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I recently read a book about the history of cars in my country [0], and how they came to dominate. It's quite astonishing how quickly we went from the streets b
by matsemann 3y ago
I recently read a book about the history of cars in my country [0], and how they came to dominate. It's quite astonishing how quickly we went from the streets belonging to the people, to the few privileged owning a car taking all that space. In 1920, 15 pedestrians were killed with only 2000 cars in the country. Instead of that being a killing blow to the cars, the rich people owning cars organized. They had power and stood together, and managed to make it so that it was "uncultured people walking in the road getting run over". Some of these organizations still exist today, like Trygg Trafikk ("Safe Traffic"), and they're true to their roots: they're not really advocating for less traffic deaths, they're advocating for making it easier to drive everywhere in the guise of promoting "safety".
[0]: Et land på fire hjul, by Ulrik Eriksen
- seper8 3y agoDont think you understand the extent to which you and we owe our wealth to the invention of the combustion engine...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- TheGigaChad 3y ago[dead]
- matsemann 3y agoWhat in my comment makes you think I don't know the impact of cars? I just wrote a relevant comment to the article, of how cars won over my country.
- wyre 3y agoYes, yes, all hail the combustion engine…
- kevin_thibedeau 3y agoThe concept of jay walking was invented to permit victim blaming of people who once freely roamed among the carriages.
- zdragnar 3y ago> In 1920, 15 pedestrians were killed with only 2000 cars in the country. Instead of that being a killing blow to the cars, the rich people owning cars organized. What's missing in this analysis is a comparison to the numbers of injuries and fatalities caused by horse drawn carriages. Also, cars didn't leave horse poop everywhere on the streets, with all of the health and sanitation implications.
- sudosysgen 3y agoAlmost one death per hundred cars per year is insane and far more than horses could be unless most people died of horse accidents.
- BurningFrog 3y agoWalking around in horseshit and -piss all day before most medical science had been discovered can't have been great for public health. It's good to remember you can't see the smell in old photos!
- bazeblackwood 3y agoWow, good thing replacing all that horse shit and piss with leaded gasoline for half a century didn't have any negative effects.
- mixmastamyk 3y agoHorse poo is mostly chewed hay, not dangerous.
- zdragnar 3y agoIt can contain listeria, giardia, roundworm, e. coli, salmonella, clostridium and all sorts of other nasty business. Most healthy horses have low amounts of these in their stools, especially compared with dogs or humans. However, each horse produces about 5 tons (11,000 lbs) of poo a year. A bunch of horses in a big city on a rainy day is a recipe for spreading disease.