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‘The Slaughter of Pedestrians’

And speaking of urban speeds:

“A speed of twenty miles an hour within the city is dangerous, the speed of thirty miles an hour permitted by the Callan law is reckless and should be made dangerous.”

From the New York Times, 1912.

Car stopping distance has improved since then, whether human reaction times have is another question (particularly when they are in-texticated or otherwise impaired); the non-linear upward graph of car speed and risk of pedestrian death certainly hasn’t changed (and may have gotten worse with heaver vehicles with different profiles).

What has also obviously changed is the language — the quote in the title comes from the same article — which itself reflects the cultural accommodation of the city and culture to the car (and, as historian Peter Norton has shown, a gradual shifting in the balance of responsibility for safety onto the pedestrian).

(thanks Beany)

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 9:13 am and is filed under Cars, Cities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “‘The Slaughter of Pedestrians’”

  1. Vincent Clement Says:
    June 22nd, 2009 at 1:45 pm

    Car control has changed too. Power steering. Power brakes. Anti-lock brakes. Responsive suspension.

    Road design has changed. Were all roads paved in 1912? Did they have curbs? Traffic lights? Lighted streets? Etc.

  2. Mike Says:
    June 22nd, 2009 at 2:02 pm

    How much has the human body evolved in 100 years? Two legs, a body, a head…

    Why are reckless driving infractions set for the occupant that is protected, not the pedestrian who is exposed?

  3. aaron Says:
    June 23rd, 2009 at 9:09 am

    Did drivers car about pedestrians back then? Probably not.

  4. aaron Says:
    June 23rd, 2009 at 9:15 am

    How big a problem is pedestrian/vehicle accidents? Especially relative to the volume of traffic.

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Traffic Tom Vanderbilt

How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

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