The only thing we know for sure is that things will continue
to change.
In 1919, 7.5 million automobiles were registered in the
U.S. By 1929, that number grew to 26
million with 23 million of those being passenger cars. Most of these
automobiles were registered in small towns. The automobile was most popular
with farmers and in the cities of the mid-west and California.
By 1950, use of trains in Petaluma and the paddleboat
steamers on the river was completely done. It was a new era of the automobile.
The sprawl of new development in Petaluma and Sonoma county became a function
of this new reliance on the car for transportation. A hundred years later, we
wonder how many more cars can fit into this town and what the new alternative
modes of transportation will be in the future. Only two years ago, a passenger
train returned to the Petaluma station.
Petaluma relied on paddleboat steamer traffic on the river
for almost 100 years. We have relied on automobile traffic for almost 100
years. Fun to imagine what the next 100 years will look like.
By the way, the first attempt at a paved street in Petaluma
was on Walnut Street in 1907. The price to get it done was immediately
protested by some residents who said that they would not pay any assessment for
the macadam aggregate paving. Construction costs were skyrocketing in the area
after the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. Some Petaluma residents felt that the
road maintenance was too expensive.
Okay, maybe some things don’t change.
