When Cities Treated Cars as Dangerous Intruders

Today it is the motor vehicle, rather than the horse, that seems unsustainable. The Horseless Age, a magazine founded in 1895 to champion the new technology, proudly declared that “in cities and in towns the noise and clatter of the streets will be reduced,” because of cars’ rubber tires—yet it is still difficult today to hear yourself think on Bro

The debate over road safety that played out in America during the 1920s led to rules and conventions that were subsequently adopted around the world and are still in force a century later.

Road accidents are a major cause of death and injury worldwide. Huge areas of land are devoted to parking, even as cars sit unused, on average, 95 percent of the time—making cities as much dormitories for cars as habitats for people.