Automobile Versus Trolley.

The New York Times
March 18, 1900

From The Automobile Magazine.

Street railway men have long declared that the average American is in too much of a hurry to take time to climb to the second story of a double-deck car, but there is every reason to believe that a type of automobile, built after the fashion of a tallyho or an omnibus with seats on top will ultimately find favor with suburban and long-distance passengers.  The possibilities in the matter of speed may be realized from the recent record of an English machine which made the journey from Coventry to London, a distance of ninety-two miles, in four hours, an average of twenty-three miles per hour.

The cheapening of the motor vehicle will naturally prove an important factor in the extension of its use as a competitor of the street car.  Indeed, it will reach its fullest development in this direction only after the price of an autocar is approximately that of a street car fitted with an electric motor.  Once started, the encroachments of the automobile on the field of municipal transportation will be rapid.  The new vehicles may also be expected to displace street cars in many auxiliary services, such as the conveyance of the mails and the transportation of farm products in the rural districts.