Of Hooves and Pedals When Horses and Bicycles Didn’t Mix, 1218 COBJ, Vol. 47, No. 11 Pg. 14

AuthorBy FRANK GIBBARD
PositionVol. 47, 11 [Page 14]

47 Colo.Law. 14

Of Hooves and Pedals When Horses and Bicycles Didn’t Mix

Vol. 47, No. 11 [Page 14]

The Colorado Lawyer

December, 2018

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

By FRANK GIBBARD, J.

From time to time, it is good to take a moment to look out one's office window onto the street. In Colorado's larger cities the street scene reveals an amazing diversity of locomotion. Cars, vans, and trucks share the streets with bicycles and scooters, pedestrians and pedicabs, skateboarders and Segways, motorcycles, powered wheelchairs, busses, and light rail. Everyone seems to be going somewhere, weaving, crossing, starting and stopping in a ceaseless dance. That all sorts of travelers usually manage to arrive at their destinations without incident is a testimony to the efficacy of traffic laws and customs that have developed over the past century, growing in tandem with the increased mobility of our modern world.

One thing one does not see much of these days—on big-city streets at least—is riders on horseback or horse-drawn carriages. Of course, there are still mounted police on patrol and elegant twilight coach-rides down Denver's Sixteenth Street Mall. But the street scene today is very different from just over a century ago, when transportation still depended heavily on the horse.

The mocking cry of "get a horse!"—addressed to drivers of early automobiles suffering from mechanical breakdowns—may have hid a sense of foreboding that conveyances powered by grass and gas would ultimately prove incompatible and that the gas-powered economy would prevail. But conflicts involving the use of city streets predate the hegemony of the automobile. As some early Colorado cases show, before automobiles arrived in force there were conflicts between horse-drawn vehicles and another popular and revolutionary mode of transportation: the bicycle.

Bicycling in Early Colorado

Horse-drawn carriages and steam-powered locomotives feature prominently in Colorado's early history. But since their beginning, Colorado's cities and towns have also been bicycle towns.1 Bikes appeared in Colorado at about the same time they became popular elsewhere in the United States, in the late 1860s. In a pre-automotive age, bicycles fascinated for the HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES increased mobility and speed they provided. Cyclists and spectators alike marveled that a rider could propel himself or herself at the speed of a trotting horse—sometimes faster.

Like early trains, early bicycles were not nearly as safe and comfortable as they later became. Riding any kind of early bike required fortitude. The rider of high-wheeled bikes in particular risked substantial injuries from collisions or falls. In the event of an accident, the high-wheeled rider was likely to go flying over the handlebars and land on his or her head—known as "taking a header." Before John Dunlop patented the pneumatic bicycle tire in 1888,2 the advent of improved road surfaces, and better suspension, bikes earned their derisive nickname: "boneshakers."

That didn't keep hardy Coloradans from embracing the new mode of transportation. References to "velocipedes" (an early form of bicycle) appear regularly in Colorado newspapers beginning in the 1860s.3 In 1880, George E. Hannan opened the first bicycle shop in Colorado, on Lawrence Street. At first, bicycles were expensive, a plaything for the rich. But eventually, prices dropped, making bikes a part of popular culture.

Once it got going, the new fad did not discriminate. Victorian women embraced bicycling, riding in "bloomers" and enjoying the sense of liberation that came from self-propelled locomotion. Early photographs show the sport was popular among Denver's African-American community. Young and old, rich and poor, soon everyone was cycling.

Bicycle clubs became common in Colorado. Riders were challenged to do "century rides," riding 100 miles in a day. The bicycle scene was also plagued by "scorchers." The term originally referred with some admiration to expert cyclists who liked to ride as fast as possible,[4] but it later became a derogatory term for reckless riders who disregarded safety on city streets in the interest of speed.5

One of the hazards of early bicycling was that speeding bikes tended to spook the horses with whom they shared the streets. Sometimes the cyclist got the worst end of horse-and-bike encounters. And, as will be seen, injured cyclists resorted to the Colorado courts.

Ina Aldridge Takes a Tumble

On August 14,1899, In a B. Aldridge was riding her bicycle along Wazee Street in Denver.6 When she reached the corner of Wazee and Fifteenth Streets, she turned onto Fifteenth, riding close to the curb on the right-hand side of the street. A horse and wagon had been riding behind her, and it turned onto Fifteenth Street as well. Her bicycle and the wagon were soon joined by a streetcar moving in the same direction.

According to Aldridge's later complaint, "there was ample room for the wagon to pass between the [streetcar] and [Aldridge's bicycle]."7 Unfortunately, though, when Aldridge "had gone to the distance of about 40 feet from the crossing, she was overtaken by the wagon, struck on the shoulder, knocked off her bicycle, and thrown to the ground by the right shaft of the wagon."[8] To make matters worse, while Aldridge was lying on the ground, the wagon's right rear wheel ran over her leg, breaking it.

The wagon was owned by the Adams Express Company. Adams Express was the FedEx or UPS of its day.9 Aldridge sued Adams Express in Arapahoe County District Court. She argued the driver had negligently run her down. A jury granted a judgment in her favor. Adams Express appealed from the verdict to the Colorado Court of Appeals.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

Most of Adams Express's appellate issues failed. The company argued Aldridge's complaint should have provided more particulars concerning the wagon driver's negligence. The Court of Appeals held the complaint was sufficient. Adams Express argued there was insufficient evidence of negligence. The Court held there was enough to go to the jury. The company complained the jury was given a "majority verdict" instruction, which permitted a binding verdict by as few as nine of the twelve jurors. Though the Colorado Supreme Court had held a law permitting non-unanimous verdicts unconstitutional, the Court of Appeals found this error in Aldridge's case harmless, given that the jury's verdict was unanimous.

Two of Adams Express's issues related to Aldridge's status as a married woman. The company complained that the jury's verdict included medical and nursing expenses incurred by Aldridge. It argued her husband, rather than...

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