Sharing the road with horses and cars in 1921


One of the things that has always fascinated me is when a newer technology replaces an older one. Looking back, it always seems to happen overnight, as if everyone went to bed one night and woke up with cars, instead of horses, on the roads. You can choose any technology you want, and there's always overlap, sometimes for years and years. Someone out there is still using a VCR, I know!

This photo, taken near Philadelphia in 1921, shows cars and horses sharing the road. Cars had been on the road for decades by then, especially in big cities like Philly, and yet you still see horses. And not just used for recreation, these are working horses, pulling carts, probably delivering something.


By the way, on a side note, in case you're wondering why this photo was taken, take a look at the billboard. Photographers were sent out to document if a billboard had been installed correctly, and this one obviously wasn't. You can bet that Pillsbury didn't pay for it until it was fixed!


But let's take a closer look at how the cars and horses are sharing the road. The middle of the road was for passing, and presumably the cars aren't going much faster than 10-15 miles per hour. The walking pace of a horse is about twice of a human's, and is only a few miles per hour. The horses would have to be galloping to be able to keep up with the cars, and obviously they aren't.

Here in Phoenix, where I live, the school crossing zones are 15 miles per hour, and it feels like you're just crawling along. When I lived in Los Angeles, the cars moved so fast that a local comedian used to say that 55 miles per hour was the speed Angelenos slowed down to in order to change a tire!

Thank you for sharing the road!
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