A “backseat driver” has been a common,
yet persistent, minor annoyance since at least 1915:
All the
passengers wear their goggles and dusters and veils and most of them have a
tough time of it besides, because they are what is known as backseat drivers.
Perhaps the reader would like to get a definition of a backseat driver.
The sex
is generally feminine, and the inspiration is a combination of fear and
hope. The backseat driver takes it upon
herself to do all the duties of a chauffeur except, of course, run the car,
which is a minor matter.
She
endeavors to push her French heels through the floor every time she thinks the
car should be stopped in the imaginary motion of applying the brakes.
“Ingenious Devices Joy Riders of
To-Day Display,” The Sun (New York),
July 25, 1915, Section V, page 7.
At a time when cars were
frequently open-topped and the turn signals and braking signals were made by
hand, backseat drivers did not annoy only people in their car; they could annoy other traffic as well:
But the
most confusing habit of those chronically addicted to backseat driving is signaling with the hands as if to stop
or turn a corner or change the course in any direction.
The
greatest trouble is that there are usually two or three backseat drivers per car.
Approaching from the rear one of these cars loaded with the average
family of backseat drivers is as confusing as trying to select the prettiest
girl in the Ziegfeld Follies. The
occupants of the back seat have the indecision of a chameleon placed on plaid
and hands usually stick out in every direction, indicating it may change its
mind and course and even back up at any minute.
Judging by the semaphores in the back seat the automobile is as
uncertain in its intentions as the millionaire’s daughter who is trying to make
up her mind whether to elope with the chauffeur or a social gangster.
There
is another strange phenomenon about the possessors of these ladies’ and misses’
styles in automobiles. The new owner
believes his car is faster than any other on the road and always chooses the
middle of the road as the proper place to drive. If you desire to pass him it is necessary to
take to the gutter and to run the risks of the waving and pointing hands of the
backseat drivers. It
is frequently difficult to discriminate between conversational gestures and road
directions.
“Ingenious Devices Joy Riders of
To-Day Display,” The Sun (New York),
July 25, 1915, Section V, page 7.
“Backseat drivers” by some name
or another had probably been a minor annoyance since the invention of the
automobile, which is generally credited to Karl Benz in 1886; or at least since
the invention of the backseat sometime shortly thereafter. The excerpt above from 1915,
however, is the earliest, unambiguous example of the expression that I could
find.[i]
The term “backseat driver” may
also have existed as early 1913, although it is unclear whetherthe
article refers to “backseat drivers,” to people who literally drove from
the backseat, or to backseat passengers on motorcycles. The article discusses the advantages of
then-new, so-called “cyclecars” – four-wheeled vehicles built along the lines
of a motorcycle, with a chain- or belt-drive.
In the
spirit of the real definition of the word a cyclecar is a four-wheeled car
built on motorcycle lines . . . . At
first it will be a vehicle to which the motorcycle and back-seat driver can graduate, until the public realizes
the clean and cheap possibilities of the vehicle.
Motor Age (Chicago), Volume 23, Number 19, May 8, 1913, page 12.
A number of cyclecars were two-seaters,
much like a bi-planes, in which two people sit one-behind the other; in some
versions, the steering wheel is in the back seat. Is that the sort of backseat driver referred
to? As I read it, it could go any one of
three different ways.
 |
| The Evening Star (Washington DC), January 11, 1914, page 5. |
Backseat drivers may have been a
nuisance in 1915, but things would change.
In 1921, developments in the evolving law of automobiles encouraged
passengers to become backseat drivers – or suffer the consequences:
Automobiles
– Contributory Negligence of the Guest in Failing to Warn the Driver of
Impending Danger.
– The
plaintiff was riding as a guest in the defendant’s automobile. The windshield of the car was frosted so that
neither was able to see that a crossing was blocked by a standing train until
too late to avoid collision. The
plaintiff had warned the defendant of the excessive speed at which he was
driving, but testified that he did not know whether or not the defendant had
heard his protest. The plaintiff knew
the position of the railroad crossing, but did not remonstrate with the
defendant in regard to the manner in which he was approaching it. Held, that the plaintiff was guilty of
contributory negligence as a matter of law.
Failure on the part of the guest to see that the driver is keeping a
proper lookout or to protest the negligent manner in which the car is being
driven will bar a recovery from the driver in case of injury. Howe v. Corey (Wis., 1920), 179 N. W. 791.
. . . . [This ruling], in effect, places a
burden upon the guest of electing between becoming a “back seat driver” or his own insurer against the perils
encountered during the drive.
“Recent Important Decisions,” Michigan Law Review, Volume 19, Number
4, February 1921, page 433.
So remember, the next time you
get annoyed by someone’s backseat driving – perhaps they are just trying to help.
Complaints about selecting parking spaces is another matter entirely; don't get me started.
[i]
Other sources cite an apparently misdated article from the Daily Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine). See “Back-seat driver,” Phrases.org.uk
and “Where does the phrase ‘Backseat Driver’ come from?” PastandPresent.com
(both citing the Daily Kennebec Journal,
May, 1914). I believe the reference to
be misdated because Lefty
Gomez was not born until 1908; he played for the New York Yankees during
the 1930s.
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