How the car industry outlawed crossing the road

[Slick Vik]

 

The use of jaywalking as a term of ridicule against pedestrians crossing roads took off in the 1920s.

 

A key moment, says Norton, was a petition signed by 42,000 people in Cincinnati in 1923 to limit the speed of cars mechanically to 25mph (40kph). Though the petition failed, an alarmed auto industry scrambled to shift the blame for pedestrian casualties from drivers to walkers.

 

Soon, he adds, car lobby groups also started taking over school safety education, stressing that "streets are for cars and children need to stay out of them". Anti-jaywalking laws were adopted in many cities in the late 1920s, and became the norm by the 1930s.

 

In the decades that followed, the cultural ascendancy of the car was secured as the auto industry promoted "America's love affair with the automobile". Car makers portrayed them as the ultimate expression of personal freedom, an essential element of the "American dream".

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26073797

 

[LTAWACS]

Well... I do agree that roads are for cars and not kids... and that in a land as vast as the lower 48 the automobile really did open up travel possibilities. I can see how pedestrians walking in between parked cars on the curb will want to "cut" through them to cross the street, they will encounter unsuspecting drivers racing towards an unfavorable sempaphore - and get run over. That would not be good.

[LTAWACS]

I think some interesting questions to ask I think are:

 

In how many countries does the pedestrian have the right-of-way as in the USA?

 

and

 

In how many countries does the automobile have the right-of-way as in France?