By : Roger I. Roots, J.D., Ph.D.<\/p>\n
\n\n“The right to make use of an automobile as a vehicle
\nof travel,” wrote Justice Ladd, “is no longer an open question.” n39 “The owners thereof
\nhave the same rights in the roads and streets as the drivers of horses or those riding
\na bicycle or traveling by some other vehicle.”\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\nThe Kansas Supreme Court struck down the Topeka ordinance and
\nreversed Swift’s conviction, declaring that
\n[each] citizen has the absolute right to choose for himself the mode of conveyance he
\ndesires, whether it be by wagon or carriage, by horse, motor or electric car, or by
\nbicycle, or astride of a horse, subject to the sole condition that he will observe all
\nthose requirements that are known as the “law of the road.”\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\nThe right to
\ntravel by the vehicle of one’s choice was thought to be as important as any personal
\nfreedom recognized under the Constitution.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\nThe ninety and nine of every hundred people of this and other countries will not
\nabandon the public thoroughfares to a single class comprising less than 1 per cent of
\nall the population. If a selfish, reckless, and indulgent class must run faster than the
\nmajority of mankind, let them build their speedways and kill each other if
\nthey will, but they must not be permitted to continue to terrorize and kill the people
\nwhose toil and tax maintain the public thoroughfares.\n<\/p>\n\nRepresentative Cousins stated that fines and arrests did little to deter speeders, who
\nsimply paid the fines and continued speeding. n98 “Horrible and gruesome incidents are
\nof almost daily occurrence,” and the recklessness of automobilists “has bespattered
\nboulevards with blood.” n99 Representative Cousins went on to state,
\nit should be said in justice to many automobilists, that after running over people they
\nhave stopped and rendered quick assistance and have furnished flowers for the
\nfunerals of their victims, although in a great many instances it appears that the
\ngreatest utility which high-speed gearing accomplishes is getting away from the
\ncorpse before the machine numbers can be detected.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n