From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
RARE OUL' TIMES: It's a sunny day in College Green. We know the time - 12.55 pm - but not the date, but it's almost certainly either 1949 or 1950, around 55 years ago. This lunch-hour scene is frozen in time forever, and today provides a fascinating snap-shot of our motoring habits at the mid-point of the last century, together with a wealth of information for the motoring historian.
The first thing to strike one is the high proliferation of cyclists, many of whom would probably have been rushing home during their lunch-hour, something that would still have been possible as the city then had a high amount of residences within a very short distance of the city centre. By contrast with a similar scene today, there are very few pedestrians and certainly the main gate of Trinity College is not the centre of tourist attraction it is today.
Just outside the college gate there is a number of motorcycles parked and these are the only motorcycles to be seen in the picture. They are all large capacity British motorcycles - the Japanese motorcycle revolution being as yet undreamt of - and the British motorcycle industry ruled the world.
Almost every car is a Ford, reflecting the dominance of the Irish market this manufacturer then had. This was a bye-product of the fact that Ford of Cork were by far the most successful manufacturing and assembly plant in the country and, along with Dunlop and Guinness, almost the only major industries at the time. There is a sprinkling of cars in colours other than black, but clearly black is the most popular choice of colour.
As well as a handful of small delivery and pick-up trucks, a livestock lorry is visible, reminding one that these were once a common sight on our streets. Several horse-drawn carts are also visible, these still being a very common feature of our roads at the time. Three trams are prominent moving down the centre of the road from D'Olier Street towards Nassau Street. For motorists, the trams and their tracks represented simply another hazard, just as their modern equivalent, the Luas, soon will again. (By the way, modern motorists will be able to tell of the passage of a Luas tram by the interference it causes on their car radio!). Buses dominate the picture, no fewer than 11 being visible, reflecting the importance of public transport at a time when few could stretch to car ownership. But perhaps the greatest difference between this photograph of mid-century Irish city motoring is the complete absence of traffic lines on the road and of signage controlling the road-users' passage through the streets. The only sign of traffic control is of a single policeman, presumably on point-duty. I say presumably for he's only just visible at the rear of the bus on the left of the picture. His dark uniform blends into the picture and is a far cry from today's highly-visible, yellow-jacketed Garda.
A final thought: when this picture was taken, a large part of a city garda's time was taken up trying to solve that most dastardly of crimes, bicycle theft!
TRAFFIC CONTROL: The world's first traffic control was introduced in London by an Act of Common Council passed in August 1617 to regulate 'the disorder and rude behavior of Carmen, Draymen and others usinge Cartes'. The traffic order introduced a one-way street system and remained in use for two centuries.
The first white road markings were introduced in 1911 when a 'center line safety stripe' was painted on River Road, near Trenton, Michigan, in the US. The idea spread to Britain in 1914, and Ireland in the early 1920s.