The men behind the Electric Vehicle Co. thought they had the 20th century by the scruff of the neck. After two inventors had fashioned a working electric vehicle in 1894, they formed an electric taxicab company in New York, that grew enough to be backed by a wealthy industrialist. As of 1899, there were 60-odd electric taxicabs in the city, and while they were heavy and slow by modern standards, they were a marvel of luxury compared to staring at a horse's behind over cobblestone streets. On this day in 1899, an EV driver named Jacob German was flagged down by a New York City police officer — Bicycle Roundsman Schuessler — who found his cab to be traveling at an unacceptable speed, which the officer estimated at 12 mph. German would receive America's first citation for speeding in a car, a historical note that has outlived the Electric Vehicle company, which foundered and collapsed a couple of years later. You can catch a glimpse of an EV taxi at work — and see why 12 mph would have been so fast — in this famous clip shot by Thomas Edison of 23rd Street:
Source: Yahoo!
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