This is kind of an incomplete analysis and I find two big flaws with it. Lots of other things were happening in this time period that greatly increased the amo

This is kind of an incomplete analysis and I find two big flaws with it. Lots of other things were happening in this time period that greatly increased the amount of regulation the average person had to contend with when going about their life, I'm not sure the automobile is remarkable except as an example of the general trend. Laws in a democratic society are an exercise in group consensus. You can't just dictate how fast people can drive or what plants people can smoke or what liquids they can drink and expect people to comply at scale without the kind of law enforcement that is incompatible with a free society.