Sinister motordom

in the
Windy City

The Hope Chest, posting Bad news from the past, came up with this little depressing nugget from the 22 April 1922 edition of The Chicago Tribune. Every 19th cager driving the streets had killed or injured a human being in 1921.

That's 9,406 total cagers of which 561 were killers!

The biggest reasons for this sorry state of affairs
was congestion and lax law enforcement.

Cagers tended to go between 25 and 30 MPH
do get out of the overly crowded Loop.

Would-be alternative transport experts,
not surprisingly, suggested
the expansion of the subway system!

Cager advocates, on the other hand, demanded
double-decking of the streets in the loop,
leading to today's subterranean wonderland
along the Chicago River!


Of course, they didn't anticipate the 1992 Loop Flood!