The fall of 1929 was a busy time for the ways local motorists got from place to place. Many roadways got numbers, new traffic signals appeared and some roadways got promoted.
According to the Otsego Farmer of Dec. 11, “Changes in route numbers of more than 500 state highways were announced last week by the highway department, in conformity with the plan for marking all main and secondary routes in the state.
“Heretofore only the main routes have been marked with numerals, but under the new plan all highways in the state system will be marked with metal number signs, so that a traveler, equipped with a new route map will be able to tell his whereabouts.
“United States route numbers have not been changed, but various branches of these highways have been given numbers and letters, such as ‘9A,’ ‘9B,’ and so on.” For example, U.S. Route 20, which runs through northern Otsego County, had been designated in 1926.
“The new route signs have been purchased, and their installation throughout the system will be completed in the spring.”
A few of our region’s highways got these new numbers. State Route 7 was established from the Pennsylvania state line through Binghamton, Oneonta, Cobleskill, Schenectady, Troy and Hoosick to the Vermont state line.
Route 10 was named from Stamford to Cobleskill, Canajoharie, Speculator, Indian Lake, Tupper Lake and the Canadian line.
Route 12 connected Binghamton to Sherburne, Hubbardsville and Sangerfield.
Route 28 was established from Kingston, Oneonta, Mohawk, Alder Creek, Blue Mountain Lake, North Creek and Warrensburg.
State Route 12B was established in 1930, and in another story regarding traffic signals appearing in the Nov. 6 edition of the Farmer, readers learned, “Hamilton’s new traffic lights have provoked more interest in local police during the last month than all the preceding Hamilton events in the 110 years of Colgate’s history. Not only have the village fathers installed these red, green and orange lights just like they use in the big cities, but they have hired a day and a night policeman.
“The lights have interested the Colgate students to no small degree, because the collegians, who own more than half of the automobiles in town, have to stop and wait for the none-too-rapid changes whether there is any competition for the boulevard or not. The students claim that since the street intersections are all open and an accident has not occurred there within the memory of anyone now in college, the big city equipment is not needed. After being discussed in several class rooms, and in not a few formal indignation meetings, half a dozen self-appointed investigators have probed the right of the village to use this alleged objectional equipment.”
State Route 80 was established locally in the late 1920s, and was apparently getting a lot of traffic from leisurely motorists, as the Farmer of Oct. 2 reported, “Route 80, Otsquago Trail association, was given a great forward impetus Monday night, when a combined meeting of the Exchange clubs of that village and Cooperstown and the Cooperstown Rotary club was held at Fort Plain. Every member of the three clubs present, numbering sixty-nine, voted to join the association.
“Route 80 now extends from Indian Lake in the Adirondacks to the Springfield Four Corners on the Cherry Valley Turnpike (U.S. 20) and every effort is being made to secure the extension of this artery of travel from that point through Cooperstown to Colliers, there joining the Schohanna Trail. The importance of this movement to Cooperstown is apparent to the most casual observer as it will place this village on the main line of the important north-and-south thoroughfares of the country, destined, it is said, to become a part of a great road leading from Montreal to Miami.”
Efforts to keep the roadways attractive was important to another group, as the Farmer reported on Dec. 4, “The Cherry Valley Turnpike association at a meeting of the Board of Directors Wednesday night of last week in the library at Richfield Springs, voted to continue its campaign against highway advertising. The board adopted as a slogan, ‘The Landscape Is No Place for Advertising.’
“A series of meetings will be held in the near future in each of the communities between Albany and Syracuse to advance the campaign.”
On Wednesday, a big fall for soccer around Oneonta in 1999.