Street Rivals

Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4024920
AutoresPeter D Norton (0000-0002-7210-4357, autor correspondente)
Ano2007
Volume48
Fascículo2
Páginas331-359
Data de publicação2007-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoTechnology and Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0040-165X • E-ISSN: 1097-3729
EditoraProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/tech.2007.0085
OpenAlexW2004731716
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas49
Referências citadas9

Before the American city could be physically reconstructed to accommodate automobiles, its streets had to be socially reconstructed as places where cars belong. Until then, streets were regarded as public spaces, where practices that endangered or obstructed others (including pedestrians) were disreputable. Motorists' claim to street space was therefore fragile, subject to restrictions that threatened to negate the advantages of car ownership. Epithets-especially joy rider-reflected and reinforced the prevailing social construction of the street. Automotive interest groups (motordom) recognized this obstacle and organized in the teens and 1920s to overcome it. One tool in this effort was jaywalker. Motordom discovered this obscure colloquialism in the teens, reinvented it, and introduced it to the millions. It ridiculed once-respectable street uses and cast doubt on pedestrians' legitimacy in most of the street. Though many pedestrians resented and resisted the term and its connotations, motordom's campaign was a substantial success

Public space · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture · American Political and Social Dynamics