The forgotten history of how automakers invented the crime of "jaywalking"

100 years ago, if you were a pedestrian, crossing the street was simple: you walked across it.

Today, if there's traffic in the area and you want to follow the law, you need to find a crosswalk. And if there's a traffic light, you need to wait for it to change to green.

Fail to do so, and you're committing a crime: jaywalking. In some cities — Los Angeles, for instance — police ticket tens of thousands of pedestrians annually for jaywalking, with fines of up to $250.

To most people, this seems part of the basic nature of roads. But it's actually the result of an aggressive, forgotten 1920s campaign led by auto groups and manufacturers that redefined who owned the city street.

"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."

One of the keys to this shift was the creation of the crime of jaywalking. Here's a history of how that happened.

The forgotten history of how automakers invented the crime of "jaywalking"

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/15/7551873/jaywalking-history

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Permalink Reply by Fran Kondorf on January 15, 2015 at 2:55pm

 There was a PBS program a few years back commemorating the centennial of the automobile where I first learned of this. Traffic accidents were also long considered by the newspapers to be 'acts of God' and not, in fact, operator errors. Ah, the good ol' days.

 

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on January 15, 2015 at 4:20pm

Thanx for reminding.  The auto industry's institutionalization of victim blaming, externalization of costs, and creation of an entitled driver class, is one of history's great propaganda success stories.

Permalink Reply by Bradford Smith on January 15, 2015 at 5:44pm

Vintage ad card in Chicago streetcar at Illinois Railway Museum.

Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on January 16, 2015 at 6:51am

I read this a while ago and was frustrated that I could not re-find it. Thanks for posting, Bob.

Permalink Reply by Jim Reho on January 16, 2015 at 8:23am

Nice post!  That is a terrific museum.

Bradford Smith said:

Vintage ad card in Chicago streetcar at Illinois Railway Museum.

Permalink Reply by Irvin Steinert on January 17, 2015 at 8:36am

That is an extremely distorted view.

Permalink Reply by Bob Kastigar on January 17, 2015 at 9:31am

I had posted this on another discussion group, and received a reply with another link.  I'm not agreeing with all of this, but some are interested in history and background.

City streets before autos were not nearly as bucolic as Peter Norton likes to portray them. By the turn of the century the biggest urban problem was horse manure and dead horses in the streets of cities like New York and Chicago. And it was definitely not more safe...

"In New York in 1900, 200 persons were killed by horses and horse-drawn vehicles. This contrasts with 344 auto-related fatalities in New York in 2003; given the modern city’s greater population, this means the fatality rate per capita in the horse era was roughly 75 percent higher than today.

Data from Chicago show that in 1916 there were 16.9 horse-related fatalities for each 10,000 horse-drawn vehicles; this is nearly seven times the city’s fatality rate per auto in 1997.

The reason is that horse-drawn vehicles have an engine with a mind of its own. The skittishness of horses added a dangerous level of unpredictability to nineteenth-century transportation. This was particularly true in a bustling urban environment, full of surprises that could shock and spook the animals. Horses often stampeded, but a more common danger came from horses kicking, biting, or trampling bystanders. Children were particularly at risk."

Automobiles ultimately were the answer. After the chaotic transition that Mr North describes, cities became cleaner and safer for pedestrians and the poor children who had to play in the streets.

From a Berkeley paper that is a bit long but extremely interesting:
http://www.uctc.net/access/30/Access%2030%20-%2002%20-%20Horse%20Po...

Permalink Reply by Haddon on January 18, 2015 at 6:22pm

There is a book and quite a bit more here:

http://www.roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/chicago1897/

Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on January 18, 2015 at 7:07pm

Here's film footage from a 1906 San Francisco cable car, running down Market Street, showing the almost chaotic traffic of the time: no pedestrian crosswalks, no traffic lights, no real rules of the road.  Almost like a "woonerf", the street was safe for all modes of travel (a few cyclists are even in the film), as everyone moved fairly slowly and carefully and everyone seemed conscious of everyone else on the road--a far cry from 21st Century roads.

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