Rear View Mirror

Historic articles from our archives.

> Possibilities of hiking emphasized
> New teletype machines boost tour reservation efficiency
>Turnpikes aren't total blessing

Possibilities of hiking emphasized

Originally published in the Rocky Mountain Motorist, AAA newspaper for Colorado and Wyoming, December 1932

Great possibilities of increasing the pleasure and profit to be derived from the use of primitive areas reserved by the Forest Service in Colorado is brought out in a most interesting report by a special committee of the City Club of Denver, of which Mr. Arthur A. Fisher is Chairman.

The plan outlined to utilize the Mount Evans recreational unit and other wilderness areas for hiking, horseback riding and sports must interest and thrill every lover of our Rocky Mountains.

Attention is called to the work of the Appalachian Club of six thousand members, the Adirondack Club with one thousand members, the Green Mountain Club, our own Colorado Mountain Club, and others with many thousands of members. In Europe, notably Germany, the Netherlands, England and Iceland where the automobile has not been as generally available as in this country, the hiking sport has developed to gigantic proportions.

Perhaps present economic developments will virtually "put us on our feet" and we will soon appreciate our wonderful natural surroundings.

The report calls attention to the fact that Colorado has hundreds of miles of forest trails through marvelously beautiful country merely waiting for the hiker and pack-traveler. We are far behind other sections in the use of these natural advantages.

Trail marking and shelters would stimulate their use. The AAA Club has repeatedly urged further development and advertising of these areas as a factor in our travel industry. We are fortunate that so close to Denver is a wilderness area small enough to make experiment easy, which may result in human values beyond all present possibility of calculation, bringing to this recreative region ever-increasing numbers of persons.

These spaces cannot be restored if once lost. They cannot be built by man. They are fundamentally necessary to the health, sanity, and balance of our fellow men, and they exist in vastness within the borders of this and surrounding states.

New teletype machines boost tour reservation efficiency

Originally published in the Rocky Mountain Motorist, AAA newspaper for Colorado and Wyoming, November 1952

Another forward step in assuring the foremost service to club members is the recent installation of teletype machines to expedite the clearance of travel reservations, secure weather information and learn road conditions.

Now the traveler can learn in a matter of minutes that a room is waiting for him across the country. And the chance for error in the reservation is cut to almost zero.

Formerly reservations were made by telephone and accuracy depended upon the abilities of the parties speaking to understand each other. But with the teletype, or TWX machine, all information is typed out by the persons sending and receiving the messages.

Now Mrs. John Jones can go into the Colorado Springs office and inquire about a hotel reservation for a trip she will make to Chicago in two weeks. Several conventions are scheduled for the Windy City at that time but the TWX machine operator gets busy. While Mrs. Jones waits in the office, she sees the inquiry go out, then sees her reservation at the Palmer House Hotel confirmed over the machine.

Of course, teletype service can be offered only if the traveler wants information from an office where another club machine is installed. The Rocky Mountain AAA machines are hooked up with all other TWXs in the nation.

Because several other western AAA clubs also are installing teletype machines, it is expected that a mountain states network will be formed to present weather and road information. The network plan already is used by several eastern area clubs.

In the east, especially during winter months, reports are sent out several times daily. Each club then can give its members the latest reports on storms, icy highways and snow covered secondary roads.

The network plan also is especially effective during spring floods and summer cloudbursts. It can help the tourist who must travel through sections where many sections of road are under construction.

Turnpikes aren't total blessing

Originally published in the Rocky Mountain Motorist, July 1956

Many Coloradoans motoring through the East or Midwest for the first time are asking for routings along the thruways, which is fine indeed if making tracks is the only objective. Although speedy and efficient, turnpikes are both scenically uninspiring and terribly monotonous.

One motorist who wrote and told us of her experience on the New York Thruway said, "The Thruway is the loneliest place in the state. The cars that have sped by you are out of sight up ahead. The cars you pass drop back into oblivion. And all alone you fly down a strip of concrete with no stops, no crossings and no people!"

In fact so conscious have many travelers become of the monotony of turnpikes that they've adopted a name for themselves, "shunpikers." The word is not new. It was in popular usage a hundred or so years ago when toll roads were plentiful and operated by entrepreneurs for private gain. Farmers and other travelers, by reasons of thrift, indignation or plain larceny, fixed up routes bypassing the toll collection points so they could use the turnpikes free. Those who used these bypasses were called shunpikers.

Now that the word has been revived, it has a somewhat different meaning. The modern shunpiker may have an aversion to paying tolls on top of all the other automotive taxes, but his real purpose in keeping off the turnpikes is to get greater enjoyment from his travels when speed is not the governing factor.

Generally speaking, the expressways have excellent safety records. For example, the Maine Turnpike authorities report a death-rate of 2.8 fatalities per 100,000,000 vehicle miles of travel. As a comparison eight times as many people died while traveling U.S. 1, which parallels this thruway.

Despite these statistics many motorists are still afraid of the high-speed thruways. Most turnpikes have speed limits between 60 and 70 miles per hour. Drivers who don't want to go that fast no matter how good the road may be, should stay off the expressways.

Another objection that shunpikers come up with is that the turnpikes make them "captives." They don't like to be limited to one brand of gasoline, one chain of restaurants, or "officially determined" night stop-off points.

Though we all realize the need for a vastly improved road network, more and better superhighways, the best way to see the country, to meet the folks in other cities is to motor the byways that bring you in touch with them. So when you ask your AAA travel counselor for vacation routings, keep in mind the purpose of your trip. If it's speed in reaching a particular place, keep to the turnpikes; if not, enjoy the picturesque and scenic views along the byways of the land.