In an Alternate History novel I have planned, the protagonist will set the minimum age to drive motorcycles at 8 years old. The story starts in 1900. How will the people of the period respond to this new law?

Sorry. I wanted to be helpful, but I couldn’t follow it. I really tried. Let’s see what the other’s say.

And ask Matt Browne.

There were no driving licenses at all during that time period. Or car insurance. People assumed if you had an accident, it was your own fault. A parent in 1900 would not have $50 to spend on a motorcycle for a kid. He would have to be smart enough to get the parts and build it himself.

and why is the time traveler proposing this laws?Doesn’t he have more important things to do?

I think your audience is the comic book crowd rather than people who buy novels. To ask your readers to suspend reality, you have to start with reality;

Also it helps to have accessible characters, motivation for their actions and in an historical novel, research is essential or all readers will see are your errors

@PandoraBoxx The average per-capita income that year was about $440, so even though $50 would be quite a hunk, Mr. Shinohara will offer a monthly payment plan – $2.10/month for 24 months. (Maybe with interest, or not; haven’t decided.)

@Christian95 Yes, he has to emigrate Leon Czolgosz to a deserted island off Jamaica to prevent his assassination of President William McKinley.

He also has the prison system to reform, a bridge to build to Cuba, to the Bahamas, between the Hawaiian Islands, and many devices to invent.

But all are (likely) equally important in Mr. Shinohara’s eyes.

Bridges between the Hawaiian islands make no sense—what future are you perfecting by doing that?

As a parent I would insist on proper training before I let the child use anything powerful, whether a vehicle or a tool. I would also want to be confident of the child’s judgment and the safety of the situation with respect to other kids’ use. Some kinds would be capable and some wouldn’t; some places might be safe enough and others not. Also I would consider those top speeds much too high for little kids.

If they were as common as bicycles, I would probably think about it. But the big question would be how much $50 represented out of my particular family’s means. I would certainly not make the family sacrifice in order to let the child have a toy, no matter how much he wanted it.

Don’t worry about people’s questioning of your story elements. It’s your story, and it’s fiction. Plenty of published novels on the racks right now are guaranteed to have logical holes and nonsensical plot elements if you look for them. Have fun with your novel.

@Jeruba Good point. Laying off the plot points =)

On the money:

$50 in 1900 -> $1200 in 2008

That’s really not that out of line, particularly if the protagonist actually does significant economic reforms.

@galileogirl: you should not use comic books as a synonym for lowbrow. comics cater to all demographics and interest (less so in english-speaking countries) though. a lot of those read novels.

At that time, the attitude in the US to licesnsing anything was quite negative. I don’t believe the first drivers license was issued in the US for at least another decade (at least for non-commercial use). At that time many states did not have licensing even for doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.
Motor vehicles of all kinds were much more expensive than that. In 1908, my great-grandfather bought a Stoddard-Dayton touring car for $3500, when the average income of an industrial worker was about $500 per year. Even the cheapest automobiles of that era were in the $800–1000 range. The earliest Harley-Davidson motorcycles sold for about $250.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Yes, autos were expensive to produce in the standards of that time. However, as the protagonist starts with $(((2^45)-1)/100), he can afford to start his business operating at a huge loss at first, while his R&D’ers research ways to build the cars more efficiently and cheaply.

The reason why he decides to launch his auto companies at a huge operating loss at the get-go is so he can jump-start America for the 20th Century and put it on wheels earlier than Henry Ford did, therefore boosting the economy much faster than originally.

As his R&D’ers will work 24/7 in four six-hour shifts, they will quickly find a method that will make his car manufacturing operations profitable.

Henry Ford had to study slaughterhouses (“dis-assembly lines”) in order to build a blueprint for the Assembly Line that sped up production and lowered the costs for his Model-Ts. Instead of Shinohara studying that himself, he’ll send his R&D’ers to study it for him. (As well, Taka will pen them a crude drawing of the idea of an assembly line, and ask them to go off it to formulate and build one.)

PS: Your great-grandpa’s Stoddard-Dayton will be alive-and-well today thanks to Mr. Shinohara’s intervention. He’ll hire a newsscoper to scope out nationwide newspapers for any car manufacturer in trouble, and when he reports back on a company, Mr. Shinohara will buy that out and make it a sub-marque of the entire Shinohara line of vehicles. In that way, Stoddard-Dayton will become a Shinohara marque much like how Pontiac became GM’s marque. He will rescue ALL car marques from going under. Pierce-Arrow, Studebaker, Packard, Duesenberg, Cord, Auburn, and all of the otherwise failed auto manufacturers will be rescued by SAMCI (Shinohara Auto Motor Corporation International; “sam-key”) and become Shinohara marques.

This just in:

Oh, no! If Taka is going to save every last American auto manufacturer from going under by making them sub-companies of his auto companies, then this will be a MASSIVE undertaking!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_United_States_automobile_manufacturers

You can’t save them all. If nothing else, I don’t think that there is enough real estate for all of those plants. Also bear in mind that some of them went under and came back, sometimes under a different name. It also seems to me that the period from 1900–1920 was chock-full of flashes in the pan.
Also note that some of the early cars were electric. The 1886 Motorwagen may be considered the first true car, but Gustav Trouve showcased his electric car in 1881 and EVs had actually been around for almost half a century by then.
Now, if you went back and lowered the production cost of EVs (invest in battery technology, etcetera) then imagine the money that could be saved elsewhere. Look at how much we spend currently on environmental cleanup and think of how many oil spills we could avoid if there were far fewer tankers running ashore. Think of how much cleaner the air would be as well.

I don’t know for certain, but having been to several motor vehicle museums over the years I estimate that a motorcycle from 1900 would weigh no less than 200 pounds. Would anyone in their right mind imagine an 8 year-old could manage driving such a beast?

Lowering the driving age will eliminate the need for birth control for the nation for years to come, and probably make an all female army a near certainty.

@davidk Considering that many modern motorcycles weigh appreciably more than their riders, I fail to see the issue there really.

@YARNLADY Heh!

@YARNLADY I suppose then, that’s being malevolent-benevolent.

In this novel, he gives immigration a “carte blanche” of sorts: EVERYONE ENTERS. Our protagonist foots the bill for “problem immigrants” – whether it be health-wise or otherwise. He also constructs IMACs – International Migrant Assimilation Centers – where immigrants learn English and get acquainted with other aspects of American culture, to get more settled into the New World.

Constructing these immigrant accommodation centers + paying for “public charges” are what Mr. Shinohara does in exchange for getting the INS of the time period to let everybody in.

The population explosion will still outpace what you say.

(By the way, thanks for letting us know. That was pretty touché.)

@EgaoNoGenki: do you post at any of these places? if you don’t, I would sign up there. you’d find some help and like minds there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_history#Interactive_sites

@Ria777 Thanks a lot. I’ll consider that.

glad to hear that you liked the idea. I maintain that many questions, you would get higher quality answers on specialist messageboard rather than Fluther, if you can find the specialist messageboard.

Umm… I skipped the comments… and tried to follow the question. But one things jumped out at me.

If everyone is going different speeds, wouldn’t that make the maximum speed essentially the lowest allowed speed for the youngest driver in reality and piss off everyone on the road? That’s retarded.

And if you’re looking at the economy as being roughly parallel to our own… $50 in 1900 was kind of expensive for the average person. They would not be filling the streets with them.