
1916 Guide Shows What the First Road Trips Were Like - Thevet
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/20/this-1916-guide-shows-what-the-first-road-trips-were-like/
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fizzbitch
My friends and I actually road trip like this! We drive a 1930 Model A from
town to town, and because of its maximum speed (about 50-60mph), we can't take
interstates or main roads. Well, we could, but it's better to avoid it.

This means that when we say something like "let's go from Panama City to
Charlotte", we must plan the entire route beforehand, much in the style of
these books. And it's definitely necessary to have a navigator to point out
the turns correctly; it is still difficult to navigate on, e.g., tiny
backwoods Alabama roads. The directions end up being quite long; when I saw
that there were only 40 directions from Fort Morgan to Denver, I thought that
was fewer than what we usually get in our ~140 mile days!

What makes these trips really interesting is that we have to go through towns
that are not served by the interstate system (and in some cases do not even
have U.S. routes going through them). This, combined with the fact that we
often come to a stop to fix something, means that we meet a lot of interesting
people and discover interesting parts of the country that none of us knew
existed.

We also stop at old bridges and take pictures in front of them:

[http://ratml.org/misc_img/saluda_bridge.jpg](http://ratml.org/misc_img/saluda_bridge.jpg)

Anyway I know this comment is quite long at this point, but, I highly
recommend road-tripping like this to anyone and everyone! I have learned more
about the rural Southeast in three weeks of roadtripping like this than in ten
years of living here.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
It warms my heart to see proof that such people as yourself still exist.

~~~
fizzbitch
Personally I had no idea such experiences were possible until taking a trip
like this was suggested by a friend (who is the owner of the Model A). The
people we talk to (or more accurately the people who talk to us) are from a
different time, and remember when travel was very different. We've heard a lot
of fascinating stories.

For me it is very enlightening to realize that the technology sphere in which
I live is actually only a very small part of the world!

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alistproducer2
There used to be guide book for African American travelers called the green
book. It helped them know places they could use the bathroom, eat, and lodge.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Boo...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Motorist_Green_Book)

~~~
jacquesm
Even in Canada _today_ you can still see instances of this. Fairly disgusting,
to put it mildly. I found this out when we employed the one person of color in
the community as a gas station attendant, the reverse situation sketched in
the wikipedia article linked. Large customers would contact me and pointedly
demand we fire the person or they'd cease doing business (this was fine with
me, the nearest alternative was a 90 km round-trip and not serving them for a
couple of weeks taught several of those customers expensive lessons about
racial intolerance, I suspect that they did not change their mentality even if
outwardly they eventually relented and begged to be served again).

Assholes.

~~~
cynicalkane
How long ago was this? I thought you were a technology consultant living in
the Netherlands.

~~~
jacquesm
8 years. And yes, you are right but it wasn't always so... I've lived in
Canada between 2003 and 2008.

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shortformblog
It's worth noting that Michelin guides, which date back to 1900 in France,
were actually launched with the same idea in mind:
[http://tedium.co/2015/04/09/michelin-guide-unusual-side-
busi...](http://tedium.co/2015/04/09/michelin-guide-unusual-side-businesses/)

Long story short, the guides were created to drum up interest in tires—by
encouraging customers to actually take their cars to go on road trips. The
fascinating part about them is that the guide's reputation at rating
restaurants became so strong that the fine dining guides turned into a huge
side business for the company.

~~~
scribu
Oh, so that's why they call them Michelin stars!

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jedberg
> It’s ironic that nearly a century later, after decades of relying on road
> maps and atlases, so many drivers have gone back to turn-by-turn directions
> as their preferred navigational aid. If only Siri could flag the landmarks
> and throw out some trivia along the way.

Yes! This is exactly what I would love. Be able to tell Google "tell me about
interesting things within two miles of my route" and then have it start to
learn what I like by which things I actually stop at.

And while we're at it, how about calling out cheap gas along the way. :)

~~~
honkhonkpants
Google does publish an app called Field Trip that they acquired from Niantic.
It tells you about historical tidbits for the place around you. Doesn't seem
to have been updated lately.

[https://www.fieldtripper.com/](https://www.fieldtripper.com/)

~~~
jbuzbee
I used Field Trip for a while and really liked it when walking around in an
unfamiliar city. As you say, as you went along, it would point out interesting
facts, landmarks, etc. Then I noticed that its focus seem to change to "You're
near Hardees! Here's a two for one coupon!" I deleted the app and never tried
it again.

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rmason
Back in the seventies anytime I took a trip out of state my Dad would get me a
AAA trip book. Each page had a short section of the highway and in a yellow
marker it would show exits, towns etc. You'd flip the pages over every 40
miles and people referred to them as flip books.

I found them to be quite useful but now they seem kind of quaint. It would
show gas stations and motels at the exits. Every year they'd publish a new
one, wish I'd saved one now but they were really meant to be disposable.

We aren't very far from the days that Google/Alexa will ask as you start the
engine where do you want to go today and just take you there with little
effort on your part. In a way its like we're all going to have robot
chauffeurs.

~~~
e40
It's called a TripTik[1] and it still exists. I remember them well. My
grandmother and I took a trip across the US in the 1960's. They were
invaluable.

[1] [http://www.aaa.com/travelinfo/maps-
directions.htm](http://www.aaa.com/travelinfo/maps-directions.htm)

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cperciva
Amazing how things we take for granted now were simply unnecessary in the
past:

 _Road signs were virtually nonexistent, Bauer says, because until cars came
along there was no need for them. Long trips were made by train, and virtually
all short trips were made by local people who already had a mental map of the
roads in their area._

~~~
toyg
This is particularly visible in Europe, where magnificent centuries-old
buildings are constantly scarred by road and parking signs (as well as
advertising billboards).

~~~
cperciva
Indeed, every time I visit "old" Europe I notice how street signs tend to be
(a) small, and (b) attached to buildings; but it never occurred to me until
reading this article that this could be largely explained by the fact that
they _didn 't need_ street signs until recently.

~~~
cm3
I can't say I remember a building in Western Europe where traffic signs were
mounted on buildings. In cities it's either on or at the edge of sidewalks.

~~~
cperciva
I'm talking about names of streets, not traffic signs.

~~~
tinkerdol
See Strasbourg for example:
[https://www.google.de/maps/@48.5827359,7.7525392,3a,49.9y,21...](https://www.google.de/maps/@48.5827359,7.7525392,3a,49.9y,213.71h,86.3t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBguApRE6YIa3d2ZweTpFMA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1)

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walrus01
Also of historical interest, particularly for the American south:

"The Negro Motorist's Green Book"

Locations of "sundown" towns, where to get a meal at a restaurant, where you
can get a motel room.

[http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Race/R_Casestudy/87_135_17...](http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Race/R_Casestudy/87_135_1736_GreenBk.pdf)

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dredmorbius
Strongly recommended: _The Men Who United the States_ , by Simon Winchester.
Covers more than just roads, though that's included.

What's impressive is to realise how _recent_ most modern US travel
infrastructure is. The Interstate Highway System wasn't _begun_ until 1958.

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/men-who-united-the-states-
ame...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/men-who-united-the-states-americas-
explorers-inventors-eccentrics-and-mavericks-and-the-creation-of-one-nation-
indivisible/oclc/827260063)

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copperx
Think about how gloriously empty were the roads everywhere in the world: there
were only 1.8 billion inhabitants. Out of every 7 people, imagine 5 vanished.
That was the world then.

~~~
maxerickson
There were less roads too.

Near here is a monument to something or other, the improved US highway was
built as a 10 mile bypass through a swamp. There's 4 glorious, split, full
shouldered lanes carrying a few hundred vehicles per hour. It's still empty.

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mc32
So driving back then was a bit like rally driving where you had a driver and a
navigator, and unless you were adventurous, a mechanic, unless one of them
knew enough to fix the car. Kind of reminds me of Bonnie and Clyde who picked
up the mechanic because their car was so unreliable.

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jasondebo
Got this book at the Crater Lake bookstore. It's great.
[http://www.amazon.com/Playground-Trail-National-Park-
Park/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Playground-Trail-National-Park-
Park/dp/0967135133)

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deleterious
Should be called 'Rupert Murdoch's National Geographic Experiment dot com' No
desire to see anything to do with him, as there is ALWAYS an agenda there.
This is not a political statement, this is fact, he manages to ruin a lot and
National Geographic is another one in a long list of them. Sorry.

