THERE ISN’T A country on Earth without a significant automotive population, despite the car being a recent invention. Today, there are 1.5 billion globally. A century ago, there were just 0.017 billion – almost 90% of them in the US.
As such, the 1924 observations of Edward Reeve, having toured the world as a consultant after a distinguished engineering career at Wolseley, are truly fascinating.
“In Syria [then French], Egypt and Palestine [British], the car is making great headway in replacing the multifarious transportation methods. In Jerusalem, although motoring is still in its infancy, many trade opportunities occur.
“In Cairo, Africa’s largest city, with nearly one million people, there are many possibilities. The roads are first class and cars are plentiful.” Today, congested Cairo has a population of 22 million.…