a c o o r d i n g t o c e n s u s
figures.
(Toronto, 1926): 3 3 .
H i g h w a y I m p r o v e m e n t , 1915, a p p e n d i x D; 1 9 2 3 ,
A n n u a l report o n H i g h w a y I m p r o v e m e n t , 1 9 2 2 ,
a p p e n d i x G .
h o r s e is readily a p p a r e n t in t h e d e c l i n e of the c a r r i a g e
a n d w a g o n industry. In O n t a r i o in 1 9 2 0 t h e r e w e r e
2 1 7 m a n u f a c t u r e r s of c a r r i a g e s a n d w a g o n s , w h i c h
b y 1 9 3 0 h a d d e c l i n e d to o n l y 8 0 s u c h p r o d u o e r s .
O t h e r f o r m s of t r a n s p o r t a t i o n a l s o e x p e r i e n o e d a
d e c l i n e w i t h t h e g r o w i n g popularity of t h e a u t o m o b i l e .
T h e a u t o m o b i l e m e a n t t h e e v e n t u a l d e c l i n e of t h e
s t e a m b o a t s t h a t s e r v e d t h e resort a r e a s of L a k e
S i m c o e a n d G e o r g i a n Bay, E v e n O n t a r i o ‘ s i n t e r – u r b a n
r a i l w a y s , built e x p r e s s l y for t h e efficient m o v e m e n t of
p a s s e n g e r s , s u f f e r e d a d e c l i n e in p a s s e n g e r levels
d u r i n g t h e 1 9 2 0 s b e c a u s e of t h e a u t o m o b i l e .
Preliminary Report ot the Carriage and Wagon
Industry in Canada 1920 ( O t t a w a , 1922); Preliminary
Report on the Carriage and Wagon Industry in
Canada 1929 and 1330 ( O t t a w a , 1932); J o h n C r a i g ,
Simcoe County: The Recent Past ( T h e C o r p o r a t i o n of
t h e C o u n t y of S i m c c e , 1 9 7 7 ) ; Report ot the
Commission Appointed to Inquire Into i^ydro-Electric
Railways ( O n t a r i o S e s s i o n a l P a p e r s , 1922): 5 3 ;
J o h n F. D u e , The Intercity Electric Railway industry in
Canada (Toronto, 1 9 6 6 ) ; 2 5 , 3 3 – 3 6 , 5 3 , 61 – 9 5 .
History (Toronto, 1 9 8 6 ) : 1 4 6 ,
Toronto, 1926.
P l a n n i n g C o m m i s s i o n e r 1 9 3 0 – 1 9 5 4 , ” CityPianning
(Winter 1984): 4 – 5 .
Profession, a n d t h e M o t o r V e h i c l e in Early T w e n t i e t h
C e n t u r y A m e r i o a , ” in Shaping an Urban World, e d .
G , E. C h e r r y ( L o n d o n , 1980): 6 0 ,
Toronto. 1924.
(Toronto, 1929): 1 1 .
a d d e d a n o t e of w a r n i n g to o w n e r s of h o u s e s w i t h
g a r a g e s j o i n e d by c o n s e r v a t o r i e s . N o t i n g the d a n g e r
to plants w h e n t h e d o o r s a r e t h r c w n o p e n in winter,
t h e j o u r n a l a d v i s e d that there w o u l d b e n o p r o b l e m
” s o l o n g a s t h e c h a u f f e u r s e e s to it that t h e
o o m m u n i c a t i n g d o o r b e t w e e n t h e c o n s e r v a t o r y a n d
t h e g a r a g e is kept shut.”
of Toronto. 1 9 0 7 ; CM (Feb. 1923): 7 6 .
settings w e r e f a v o u r e d in t h e majority of a u t o m o b i l e
a d v e r t i s e m e n t s in w h i c h a setting w a s d i s c e r n i b l e :
1 9 2 0 – 2 1 – 6 7 % ; 1 9 2 2 – 6 0 % ; 1 9 2 3 – 3 8 % ; 1 9 2 4 – 6 3 % ;
1 9 2 5 – 8 8 % ; 1 9 2 6 – 6 8 % ; 1 9 2 7 – 5 9 % ; 1 9 2 8 – 6 7 % ;
1 9 2 9 – 6 8 % ; 1 9 3 0 – 6 9 % . T h e lure of t h e c o u n t i y s i d e
is w e l l d o c u m e n t e d by W a r r e n B e l a s c o . w h o
e x a m i n e s t h e rise of a u t o c a m p i n g in t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s
a n d t h e organizational c h a n g e s n e c e s s i t a t e d by its
p h e n o m e n a l popularity, in Americans on the Road:
From Autocamp to Mote!, 1910-1945 ( C a m b r i d g e .
Mass., 1979).
1925); T J J . Lears, ” F r o m Salvation t o Self-Realization:
A d v e r t i s i n g a n d t h e T h e r a p e u t i c Roots of C o n s u m e r
Culture, 1 8 8 0 – 1 9 3 0 , ” in Ttie Culture ot Consumption:
Critical Essays in American History 1880-1980 ( N e w
York, 1983): 1 8 – 1 9 .
1924).
Main Street to State Street: Town. City and Community
inAmerica (Port W a s h i n g t o n , 1977): 4 0 .
B a t h t u b : A u t o m o b i l e M o v e m e n t a n d t h e
R e o r g a n i z a t i o n of Rural A m e r i c a n S p a c e , 1 9 0 0 – 1 9 3 0 ”
Radical History Review. 2 1 ( 1 9 8 0 ) : 1 5 3 – 5 4 .
