Street Racing Cars For Sale

I posted about these before http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/06/facets-of-1915-san-diego-pan-california.html and found an old news article about the expo and these "Jitneys"

Why they thought it would be a good idea... Money. Increasing city revenue

It's a good read.. but in a nutshell, they tried to get rich by having a World's Fair. They didn't realize that the new craze, the car, and ingenuity of everyguy Joe to make a buck, would combine to steal away 8 million nickel fares from the street cars that were supposed to recoup the costs of building the venues, trains, and city improvements.

Is this possibly the reason that cities won't allow anyone to buy a cheap Taxi token? Here in San Diego a token (on the rare occasion that the tight fists of city hall can be pried open) will cost about $200,000. If we could all charge a bit over the bus fare, and stop to pick up anyone at a bus stop, the buses would be out of business in a hurry. No more mass transportation income for the cities. Perhaps the income of buses, trains, trolleys, etc is the reason that cities keep trying to advertise the limited benefit of mass transportation.. when the local govt types are riding in new, free, suv's and luxury cars... and letting the taxpayers cover the costs... like fuel.

These 2 are about 1906 manufacture

Once the 40's came, the street cars were deemed inefficient and replaced by gas guzzler buses.. a lot of that was due to GM's lobbying and political pressure to increase corporate profits and stock value through fleet sales of buses. The govt had the mentality of "What is good for GM is good for America" a saying I've often heard on the History Channel

This is a #107, but obviously an earlier design

Oddly, all these are street car #107, that is cool, but has me wondering how it occured that my source had so many of #107. That drugstore sign would have conservatives having a fit, wouldn't it?!

Click on photos for full screen size
Teddy Roosevelt was running for president, women wore huge hats and petticoat dresses, all men wore hats, street cars were a nickel, the Jessop Jewelers clock was on the sidewalk, Western Union was a fixture of communication, and there were dozens of car makers who made a few cars, horse drawn carriages shared the road with cars, streetcars, and bicycles. Adverstising was cool, like the pointing hand (top center) and the blinds on the high rise