Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Streetsblog.net

When the Streets Belonged to All, and All Belonged on the Streets

It's been a little over a year since Raquel Nelson was convicted of vehicular homicide for attempting to cross a street with her kids in suburban Atlanta. Much of the public responded not with outrage, or demands that municipalities improve conditions for pedestrians, but with victim-blaming vitriol, passed along in news stories with headlines like "Jaywalkers Take Deadly Risks."

false

How things have changed. In his book "Fighting Traffic," Peter Norton writes that "jaywalking" was an offense created by auto manufacturers and driving enthusiasts, who had a serious image problem in the early 20th century, when streets were commonly considered the province of the public at large. Taking a page from Norton, Charles Marohn at Network blog Streets.MN shares tidbits from a compendium of early traffic codes, some of which hark back to a time when 12 mph was considered a "shocking" speed (shockingly fast, that is) for urban motoring. Says Marohn:

[T]raffic engineering is a very young profession that is, in large part, making it up as it goes along. I’m not saying these people aren’t competent, just that engineers rarely admit (even to themselves) that this is all a huge experiment and society is essentially the guinea pig.

Since we expect pedestrians to routinely walk adjacent to traffic -- just a couple feet away, really -- traveling at speeds from 25 mph to 45 mph, the idea of someone being mowed down by an oncoming car traveling somewhere between 4 and 8 mph is hard for the modern mind to comprehend. Imagine suggesting that nobody need travel more than even 20 mph in a city, let alone the 4 mph that society held to be acceptable a century ago.

In 1935, Marohn notes, traffic laws extended equal rights to all road users. Less than 20 years later, pedestrians were being directed to sidewalks and footpaths. Marohn wonders if today's complex tangle of road regulations work any better than the earliest laws, which "seem simplistic but also quite effective."

"Yes," Marohn writes, "give me highways that allow me to get somewhere quickly, safely and efficiently, but when I get there, I actually want to be there. Let’s make our places worth being in, which may mean slow traffic along with more common sense and a little consideration."

Also on the Network today: The Transport Politic reports that while metro Miami commuters will be getting a nice new sales tax-funded rail line, they were supposed to get many more; Second Avenue Sagas revisits the history of air conditioning in New York subways; and Beyond DC says that NASA was able to send the Curiosity to Mars for less than the cost of one local highway project.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Tuesday’s Headlines Show Elections Have Consequences

"Woke" transit agencies need not apply for federal grants now that father of nine Sean Duffy is in charge.

May 20, 2025

Should We Treat the Local Bus As a Basic Right?

There's a way of framing public transit that makes the bus a useful mobility tool for everyone: as a moving extension of the sidewalk network.

May 20, 2025

Op-Ed: Public Transportation is Key to Social Mobility

"As wealth inequality grows and social mobility becomes more difficult, people without access to mobility will be left behind."

May 19, 2025

Car Harms Monday: Machines Took Over Cities and Left Humans in the Dust

There isn't enough physical space for every single household to store its fleet of personal vehicles in front of the home, nor is there space for everyone to drive at the same time. So let's fix that.

May 19, 2025

What Are University Transportation Centers — And Why Did Secretary Duffy Decimate Their Budgets?

University Transportation Centers are "where innovation happens." Earlier this month, though, the Trump administration took a sledgehammer to their budgets.

May 19, 2025

Monday’s Big, Beautiful Headlines

Ride-hailing and delivery apps are backing the Republican reconciliation bill because it includes a tax exemption for drivers' tips.

May 19, 2025
See all posts