We here at the Hicks Car Works like to promote safety. With the operating season here at IRM starting to get into full swing, it's time we look at this gem of a safety film. Produced by the Chicago Surface Lines in the early 1920s, it showcases how streetcars and automobiles could coexist safely in the streets of Chicago.
Thanks for posting this as a comparison between yesterday and today. I was fairly surprised at the enormous amounts of pedestrians in the loop. The safety islands were a sort of frightening proposition, and defensive driving seems not to have caught on..yet. What would be interesting is to see if buses had the same accident rate or less...I would think it would have remained a constant as many of these crazy car drivers, we all see today.
ReplyDeleteWow, even two trailers.
ReplyDeleteI caught the trailers too. Thanks for sharing that.
ReplyDeleteChicago diner on Shorpy
ReplyDeletehttp://www.shorpy.com/node/15270
-Hudson
This really belongs under Roadside Diners, but wow! That's got to be the most decrepit lunch wagon I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteYou can find more pictures of it under the LoC site, as one of the commenters pointed out. I'm sure this was a motor bus originally. The hooks on the roof have nothing to do with trolley poles, but there was a platform on top of the roof at the rear for carrying luggage.
There are a couple of stoves sitting outside behind the bus, as though the food was cooked outside and then brought in somehow, or handed in through the window. And it was located very near an L structure.
Thanks, that was really depressing.