I found this article in Scientific American very interesting. It goes on about how Americans can be convinced to accept driverless cars. What I found fascinating is the history of the acceptance of automobiles (and the loss of usage of our streets) was engineered and carried out.
Why America's Love Affair with Cars Is No Accident
The auto industry campaigned against the relatively bloody rise of cars in the early 20th century via TV, the term "jaywalker" and school safety patrols
By Jeremy Hsu and InnovationNewsDaily | Thursday, May 24, 2012
Drivers may feel spooked by seeing the first self-driving cars appear in coming years. But the new era could prove far less disruptive and bloody than the automobile's 20th-century battle to push pedestrians off U.S. streets.
The change in American public opinion from thinking of cars as wildly dangerous vehicles to having a "love affair with the automobile" was no accident. Instead, it reflected a serious push by the car industry to change people's psychology. Automobiles had to win the battle for hearts and minds before they could take over streets where people had once swarmed.
"That's not the natural order of things; that's the result of a real struggle," said Peter Norton, a historian of technology at the University of Virginia. "That struggle may have analogies with what we're facing in the future with autonomous vehicles."
One key difference between the two eras of transition may prove to be a huge blessing — the rise of self-driving cars could boost road safety and eliminate thousands of unnecessary motorist deaths in the U.S. each year. That futuristic scenario stands in contrast to the relatively bloody rise of cars in the early 20th century.
A bloody beginning American hearts and minds did not change easily when cars first appeared. Pedestrians crowded the streets of U.S. cities and towns at the start of the 20th century, walking alongside horse-drawn wagons, carriages and trolleys. Contrary to modern sensibilities, parents thought it was perfectly normal for their kids to play in the streets.
"If a pedestrian strode into a street and maybe a wagon wheel ran over their foot, the law would be on their side," Norton told InnovationNewsDaily. "Judges would say pedestrians belonged there, and that if you're operating a heavy dangerous vehicle, it's your fault."
Car accidents led to injuries and deaths among pedestrians and a strong public backlash against automobiles, Norton said. He found newspapers of the time commonly ran cartoons showing the grim reaper at the wheel of a car running over children — part of his research for the book "Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City" (MIT Press, 2008).
People even pushed for a 1923 law requiring all cars in Cincinnati to have a mechanism limiting their speed to no higher than 25 mph, but car makers gathered enough support to defeat it.
America's affair with the automobile The automobile industry eventually began waging a psychological campaign to get pedestrians out of the streets. First, it invented the term "jaywalking" (a reference to the idea of jaybirds as loud idiots) to make fun of pedestrians walking in the street as being stuck in the past.
Second, schools helped train new generations of children to avoid the streets when the American Automobile Association (AAA) became the top supplier of safety curriculum for U.S. schools in the 1920s, Norton explained. The AAA also spread the idea of school safety patrols to help keep kids out of the street.
The popular phrase "America's love affair with the automobile" eventually came along in a TV show called "Merrily We Roll Along" as part of the DuPont Series of the Week in 1961 — a time when DuPont owned a large percent of stock in General Motors. American comedian and actor "Groucho" Marx used the phrase in his narration of the show until it stuck in people's minds.
Usage of the phrase was nonexistent in newspapers "until 1961, when it goes straight up and never goes down again," Norton said. "It was introduced by the show and seen by millions of people, who eventually forget it was invented."
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01:59 AM
PFF
System Bot
Wichita Member
Posts: 20708 From: Wichita, Kansas Registered: Jun 2002
Does it explain why the candy industry convinced us about Halloween or the Greeting Card Industry about Valentines and the Diamond Ring symbolized love & marriage?
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02:22 AM
Formula88 Member
Posts: 53788 From: Raleigh NC Registered: Jan 2001
In other news, scientists have proven that people have been brainwashed into liking whatever it is that we want to change their opinions of today. Anything we want them to like, well, it's just natural and healthy to like that.
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02:23 AM
TheDigitalAlchemist Member
Posts: 12772 From: Long Island, NY Registered: Jan 2012
I enjoy my cars, but have to admit I dont get as excited about them now as I did 20 years ago. Back then, every spare penny I earned bought something for my car. Given a choice between a new jacket or set of seat covers....seats always won. Now, Ive got cars I like, but with many other interests too, my life dont revolve around them.
When the government supplies free taxi and bus service anywhere you want to go, you will see a lot of people with no cars. If I lived in New York City, no way Id own a car. Parking is more than payments IF you can find it. Most times you can walk faster than traffic moves. I know people who live in the city and keep a car at a friends in White Plains. If there going to drive somewhere, they take a train, bus or subway to the car and go from there.
There are so many people that don't get what its like to be a car person. To sit in a machine and control where its going, to feel every vibration, hear every sound. To get excited just starting up in the morning and actually enjoying the drive into work. The joy when you can finish a project and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Most people would rather not hear, feel or even experience their cars. They would be just as happy getting into a slot car and the only decision they have to make is a destination. They would be free to talk with their friends and text on their phones. When personal transportation is reduced to boxes with wheels and computers controlling where and how you get somewhere I will stop going anywhere.
How could you not enjoy that?
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11:33 AM
Boondawg Member
Posts: 38235 From: Displaced Alaskan Registered: Jun 2003
There are so many people that don't get what its like to be a car person. To sit in a machine and control where its going, to feel every vibration, hear every sound. To get excited just starting up in the morning and actually enjoying the drive into work.
How could you not enjoy that?
It's all about drugs. Driving gets you high, when done right. Just like $ex.
So, the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, et al were simply pawns in a vast conspiracy.
As a red blooded American boy, I was born with a natural affinity for all things automotive. Honestly, I think the article is revisionist hooey, designed to embarrass us into accepting public transportation (another downgrade in the American standard of living). The appeal of freedom, power and the car as art are undeniable. We were not duped into accepting cars, but we may be coerced into denying them.
Cars are evil and those who covet them are selfish and inconsiderate.
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01:39 PM
yellowstone Member
Posts: 9299 From: Düsseldorf/Germany Registered: Jun 2003
So you'll be posting about how religion is Socialism now?
[sarcasm] I can't wait. [/sarcasm]
To me it resembles more of a fascist system than socialist, since 'the church' gets most of the 'redistributed funds'.. And if you refuse to cooperate, then the ultimate 'string guy' comes to take you to hell, according to the teachings anyway.
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03:44 PM
Boondawg Member
Posts: 38235 From: Displaced Alaskan Registered: Jun 2003
Or: car = debt = slavery. It's all perception. Freedom is not "free", even on the open road!
Most people with a 1/2 decent job can get a car without going into debt. A 'great' car, no, but one that will give you the freedom of movement in today's society.
For example i dont make a lot, but i owe nothing on my 3 cars..
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04:08 PM
PFF
System Bot
Boondawg Member
Posts: 38235 From: Displaced Alaskan Registered: Jun 2003
Crowded city streets from the turn of the previous century as a frame of referrence:
why is the USA still driving on the right hand side of the road and still not with the rest of the world and still not up with the metric system like the rest of the world
The videos are just organized Chaos on the roadways but driving there carts on the left side of the roadway/trails
But fuel, upkeep, registration, licensing, insurance, taxes, etc. etc. etc. Owning & opporating a car is anything but freedom...
Never said it was zero cost i was referring to what you said about having to go into debt... Which isn't true. Sure lots of people do, but its not a requirement.
Freedom isn't 'free', but you don't have to borrow to get it..
why is the USA still driving on the right hand side of the road and still not with the rest of the world and still not up with the metric system like the rest of the world
The videos are just organized Chaos on the roadways but driving there carts on the left side of the roadway/trails
Not to start a fight over it, but the reason we drive on the right side of the roads, and use the imperial system of measurements, is its the right way for us. There is no rational reason for us to change, 'just because others do it'.
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06:02 PM
84fiero123 Member
Posts: 29950 From: farmington, maine usa Registered: Oct 2004
Cars in big cities are really not needed but now I live in the country and try biking everywhere it just don't work. We need our trucks more than our cars, but if I need to go someplace and don’t need a truck I take the fiero. I am no longer in any kind of shape to bike any distance and going shopping is just about impossible without a vehicle of some sort. And no a bike just will not do for us.
I hate the cities now, never used to until I moved to the country and got a farm. But without vehicles this and all the other countries in the world would come to a screeching halt. No food deliveries no appliance deliveries, no anything.
Steve
------------------ Technology is great when it works, and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't Detroit iron rules all the rest are just toys.
Cars in big cities are really not needed but now I live in the country and try biking everywhere it just don't work. We need our trucks more than our cars, but if I need to go someplace and don’t need a truck I take the fiero. I am no longer in any kind of shape to bike any distance and going shopping is just about impossible without a vehicle of some sort. And no a bike just will not do for us.
I hate the cities now, never used to until I moved to the country and got a farm. But without vehicles this and all the other countries in the world would come to a screeching halt. No food deliveries no appliance deliveries, no anything.
Steve
But if you are in the city, have no car, then you are pretty much trapped there.
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06:36 PM
yellowstone Member
Posts: 9299 From: Düsseldorf/Germany Registered: Jun 2003
To me it resembles more of a fascist system than socialist, since 'the church' gets most of the 'redistributed funds'.. And if you refuse to cooperate, then the ultimate 'string guy' comes to take you to hell, according to the teachings anyway.
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06:42 PM
Boondawg Member
Posts: 38235 From: Displaced Alaskan Registered: Jun 2003
But if you are in the city, have no car, then you are pretty much trapped there.
Bus, train, plane, boat, rental, cab, car service, lots of ways. But I get how you feel. I have never been without a car since I was..........well, born.
[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 05-28-2012).]
the lova affair with cars was because.. back then driving was a joy.. traffic was less, hyways were not really around.. you had to go somewhere to be seen.. the cars changed yearly.. as car makers didn't have 15 different models.. the government had not tied the designers hands with regs, today why would a kid want to drive.. all cars look like eggs, can't really change,upgrade them with out a masters in computer science.. they can meet their buddies on facebook or their phone.. cops everywhere.. traffic.. and the cost.. driving isn't fun anymore.. cars are boring,they have no charactor, I could NOT wait to get my permit.. then my lic.. but my 3.35 an hour when tons farther in paying for that 50.oo clunker.. than todays min wage goes on that 2000.oo junker.. when I was 16. cars where stle,kool,fun,freedom, todays kids are told by the mindless media that cars are evil. carbon footprint, greenhouse gases,earth killers.. and really who can get pumped over a civic.? or paying out 2200.+ for insurance on a 500 p.o.s.
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07:42 PM
williegoat Member
Posts: 20783 From: Glendale, AZ Registered: Mar 2009
yesterdays cars tho slower than even todays econobox, we're more bully-ish.. that 165hp v8 under the hood of the family truckster let you know you hit the gas, lifting the nose some, down shifting. todays cars are TO SMOOTH.. todays family 4 door can out run a stock 70 ls6 but the ls6 with it's bully, roar when hammered, gets you pumped.. todays mustang is as fast or faster, but no drama, no 1st to 2nd bang.. today smooth.. carm and collected.. and BORING..
