mrsbright
Well-Known Member
[h=2]The forgotten history of how automakers invented the crime of "jaywalking"[/h]is the title of an article I got in my FB newsfeed yesterday. Very interesting indeed.
Complete article: The forgotten history of how automakers invented the crime of "jaywalking" - Vox
I mean, jaywalking probably is the most ridiculous crime I can think of and, like the article mentions, it can lead to a fine of a few hundred dollars.
How surprising is it really that this was invented to profit the car industry?
"In the early days of the automobile, it was drivers' job to avoid you, not your job to avoid them," says Peter Norton, a historian at the University of Virginia and author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City. "But under the new model, streets became a place for cars — and as a pedestrian, it's your fault if you get hit."
This was also part of the final strategy: shame. In getting pedestrians to follow traffic laws, "the ridicule of their fellow citizens is far more effective than any other means which might be adopted," said E.B. Lefferts, the head of the Automobile Club of Southern California in the 1920s. Norton likens the resulting campaign to the anti-drug messaging of 80s and 90s, in which drug use was portrayed not only as dangerous, but stupid.
(...)
Auto campaigners lobbied police to publicly shame transgressors by whistling or shouting at them — and even carrying women back to the sidewalk — instead of quietly reprimanding or fining them. They staged safety campaigns in which actors dressed in 19th century garb, or as clowns, were hired to cross the street illegally, signifying that the practice was outdated and foolish. In a 1924 New York safety campaign, a clown was marched in front of a slow-moving Model T and rammed repeatedly.
Complete article: The forgotten history of how automakers invented the crime of "jaywalking" - Vox
I mean, jaywalking probably is the most ridiculous crime I can think of and, like the article mentions, it can lead to a fine of a few hundred dollars.
How surprising is it really that this was invented to profit the car industry?