Early “Motor City” Manners

Men of affairs do not eat with their fingers nor elevate their feet in drawing rooms, so why revert to the custom of prehistoric times in the use of like-manners at the wheel of the automobile? Motorists who impress with their good manners in home, office or club seemingly throw their breeding to the four winds when they drive.  – 
Image source, Instagram account, City of Ontario Library Collection

Detroit’s Code Of Motor Manners

City ordinances are not necessarily repressive. They are meant to be of aid in the general movement of congested traffic. They are helpful if motorists, collectively, and to the driver individually. Any given automobile, thus, probably would be smashed to pieces every day were it not for the general protection provided by laws primarily for the benefit of all. Don’t, therefore, be in ignorance of traffic regulations. 

Men of affairs do not eat with their fingers nor elevate their feet in drawing rooms, so why revert to the custom of prehistoric times in the use of like-manners at the wheel of the automobile? Motorists who impress with their good manners in home, office or club seemingly throw their breeding to the four winds when they drive. 

They dent fenders through traffic crowding. They frighten pedestrians, and they blast their horns long and loud when a warning would be plenty. Their lack of good balance and care adds to the possibility of accident, and accidents come like lightning strokes. Don't therefore, have two codes of courtesy—one for company and one for home, club or office: you are in company when you drive your car in public streets. 

Courteous driving provides a definite insurance protection which otherwise cannot be bought. Accidents and wrecks will not descend upon the ordinarily driven automobile. Statistics show that a huge majority of mishaps result from speeding or from various other actions of carelessness or traffic rule violations. 

No record exists so far as a railway train having left its track to hit a motor car. The fact that automobiles must first get in front of trains to be hit adds emphasis to the deduction that the more careful and mannerly the motorist is, the more certain is the atmosphere of protection and safety he surrounds himself with. Don’t, therefore, be an obstacle in the path of progress of automobile good driving. – The Morning Press, 1917

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