Fighting Traffic The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City

andlt;Pandgt;Before the advent of the automobile, users of city streets were diverse and included children at play and pedestrians at large. By 1930, most streets were primarily a motor thoroughfares where children did not belong and where pedestrians were condemned as andquot;jaywalkers.andquot; In Fighting Traffic, Peter Norton argues that to accommodate automobiles, the American city required not only a physical change but also a social one: before the city could be reconstructed for the sake of motorists, its streets had to be socially reconstructed as places where motorists belonged. It was not an evolution, he writes, but a bloody and sometimes violent revolution. Norton describes how street users struggled to define and redefine what streets were for. He examines developments in the crucial transitional years from the 1910s to the 1930s, uncovering a broad anti-automobile campaign that reviled motorists as andquot;road hogsandquot; or andquot;speed demonsandquot; and cars as andquot;juggernautsandquot; or andquot;death cars.andquot; He considers the perspectives of all users--pedestrians, police (who had to become andquot;traffic copsandquot;), street railways, downtown businesses, traffic engineers (who often saw cars as the problem, not the solution), and automobile promoters. He finds that pedestrians and parents campaigned in moral terms, fighting for andquot;justice.andquot; Cities and downtown businesses tried to regulate traffic in the name of andquot;efficiency.andquot; Automotive interest groups, meanwhile, legitimized their claim to the streets by invoking andquot;freedomandquot;--a rhetorical stance of particular power in the United States. Fighting Traffic offers a new look at both the origins of the automotive city in America and how social groups shape technological change.Peter D. Norton is Assistant Professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Virginia. andlt;/Pandgt;

"We forget that the search for mobility in urban areas has also led to a massive increase in mortality. Fighting Traffic makes the linkage between mobility and mortality explicit. This is a cutting edge work in mobility history and a major contribution to urban history." Clay McShane , author of Down the Asphalt Path The MIT Press

"In this exquisitely researched book, Norton guides us through the complex and passionate debates that cleared the street to make way for the car. These decisions made decades ago still shape our cities, so they are vital to understanding the future of the automobile, as well as its past." Zachary M. Schrag , author of The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro Zachary M. Schrag

"This is rigorous scholarship the history of technology, and the history of the automobile in particular, will truly benefit from. Norton's fascinating, in-depth history shows the automotive revolution was fought in the streets, reshaping the use of public space and impacting perceptions for generations thereafter." Gijs Mom , author of The Electric Vehicle: Technology and Expectations in the Automobile Age The MIT Press

andlt;Pandgt;"In this exquisitely researched book, Norton guides us through the complex and passionate debates that cleared the street to make way for the car. These decisions made decades ago still shape our cities, so they are vital to understanding the future of the automobile, as well as its past."--Zachary M. Schrag, author of The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metroandlt;/Pandgt; The MIT Press The MIT Press Zachary M. Schrag

andldquo;The Cycling City tells the story of an ephemeral cityandmdash;half imagined, half realandmdash;a city of bicycles. Powering these new machines with their own muscles, Americans of the 1890s found that they could travel farther and faster than their legs alone would take them, in directions no streetcar tracks ran, through the city and into the countryside. Though sometimes ridiculous in their utopian pronouncements and their fashion choices, they understood the bicycleandrsquo;s potential, and Friss has done important work in recovering their insights and their voices.andrdquo;

andldquo;As cyclists fight their way back onto the streets of American citiesandmdash;theyandrsquo;ve had a prominent place in European cities foreverandmdash;it is instructive and, yes, lots of fun, to travel back in time with Friss to the andlsquo;cycling cityandrsquo; of the 1890s and the moment in time when the bicycle offered New Yorkandrsquo;s wildly varied populations of natives and immigrants, men and women, boys and girls, the idly rich and working folk alike, a cheap, healthy, efficient, effective, noiseless, pollution-free, and, in good weather, fun way to get to work and, when work was done, get out of town. Powerfully argued, beautifully composed, timely, and with some great photos, The Cycling City is history as it should be written.andrdquo;

Before the advent of the automobile, users of city streets were diverse and included children at play and pedestrians at large. By 1930, most streets were primarily a motor thoroughfares where children did not belong and where pedestrians were condemned as "jaywalkers." In Fighting Traffic, Peter Norton argues that to accommodate automobiles, the American city required not only a physical change but also a social one: before the city could be reconstructed for the sake of motorists, its streets had to be socially reconstructed as places where motorists belonged. It was not an evolution, he writes, but a bloody and sometimes violent revolution. Norton describes how street users struggled to define and redefine what streets were for. He examines developments in the crucial transitional years from the 1910s to the 1930s, uncovering a broad anti-automobile campaign that reviled motorists as "road hogs" or "speed demons" and cars as "juggernauts" or "death cars." He considers the perspectives of all users--pedestrians, police (who had to become "traffic cops"), street railways, downtown businesses, traffic engineers (who often saw cars as the problem, not the solution), and automobile promoters. He finds that pedestrians and parents campaigned in moral terms, fighting for "justice." Cities and downtown businesses tried to regulate traffic in the name of "efficiency." Automotive interest groups, meanwhile, legitimized their claim to the streets by invoking "freedom"--a rhetorical stance of particular power in the United States. Fighting Traffic offers a new look at both the origins of the automotive city in America and how social groups shape technological change.Peter D. Norton is Assistant Professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Virginia.

The fight for the future of the city street between pedestrians, street railways, and promoters of the automobile between 1915 and 1930.

Before the advent of the automobile, users of city streets were diverse and included children at play and pedestrians at large. By 1930, most streets were primarily motor thoroughfares where children did not belong and where pedestrians were condemned as jaywalkers. In

Before the advent of the automobile, users of city streets were diverseand included children at play and pedestrians at large. By 1930, most streets wereprimarily a motor thoroughfares where children did not belong and where pedestrianswere condemned as jaywalkers. In Fighting Traffic, Peter Norton arguesthat to accommodate automobiles, the American city required not only a physicalchange but also a social one: before the city could be reconstructed for the sake ofmotorists, its streets had to be socially reconstructed as places where motoristsbelonged. It was not an evolution, he writes, but a bloody and sometimes violentrevolution. Norton describes how street users struggled to define and redefine whatstreets were for. He examines developments in the crucial transitional years fromthe 1910s to the 1930s, uncovering a broad anti-automobile campaign that reviledmotorists as road hogs or speed demons and cars asjuggernauts or death cars. He considers the perspectives ofall users--pedestrians, police (who had to become traffic cops), streetrailways, downtown businesses, traffic engineers (who often saw cars as the problem, not the solution), and automobile promoters. He finds that pedestrians and parentscampaigned in moral terms, fighting for justice. Cities and downtownbusinesses tried to regulate traffic in the name of efficiency.Automotive interest groups, meanwhile, legitimized their claim to the streets byinvoking freedom--a rhetorical stance of particular power in the UnitedStates. Fighting Traffic offers a new look at both the origins of the automotivecity in America and how social groups shape technological change.Peter D. Norton isAssistant Professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society at theUniversity of Virginia.

andlt;Pandgt;The fight for the future of the city street between pedestrians, street railways, and promoters of the automobile between 1915 and 1930.andlt;/Pandgt;

As Evan Friss shows in his mordant history of urban bicycling in the late nineteenth century, the bicycle has long told us much about cities and their residents. In a time when American cities were chaotic, polluted, and socially and culturally impenetrable, the bicycle inspired a vision of an improved city in which pollution was negligible, transport was noiseless and rapid, leisure spaces were democratic, and the divisions between city and country blurred. Friss focuses not on the technology of the bicycle but on the urbanisms that bicycling engendered. Bicycles altered the look and feel of cities and their streets, enhanced mobility, fueled leisure and recreation, promoted good health, and shrank urban spaces as part of a larger transformation that altered the city and the lives of its inhabitants, even as the bicycleand#8217;s own popularity fell, not to rise again for a century.

Cycling has experienced a renaissance in the United States, as cities around the country promote the bicycle as an alternative means of transportation. In the process, debates about the nature of bicyclesandmdash;where they belong, how they should be ridden, how cities should or should not accommodate themandmdash;have played out in the media, on city streets, and in city halls. Very few people recognize, however, that these questions are more than a century old.

The Cycling Cityand#160;is a sharp history of the bicycleandrsquo;s rise and fall in the late nineteenth century. In the 1890s, American cities were home to more cyclists, more cycling infrastructure, more bicycle friendly legislation, and a richer cycling culture than anywhere else in the world.and#160; Evan Friss unearths the hidden history of the cycling city, demonstrating that diverse groups of cyclists managed to remap cities with new roads, paths, and laws, challenge social conventions, and even dream up a new urban ideal inspired by the bicycle. When cities were chaotic and filthy, bicycle advocates imagined an improved landscape in which pollution was negligible, transportation was silent and rapid, leisure spaces were democratic, and the divisions between city and country were blurred. Friss argues that when the utopian vision of a cycling city faded by the turn of the century, its death paved the way for todayandrsquo;s car-centric citiesandmdash;and ended the prospect of a true American cycling city ever being built.

Judith Rodenbeck is a professor of modern and contemporary artand the history of photography at Sarah Lawrence College, whereshe serves as chair of the Division of Visual Culture. Her currentresearch examines mechanical transcriptions of the real.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Rise of the Cycling City

Chapter 2: The Cyclists

Chapter 3: Rules of the Road

Chapter 4: Good Roads

Chapter 5: The Bicycle Paths (Not) Taken

Chapter 6: Riding for Recreation and Health

Chapter 7: Riding for Utility: The Commuters

Chapter 8: Riding for Reform: Wheelwomen

Chapter 9: The Crash

Epilogue

Notes

Index