Street Rivals: Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street

Citation: Peter Norton (2007) Street Rivals: Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street. Technology and Culture (RSS)
DOI (original publisher): 10.1353/tech.2007.0085
Semantic Scholar (metadata): 10.1353/tech.2007.0085
Sci-Hub (fulltext): 10.1353/tech.2007.0085
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Street Rivals: Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street
Download: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236825193 Street Rivals Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street
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Summary

Describes struggle for control of streets, won by cars by 1930. Title highlights use of previously obscure "jaywalker" term, previously used for rube new to and dazzled by city sights, and combined legal and normative (ridicule) effort to drive people from the streets. Pejoratives for irresponsible drivers (jaydriver, fliverboob) did not gain wide currency and focus on irresponsible drivers was embraced by car advocates as compatible with streets being for cars.

Until the early 1920s children commonly played in the street, and drivers killed thousands of children. Cars were characterized as devilish. Official speed limits were very low (10mph or less). These and an attempt to mandate speed governors (1923, in Cincinnati) were defeated, in part through organizing by car dealers, including through their influence as advertisers in newspapers.

Others have focused on later decline of streetcars at hands of auto industry. This occurred after the battle for the streets was lost by people.

Theoretical and Practical Relevance

Podcast covering almost exact same material: http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-76-the-modern-moloch/

Quotes:

"pedestrians must be educated to know that automobiles have rights."

"the streets of Chicago belong to the city, not to the automobilists."