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Gwendolyn Dolske and Rudy Salo welcome History Professor Dr Peter Norton (University of Virginia). We discuss the realtionshiip between Engineering, Law, Culture, and Ethics when it comes to the vehicle and traffic. How are our ideas of freedom wrapped up in the way we speak of cars? What does traffic tell us about the broader issues of the way transportation is designed? Given the history of the car, what can we expect in the future? Get Peter Norton's book: Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City Join our Patreon and enter our giveaway: https://www.patreon.com/c/GoodIsInTheDetails Connect with us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/profdolske.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/rudysalo.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/goodisinthedetails.bsky.social Read Rudy's work on Forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rudysalo/
Measured by distance and speed, today North Americans move more than ever. Movement, however, is but a means to an end; more movement is not in itself beneficial. Movement is a cost of meeting daily needs, and provided these needs are met, less movement is generally advantageous. Nevertheless, since the 1930s traffic engineers have pursued movement maximization in North American cities as if movement is an end in itself, and even as if movement is in itself freedom. The human costs have included unbearable burdens measurable as financial, health, safety, equitability, livability and environmental costs. Together these burdens impair human autonomy; that is, by constraining people's choices about where and how to live, they diminish freedom. Automobility, promoted as a deliverer of freedom, has instead imposed car dependency, a kind of unfreedom. Paradoxically, many engineers now pursue so-called “autonomous” (robotic) driving, promising thereby to sustain unsustainable quantities of movement, when the sole worthy end of movement is not machine but human autonomy. To escape the traps that these errors set for us, we must trace them to their origins. Though engineering is defined as applied science, history reveals that the origins and persistence of prevailing traffic engineering principles lie not in scientific research but in power politics, and that such principles have more in common with religious dogmas than with natural laws. Far more practical possibilities await us when we escape the confines these dogmas impose on us and recognize movement as a secondary good that serves us only as it contributes to human autonomy. Peter Norton is an associate professor of history in the Department of Engineering and Society at the University of Virginia. He is a member of the University of Virginia's Center for Transportation Studies and has been a visiting faculty member at the Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Norton is the author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City, and of Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving. He is a winner of the Usher Prize of the Society for the History of Technology, and a frequent speaker on the subject of sustainable and equitable urban mobility. In addition to this audio, you can watch the video and read the full transcript of the conversation on Shareable.net – while you're there get caught up on past lectures. Cities@Tufts Lectures explores the impact of urban planning on our communities and the opportunities to design for greater equity and justice with professor Julian Agyeman. Cities@Tufts Lectures is produced by Tufts University and Shareable.net with support from Barr Foundation, Lectures are moderated by Professor Julian Agyeman and organized in partnership with research assistants Amelia Morton and Grant Perry. Paige Kelly is our co-producer and audio editor, the original portrait of Karin Bradley was illustrated by Anke Dregnet, and the series is co-produced and hosted by Tom Llewellyn. “Light Without Dark” by Cultivate Beats is our theme song.
Every December, a British man named Tom Whitwell publishes a list of 52 things he's learned that year. These fascinating facts reveal the spectrum of human behavior, from fraud and hypocrisy to Whitwell's steadfast belief in progress. Should we also believe? SOURCES:Tom Whitwell, managing consultant at Magnetic. RESOURCES:"Supercentenarian and Remarkable Age Records Exhibit Patterns Indicative of Clerical Errors and Pension Fraud," by Saul Justin Newman (Working Paper, 2024)."52 things I learned in 2023," by Tom Whitwell (Magnetic Notes, 2023)."Job Satisfaction 2023," by The Conference Board (2023)."What Fax Machines and Floppy Disks Reveal About Britain's Productivity Problem," (The Economist, 2017).Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City, by Peter D. Norton (2008)."Beyond Propaganda," by John Kenney (The New York Times, 2006).
3:53 https://on.soundcloud.com/wZMqa Here, Then, and When: How car companies sold us car-centric roads, and how autonomous cars and EVs will not solve that problem. With Peter Norton, author of "Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City," and "Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving." By Lindsay Sturman. 32:57 https://on.soundcloud.com/BkV3v Show Me the Way: On bike tourism and the Western New England Greenway, with Dan McGuinness and Tom O' Brien. By Lily Hoffman-Strickler. 45:02 https://on.soundcloud.com/2P4aJ Static Motion: "Bike scribble" artist Kathleen King Page's bike sculptures, murals, and canvasses are featured across the country. With Lily Hoffman-Strickler.
Paris Marx is joined by David Zipper to discuss how Silicon Valley pitched new technologies as the fix for a whole range of transport problems, and how that really just distracted us from solutions while allowing issues like road deaths, emissions, and traffic to get even worse.David Zipper is a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Taubman Center for State and Local Government and a contributing writer at Bloomberg CityLab. You can find his articles and sign up for his newsletter at DavidZipper.com and follow him on Twitter at @DavidZipper.Tech Won't Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, support the show on Patreon, and sign up for the weekly newsletter.The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.Also mentioned in this episode:David wrote about why traffic safety is getting worse in the US, and compared it to Canada, Finland, France, and Japan. He also wrote about the history of self-driving cars, the danger posed to pedestrians on the roads, the problem with infotainment systems, and what's wrong with positioning car tech as the solution to our problems.Paris wrote about how Elon Musk designed the Hyperloop to try to get California's high-speed line canceled.AAA puts the annual cost of car ownership in the US at over $10,000 a year in 2022. In Canada, CAA put it at $8600 to $13,000 a year in 2017 — a number that is surely even higher now.Peter Norton wrote about how the auto industry took over US roads in the early 1900s in Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City.Support the show
In Episode 2 of Season 2 of the Feminist City podcast series, Sneha Visakha is in conversation with Dr. Govind Gopakumar, Associate Professor and Chair, Centre for Engineering in Society at Concordia University. In this episode, they discuss Dr. Gopakumar's work in Bengaluru on topics ranging from the politics of urban infrastructure, urban mobility policies surrounding cars, buses and car-centric urban design along with the critiques of existing solutions to decongesting Bengaluru that contribute to the very problem it is trying to solve. They also discuss the use of law in shaping the city, lack of people's participation in determining policies and plans in cities and how this particularly affects women and other vulnerable populations in the city. Dr. Govind Gopakumar is currently Associate Professor in the Centre for Engineering in Society in the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science at Concordia University. His specific interests are in the policy dynamics of urban infrastructure change, social dimensions of the sustainability of water supply, globalisation of urban infrastructure, interdisciplinarity in engineering education and social entrepreneurship for engineers. Dr. Gopakumar received his Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to that he received a M.S. in Energy and Environmental Policy from the University of Delaware and completed an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan Technological University. He has a B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from College of Engineering, University of Kerala, India. You can read more about him and his work here: https://govindgopakumar.net/ For background reading, we recommend perusing the literature provided below: Installing Automobility: Emerging Politics of Mobility and Streets in Indian Cities, Govind Gopakumar, MIT Press. Making a Feminist City – Planning Safety and Autonomy for Women, Sneha Visakha Indian Automobility, Govind Gopakumar, Concordia. Jaywalkers to be fined in special drive on pedestrian safety, The Hindu. Regime of Congestion: Technopolitics of Mobility and Inequality in Bengaluru, Govind Gopakumar, Science as Culture. Who will Decongest Bengaluru? Politics, Infrastructures, & Scapes. Govind Gopakumar, Mobilities. JNNURM as a Window on Urban Governance, Govind Gopakumar, Economic & Political Weekly. Bengaluru does not need a steel flyover worth hundreds of crores, voices rise against project, TNM Staff, The News Minute Free bus ride scheme for women begins in Delhi, The Economic Times Now, free bus rides for Capital's labour force, Sweta Goswami, Hindustan Times Car Country: An Environmental History (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books Series), Christopher W. Wells, University of Washington Press. Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City, Peter Norton, MIT Press. Participolis, Consent and Contention in Neoliberal Urban India, Edited by Karen Coelho, Lalitha Kamath, M. Vijayabaskar, Routledge India Do Artifacts Have Politics? Langdon Winner, Daedalus, Modern Technology: Problem or Opportunity? The MIT Press Civic Groups: Bangalore Bus Prayanikara Vedike (BBPV) Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike's Bus Manifesto for BMTC Documentary: Social Life of a Bus, Govind Gopakumar & Bangalore Bus Prayanikara Vedike, Youtube. Podcast: Installing Automobility: Emerging Politics of Mobility and Streets in Indian Cities by Govind Gopakumar (Podcast), Govind Gopakumar, Sneha Annavarapu, New Books Network. Want to get in touch? Email sneha.visakha@vidhilegalpolicy.in or reach out to her on Twitter, @magicanarchist.
Author of Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong About the Future of Transportation and Host of Tech Won't Save Us Paris Marx helps us see how the future of transportation imagined by our techno-benefactors may best be understood as a collective dead end.
Peter Norton, The Past and Future of Driving in High-Tech Cities Peter Norton is an associate professor of history in the Department of Engineering and Society at the University of Virginia. He is the author of the new book Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving as well as Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City and Persistent Pedestrianism: Urban Walking in Motor Age America, 1920s-1960s. Appendices: Peter Norton: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Greg Shill: How Reporters Can Evaluate Automated Driving Announcements by Bryant Walker Smith; Rewriting Our Nation's Deadly Traffic Manual by Gregory H. Shill and Sara C. Bronin; Did Highways Cause Suburbanization? by Nathaniel Baum-Snow; and Freeway Revolts!: The Quality of Life Effects of Highways by Jeffrey Lin and Jeffrey Brinkman. Jeff Lin: Changing Lanes: Visions and Histories of Urban Freeways by Joseph F.C. DiMento and Cliff Ellis. Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, and @greg_shill. Producer: Schuyler Pals. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.
It's often said that Americans have a “love affair” with cars and driving. Where did this oddly specific expression come from? Most people probably assume it was something that developed organically, like so many common sayings. But Peter Norton, the author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City, credits a little-known 1961 NBC TV documentary starring Groucho Marx for popularizing this famous phrase. It's a fascinating story that finds the wisecracking comedian pitted against anti-automobile activists such as Jane Jacobs and proves that America's so-called “love affair” with cars is more like an arranged marriage. ***This episode was sponsored by our friends at Cleverhood. Receive 20% off your purchase of stylish, functional rain gear designed specifically for bicycling and walking. Enter coupon code WARONCARS when you check out.*** Support The War on Cars on Patreon and we'll send you stickers and give you exclusive access to bonus episodes. Rate and review the podcast on iTunes. Buy a War on Cars t-shirt at Cotton Bureau. SHOW NOTES: Purchase Peter Norton's book Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City as well as titles by all the authors who've appeared on the podcast at the official War on Cars page on Bookshop.org. Watch NBC's Merrily We Roll Along, which originally aired on NBC on October 21st, 1961 (Part 1 & Part 2). Read “The Myth of the American Love Affair With Cars” (The Washington Post) Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1. Questions, comments or suggestions? Email us: thewaroncars@gmail.com TheWarOnCars.org
In this episode, Gregory Shill, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Iowa College of Law, discusses his article "Should Law Subsidize Driving?," which will be published by the NYU Law Review. Shill begins by describing the terrible toll that automobiles inflict on America every year: 93,000 deaths (40,000 in crashes and another 53,000 killed prematurely by vehicle emissions), millions of serious injuries, and many hundreds of billions of dollars of damages due to lost lives alone. Then he explains how automobiles are subsidized not only by intentional public policy, but also by legal rules that prioritize and indemnify driving, while discouraging and stigmatizing other forms of transportation. He argues that this reflects policy choices that we can and must reverse, and discusses effective approaches to reform adopted by other countries, which have dramatically reduced driving and the terrible costs it imposes. Shill is on Twitter at @greg_shill.Shill recommends the following resources for those interested in learning more about reform:Angie Schmitt, How Driving Is Encouraged and Subsidized—by Law, StreetsBlog, Mar. 6, 2019The Vision Zero Street Design StandardCenters for Disease Control, Motor Vehicle Crash Deaths: How Is the US Doing? (2016)Peter Norton, Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City (2011)Joseph Stromberg, The Forgotten History of How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking” (discussing Norton’s book).Fabio Caiazzo et al, Air Pollution and Early Deaths in the United States. Part I: Quantifying the Impact of Major Sectors in 2005, 79 Atmospheric Environment 198 (2013)(discussing 53,000 deaths from road transportation emissions)John D. Kraemer & Connor S. Benton, Disparities in Road Crash Mortality among Pedestrians Using Wheelchairs in the USA: Results of a Capture–Recapture Analysis, British Medical Journal OpenKelcie Ralph et al., Editorial Patterns in Bicyclist and Pedestrian Crash Reporting (2018) (working paper)Michael Lewyn, The Criminalization of Walking, Illinois Law Review (2017)Danielle Davis, How the NYPD, the DOT, and the Justice System Have Failed My Sister: Part One (2017) (telling the story of Lauren Davis’s death at the hands of a motorist in Brooklyn, and the cruelty her family experienced at the hands of law enforcement and the city) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Getting from one place to another is hard. What if we could just teleport? From the physics of how this would work (it wouldn’t) to the ripple effects it might have on politics, urban development, and tourism, this episode is all about what would happen if we could zip instantly from one place to another. Guests Matt Lubchansky, comic artist and associate editor at The Nib Zeeya Merali, physicist at the Foundational Questions Institute, author of A Big Bang in a Little Room, cohost of the FQXi Podcast Peter Norton, historian at the University of Virginia, author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City (Paper from the advertisement: Time to End the Use of Genetic Test Results in Life Insurance Underwriting) → → → Sources and more links available here ← ← ← Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The teleportation attendant from the future was played by Tamara Krinsky. Tamara is the host of the science & technology show TOMORROW'S WORLD TODAY, which you can watch on Amazon, right now. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool. And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! Head to www.flashforwardpod.com/support for more about how to give. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help. That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Spokesmen Cycling Roundtable Podcast Episode 151 Highway Robberies, Scraper Bikes, and Broken Clavicles March 3, 2017 Host: Carlton Reid This isn't the usual show, it's a Spokesmen Special, with three academics as guests. Host: CARLTON REID. PETER NORTON is associate professor of history at the University of Virginia and author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City. This reveals how, in the 1920s and 1930s, the American motor lobby invented and popularized the term “jaywalking” in order to reframe what streets were for (and they were no longer for pedestrians and cyclists). MELODY HOFFMAN of Minneapolis describes herself on her blog as an “urban bicycle scholar, critical feminist, community engagement professor.” Her book Bike Lanes are White Lanes discusses how seemingly benign cycle infrastructure can ring alarm bells with some black communities, why cycle advocacy can sometimes shout “white privilege”, and how “invisible riders” get neither recognition nor cycle facilities. (To grab a discount on Melody's book type in 6as16 for 30 percent off at the University of Nebraska book store.) CHRIS OLIVER is a professor of medicine and tweets as @CyclingSurgeon. He is a consultant orthopaedic trauma surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, and also advises the Scottish government on active travel. Once morbidly obese he lost 168lbs (76 kilos) and took up cycling to keep fit. He has ridden Lands End to John o'Groats, and with his daughter, he has also ridden coast to coast across America. Sponsored by Jenson USA Special offer for new Jenson USA customers - receive 10% off one item! Note: Some brands do not participate in promotions, if you see the message "no qualifying items in cart," the item you have selected do not qualify for this offer. Cannot be combined with any other special offer or discount, including but not limited to gift cards, other coupon codes, price matches and some money card offers. Code is for new customers only. WEB SITE: http://www.the-spokesmen.com The Spokesmen Cycling Roundtable Podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommerical-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Bringing Art and Technology Together - Inspire. Create. Evolve.
batt_007_david.mp3 batt_007_david.oggDavid Thomas Moran is a phoneur, photographer and game designer currently involved in the TRansit Interpretation Project who works in urban mobile games, creative place making, and has many interesting projects. He is pursuing an MFA from UCF in Emerging Media. In this episode we also discuss how the creative community in Orlando can reach out to the West and the tourist-driven part of our economy. Mentioned in this podcast The Corridor Project Walk On By (Orlando Weekly) Dead Quare Walking (also on Instagram) Emerging Media - Digital Media MFA PLAY ME crowdfunding campaign (#playmeorlando) The Art Starter Festival Bay Mall Artisan Market Orlando Days + Nights "Dangerous By Design" presentation on YouTube from Processing Orlando Inspiration Orlando's Coming-of-Age Tale: How the City's Technology Industry is Garnering National Attention aka Familab on NPR! Featuring Kathryn Ludology in Games Flaneurs and Phoneurs Otronicon Instagrammers Orlando @IGers_Orlando Google Ingress Mary Flanagan SNAP! Space Cardboard Art Festival Polaroid Fotobar Morse Museum in Winter Park The Artistic Hand Gallery and Studio Improv Classes at SAK Picks of the Week Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form JBON Clothing Co - "Bath Salts" T-Shirt Jim Henson: The Biography Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City (Inside Technology) Piq Chocolates from MIT Alumni Music: "5 dan b4g, in C" by junior85 (Tony Higgins) via Vimeo Music Store Follow us @wideanglefocus on Instagram @wideanglefocus on Twitter David on Tumblr David on the Watermark TRIP on SoundCloud Kathryn's Latest Poem Hire Kathryn on LinkedIn @KathrynLNeel Ryan Price @liberatr
Guest Peter Norton, Assistant Professor, Department of Science, Technology, and Society, University of Virginia, speaks with Diane Horn about his book "Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City."