The beginning, and end, of amateur human-driven cars in Phoenix, Arizona


As someone who was born in the middle of the 20th Century, it's very hard for me to imagine a world without amateur human-driven cars, but I often try. I have a good imagination! Today I'd like to time-travel backwards and forwards in Phoenix history. Let's start with the first amateur human-driven car in Phoenix, in 1902.

Phoenix history buffs will recognize that car as belonging to Dr. Swetnam, and you're looking east on Washington towards 1st Avenue. I really don't know what the legal requirements were for operating a vehicle like that in Phoenix in 1902, but I'd imagine that it was mostly if you had enough money to do so. It wasn't like being an engineer on a train, or a driver on the trolley, it really was just you, so it stands to reason that you wouldn't have been expected to be a professional driver.

And if you've lived in Phoenix anytime after 1902 to the present day, I really don't have to tell you what kind of damage these amateur human-driven cars have caused. Even with the most careful engineering of roads, and cars, they tend to run into each other, and crash. People get injured, and people die.

By the time I got to Phoenix, in 1977, the roads were already overcrowded. The chaos on east Bell Road was so bad that I made a point to stay away from there as much as I could. The engineering of both cars and roads have greatly improved since then, but not the amateur driver.

And I've known some extremely excellent drivers in my day. These are people with razor-sharp reflexes, and eyesight, who can weave through the densest traffic imaginable - and do it backwards, with one eye shut. And there are still people like that, and you may be one of them, but the percentage of this type of professional driving expertise is so low that the carnage continues.

So I'm looking forward to the end of amateur driving in Phoenix. No, I don't mean going back to horses (although that would be kinda cool), I mean the only humans behind the wheel are the kind of people who fly airplanes, who pilot helicopters, who drive the big rigs. The rest of the people will not be given the opportunity to cause the type of mayhem that Phoenix, and all other big cities, have grown accustomed to.

I sometimes wonder if I'll live to see that day, and I just might. That is, assuming that some amateur driver doesn't hit me while I'm in the crosswalk!

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