Not sure that you really should. Or that you were incorrect. The 'rounded year 1900' was the very onset of both vehicle conversion to horseless, and the onset of registration legislations, but not necessarily its enforcement. It's reasonable to think that compliance will always trail behind regulations.
But in the grand scheme of things, we've never had more horseless cars in circulation than today, in 2020. The electric ratios of 1900 we're talking about are rounding errors by comparison to today.
But what I find fascinating most of all that it's been a hundred years and we're having similar conversations, again. Hundred years ago there were massive arguments about traffic pollution in the cities. However, it revolved around horseshit in the streets. People welcomed the newfangled gas belching cars and hailed them as the clean wave of the future.
France required identifying plates as early as 1783 for horse carriages in various form and then made it standardized as of August 14, 1893. Germany followed in 1896, to keep track of its growing vehicles. First state in USA, New York, required registrations as of April 25, 1901. And Britain required them as of January 1, 1904.
But in the grand scheme of things, we've never had more horseless cars in circulation than today, in 2020. The electric ratios of 1900 we're talking about are rounding errors by comparison to today.
But what I find fascinating most of all that it's been a hundred years and we're having similar conversations, again. Hundred years ago there were massive arguments about traffic pollution in the cities. However, it revolved around horseshit in the streets. People welcomed the newfangled gas belching cars and hailed them as the clean wave of the future.