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Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City (Inside Technology) Paperback – January 21, 2011

by Peter D. Norton (Author)

4.4 47 ratings

Part of: Inside Technology (63 books)

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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 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.

Review

"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"

"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"

"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"

About the Author

Peter D. Norton is Assistant Professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Virginia.

Part of series

Inside Technology
Print length

396 pages
Language

English
Publisher

The MIT Press
Publication date

January 21, 2011
Grade level

12 and up
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

8.69 x 5.86 x 0.8 inches
ISBN-10

0262516128
ISBN-13

978-0262516129
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The MIT Press; SECOND PRINTING edition (January 21, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 396 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0262516128
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0262516129
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 12 and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.69 x 5.86 x 0.8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #842,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #512 in Automotive History (Books)
- #625 in Social Aspects of Technology
- #804 in History of Technology

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4.4 47 ratings

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Peter D. Norton

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Peter Norton is a historian of technology at the University of Virginia. He wrote Fighting Traffic to show how American city streets became places for cars instead of for people. He wrote Autonorama to show that autonomous vehicles won't solve our problems — and that fortunately we already have much better ways to achieve safe, healthful, inclusive, affordable, and sustainable mobility.

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Vince Graham

A thorough documentation of 20th century enclosure.

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2013

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In 18th and 19th century Britain, Parliament passed a series of Enclosure Acts removing previously existing rights of local people to their use of the commons. In a dispassionate, straight forward manner, Dr. Norton reveals the story of how traditional rights to an individual's use of American streets(which comprise the largest portion of the public realm in any given city)were appropriated by "organized motordom" to benefit the growing ranks of automobile users. A masterful work of scholarship.

Though the author doesn't specifically state the connection (probably because he is so fair-minded and objective), the period covered (roughly 1910-39) corresponded with the rise of public relations. Norton's story provides a vivid example of how the new techniques of this field were used to manipulate public opinion and advance a political agenda. Fascinating! Highly recommend, especially for those working on pedestrian/bicycle accessibility, transit issues, architects, engineers, and urban designers, or anyone who simply loves cities.

7 people found this helpful

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Planner

This book is a well researched and documented history of ...

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2018

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This book is a well researched and documented history of how our public streets became the domain of motorized vehicles over significant and violent opposition. It also a very readable and engaging book. It would surprise most Americans to learn how pedestrians,cyclists, and other non-motorized roadway users were criminalized for the benefit of the wealthy minority that could afford cars.

5 people found this helpful

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John Forester

Forgotten war against pedestrians

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2015

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Peter Norton describes a long-forgotten aspect of the appearance of mass motoring in America, the war between motorists and pedestrians. When neither motorists nor pedestrians had significant rules, the appearance of a road vehicle that went faster than ever before resulted in pedestrian deaths. These produced strong anti-motoring emotions, furthered by cartoons of young mothers and innocent children murdered by speeding cars. When this produced proposed legislation for car governors to limit possible speed to 25 mph or so, everywhere, Motordom found itself united. It united against pedestrians on streets, and for highways without pedestrians. By 1940 it had won these battles, with pedestrians limited to sidewalks and crosswalks of normal streets, and freeways accepted for high-speed travel. We achieved this result by producing the rules of the road, that combine rules for drivers of wheeled vehicles on roadways and rules for pedestrians on sidewalks and crosswalks into one set of reasonably equitable conforming rules. As a child cyclist in London, UK, of the 1930s, arriving in California in 1940, I never questioned the principle of roadways for wheels and sidewalks for feet, the battle had been forgotten.
American cyclists should benefit from that principle, but American Motordom managed to get cyclists classified with pedestrians instead of drivers, which created the nasty legal situation of bicyclists under American traffic law. And now anti-motoring bicycle advocates are breaking that principle by advocating non-traveling uses for roadways. The reasons for the war between motorists and pedestrians should again be remembered, with the proper division of street users into those on wheels and those on feet. Norton's book revives that history.
My short criticism is that Norton has not properly discussed the creation and role of traffic rules in achieving our standard of reasonably safe operation.

3 people found this helpful

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Rex F

Academic

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2014

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This is a very thoroughly researched book. Almost a third of the last part of the book consists entirely of the author's footnotes. I found it to be a little too academic for my taste but others may appreciate that facet of the book. It might make a good reading assignment in an urban planning course at a university.

7 people found this helpful

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Dom Nozzi

The Fall of the Pedestrian Street

Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2009

Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City. By Peter D. Norton. Published 2008 by MIT.

Review by Dom Nozzi

This book is provocative, exceptionally enlightening, and a must-read for all pedestrian and bicycle professionals, urban designers, traffic engineers, elected and appointed officials.

Another title that the author could have considered to accurately describe the message of this book is "The Fall of the Pedestrian Street."

The book is an analysis of how the American street, its perceived purpose, and its design paradigm has been transformed over the past century. Up until the dawn of the 20th Century, the rights of and sympathy for the pedestrian were supreme. Street rules (to the extent that any existed) and street design were focused on pedestrian travel.

The emergence of the motor vehicle, however, radically changed all of this.

Motorists and auto makers united and organized in the first few decades of the 20th Century to overthrow the prevailing paradigm of the street. As motor vehicles started to be found on streets, they were quickly seen as inefficiently consuming an enormous amount of space. And combined with their horsepower, weight, and high speeds, motor vehicles were soon killing an alarmingly high number of pedestrians--particularly children and seniors.

Huge numbers of citizens at this time rallied to fight against the motor vehicle. There was a consensus that in a crash, the motorist was always at fault and the pedestrian (particularly children) were innocent. The media regularly faulted motorists for being "speed maniacs." And "murderers." Particularly in Cincinnati, there was a strong campaign to require cars to have "governors," which would not allow a car to be driven over 25 mph.

The growing number of motorists and auto makers became alarmed that the "freedom" and speed of car travel was being threatened by these nationwide campaigns. "Motordom" united, and in the course of a few decades, completely transformed the American transportation paradigm.

First, they succeeded in convincing the public that the car itself was not to blame for crashes. Nor was the problem due to speed. Instead, the motorist lobby succeeded in (falsely) convincing Americans that the problem was entirely due to "reckless" motorists. The lobby also achieved another crucial victory: No longer were pedestrians always innocent in crashes. Increasingly, the lobby convinced us that "reckless" pedestrians were often at fault.

Instead of motorists being vilified as speed maniacs, the new villain became the "jaywalker," a derogatory term that assigned blame to pedestrians who were irresponsibly crossing streets in unexpected locations (as they had done throughout history). Unexpected, carefree walking had become an incompatible public safety threat in the age of high-speed car travel. It was essential that uncontrolled pedestrians not using their designated crosswalks be seen as irresponsibly unsafe and immoral.

So the paradigm shift managed to reshape our thinking. Cars and car speeds are not a problem. What is needed, instead of slowing cars, is to vigorously prosecute "reckless" motorists and be vigilant in urging pedestrians to be careful. Comprehensive public safety education campaigns must teach all of us (particularly children) to be careful near roads. And to insist that pedestrians (and playing children) be kept out of the way of cars by keeping them off roads--or at least confined to intersection crosswalks.

Thus, the "forgiving street" (what the author calls the "foolproof street") was born. Dominating street design for nearly 100 years, this paradigm strives to design streets not to be safe and convenient for all users (including bicyclists, pedestrians and transit users), but to keep all non-motorized travelers out of the way of freedom- (and speed) loving American motorists. Streets are to be designed for safe driving at high speeds. And because forgiving street designers assume we will always have reckless drivers, streets must be designed to forgive reckless, inattentive driving. Grade separated intersections are needed. As are pedestrian skywalks. Move street trees and buildings and pedestrians away from the street.

The ultimate result, after several decades of this new motorist speed paradigm, has been an annual roadway death rate that remains extremely high. High levels of speeding and inattentive driving. Streets that are designed and safely usable only by cars, instead of being Complete Streets accessible to all. Unimaginably high levels of car dependency, heavy and worsening congestion, plummeting quality of life, a near absence of pedestrians, bicyclists and transit users, endless suburban sprawl and strip commercial, and declining downtowns.

I'm certain the author would agree with me that an essential task for safety and quality of life is to return our communities to a lower-speed environment. And this must largely be achieved not through laws against speeders or speed limit signs, but through the design of streets that effectively ratchets down urban travel speed via such tactics as human-scaled dimensions to achieve traffic calming--and Monderman's "shared space" concept (what I like to call "attentive" streets). High-speed car traffic is simply incompatible with the human habitat.

This is not a call to re-vilify cars, but to reshape our world to obligate motorists to behave themselves.

17 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Darius Philipp Shahinfar

A must read for all interested in transportation and the history of transportation

Reviewed in Germany on April 19, 2021

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Very Interesting book. Gives you insights about the strong interdependences between city development and automobiles and the history of this development.
Very recommendable!

J. adams

Fighting traffic the next battle

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 9, 2017

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Fighting traffic is an instructive account of the social reconstruction of American cities that led to their domination by motordom – the powerful collective of interests dedicated clearing a path for the car. The most important period in the rise of motordom was the 1920s. Norton charts this transformation in terms of the insults that the competitors for road space traded with each other: motorists became “joy riders”, “road hogs” and “speed demons”, and their machines “juggernauts” and “death cars”, while pedestrians became “jaywalkers” and street cars became “traffic obstructions”. Norton explains how the road hogs won, how roads that were previously shared spaces were taken over by the car.
He attributes this victory to motordom’s awareness of the importance of shaping attitudes, the impressive resources that they had available to apply to this task, and their ultimate success in establishing that urban roads were, almost exclusively, for cars. By 1930 the battle had been won: “most street users agreed that most streets were chiefly motor thoroughfares.”
“Motordom”, Norton notes, “had effective rhetorical weapons, growing national organization, a favourable political climate, substantial wealth, and the sympathy of a growing minority of city motorists. By 1930, with these assets, motordom had redefined city streets.”
This is how he accounts for the dramatic change in attitudes, over a short space of time, about who should have the right of way on American streets: “From American ideals of political and economic freedom, motordom fashioned the rhetorical lever it needed. In these terms, motorists, though a minority, had rights that protected their choice of mode from intrusive restrictions. Their driving also constituted a demand for street space, which, like other demands in a free market, was not a matter for expert scrutiny.”
Norton’s account is not of mere historical interest. Today the five most valuable companies in the world – Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook – plus Tesla and Uber and all the major traditional car manufacturers, are promoting driverless cars. And they promise to reopen the argument over who should have the right of way on city streets.
They boast that their cars will able to respond with extreme deference to all pedestrians, cyclists and children encountered in the street, thereby liberating them to enjoy their pre-motordom freedom to venture safely into the road. But they concede that if this freedom were widely exercised in dense urban areas motor traffic would grind to a halt. So, who will command the streets in dense urban areas? The promoters of driverless cars are also the world’s preeminent shapers of public opinion.
PS A sixth star for clear and persuasive writing.

One person found this helpful

Arash Amiri

One of the best books on the history of traffic in the US that I could find.

Reviewed in Germany on August 5, 2016

Verified Purchase

It is short (the last third of it is pretty much all just references), but it is very informative. I learned a lot about the history of jaywalking (how it was constructed by the car lobby) and also a lot about the lobbying practices of the car companies.

Very insightful if you like to know more about how our cities became what they are today.

Jeanne B.

Uninteresting

Reviewed in Germany on October 9, 2014

Verified Purchase

This seemed to me to be a topic that could be very interesting, and yet the book managed to say very little (what little it did say it repeated over and over again). I couldn't get through it.

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