The fight for the future of the city street between pedestrians, street railways, and promoters of the automobile between 1915 and 1930. Before the advent of the automobile, users of city streets were diverse and included children at play and pedestrians at large. By 1930, most streets were primarily a motor thoroughfares where children did not belong and where pedestrians were condemned as “jaywalkers.” In Fighting Traffic, Peter Norton argues that to accommodate automobiles, the American city required not only a physical change but also a social one: before the city could be reconstructed for the sake of motorists, its streets had to be socially reconstructed as places where motorists belonged. It was not an evolution, he writes, but a bloody and sometimes violent revolution. Norton describes how street users struggled to define and redefine what streets were for. He examines developments in the crucial transitional years from the 1910s to the 1930s, uncovering a broad anti-automobile campaign that reviled motorists as “road hogs” or “speed demons” and cars as “juggernauts” or “death cars.” He considers the perspectives of all users—pedestrians, police (who had to become “traffic cops”), street railways, downtown businesses, traffic engineers (who often saw cars as the problem, not the solution), and automobile promoters. He finds that pedestrians and parents campaigned in moral terms, fighting for “justice.” Cities and downtown businesses tried to regulate traffic in the name of “efficiency.” Automotive interest groups, meanwhile, legitimized their claim to the streets by invoking “freedom”—a rhetorical stance of particular power in the United States. Fighting Traffic offers a new look at both the origins of the automotive city in America and how social groups shape technological change.

Tells how to avoid and contest moving violations, discusses speed limits, radar, and drunk driving, and describes traffic court procedures.

Like a modern-day Jane Jacobs, Janette Sadik-Khan transformed New York City's streets to make room for pedestrians, cyclists, buses, and green spaces. Describing the battles she fought to enact change, Streetfight imparts wisdom and practical advice that other cities can follow to make their own streets safer and more vibrant. As New York City’s transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan managed the seemingly impossible and transformed the streets of one of the world’s greatest, toughest cities into dynamic spaces safe for pedestrians and cyclists. Her approach was dramatic and effective: Simply painting a part of the street to make it into a plaza or bus lane not only made the street safer, but it also lessened congestion and increased foot traffic, which improved the bottom line of businesses. Real-life experience confirmed that if you know how to read the street, you can make it function better by not totally reconstructing it but by reallocating the space that’s already there. Breaking the street into its component parts, Streetfight demonstrates, with step-by-step visuals, how to rewrite the underlying “source code” of a street, with pointers on how to add protected bike paths, improve crosswalk space, and provide visual cues to reduce speeding. Achieving such a radical overhaul wasn’t easy, and Streetfight pulls back the curtain on the battles Sadik-Khan won to make her approach work. She includes examples of how this new way to read the streets has already made its way around the world, from pocket parks in Mexico City and Los Angeles to more pedestrian-friendly streets in Auckland and Buenos Aires, and innovative bike-lane designs and plazas in Austin, Indianapolis, and San Francisco. Many are inspired by the changes taking place in New York City and are based on the same techniques. Streetfight deconstructs, reassembles, and reinvents the street, inviting readers to see it in ways they never imagined.

Driving is a fact of life. We are all spending more and more time on the road, and traffic is an issue we face everyday. This book will make you think about it in a whole new light. We have always had a passion for cars and driving. Now Traffic offers us an exceptionally rich understanding of that passion. Vanderbilt explains why traffic jams form, outlines the unintended consequences of our attempts to engineer safety and even identifies the most common mistakes drivers make in parking lots. Based on exhaustive research and interviews with driving experts and traffic officials around the globe, Traffic gets under the hood of the quotidian activity of driving to uncover the surprisingly complex web of physical, psychological and technical factors that explain how traffic works.

The face of the pedestrian safety crisis looks a lot like Ignacio Duarte-Rodriguez. The 77-year old grandfather was struck in a hit-and-run crash while trying to cross a high-speed, six-lane road without crosswalks near his son’s home in Phoenix, Arizona. He was one of the more than 6,000 people killed while walking in America in 2018. In the last ten years, there has been a 50 percent increase in pedestrian deaths. The tragedy of traffic violence has barely registered with the media and wider culture. Disproportionately the victims are like Duarte-Rodriguez—immigrants, the poor, and people of color. They have largely been blamed and forgotten. In Right of Way, journalist Angie Schmitt shows us that deaths like Duarte-Rodriguez’s are not unavoidable “accidents.” They don’t happen because of jaywalking or distracted walking. They are predictable, occurring in stark geographic patterns that tell a story about systemic inequality. These deaths are the forgotten faces of an increasingly urgent public-health crisis that we have the tools, but not the will, to solve. Schmitt examines the possible causes of the increase in pedestrian deaths as well as programs and movements that are beginning to respond to the epidemic. Her investigation unveils why pedestrians are dying—and she demands action. Right of Way is a call to reframe the problem, acknowledge the role of racism and classism in the public response to these deaths, and energize advocacy around road safety. Ultimately, Schmitt argues that we need improvements in infrastructure and changes to policy to save lives. Right of Way unveils a crisis that is rooted in both inequality and the undeterred reign of the automobile in our cities. It challenges us to imagine and demand safer and more equitable cities, where no one is expendable.

In Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving, historian Peter Norton argues that driverless cars cannot be the safe, sustainable, and inclusive "mobility solutions" that tech companies and automakers are promising us. The salesmanship behind the "driverless future" is distracting us from better ways to get around that we can implement now. Unlike autonomous vehicles, these alternatives are inexpensive, safe, sustainable, and inclusive. Norton takes the reader on an engaging ride--from the GM Futurama exhibit to "smart" highways and vehicles--to show how we are once again being sold car dependency in the guise of mobility. Autonorama is hopeful, advocating for wise, proven, humane mobility that we can invest in now, without waiting for technology that is forever just out of reach.

The Traffic Ticket Handbook How to Beat your Traffic Ticket More than 100,000 people receive a speeding ticket in the United States on a daily basis. This translates into more than 36,500,000 tickets every single year being issued to drivers in the United States. It has been concluded that the average fine for a traffic ticket is approximately $150 which translates into nearly $5.4 billion in revenue for the government (or branches of) annually. However, anyone who has received a speeding ticket or two understands that the financial pain is not restricted to the dollar amount on the face of the ticket. The collateral consequences of traffic tickets also impact a driver's insurance. The insurance companies in the United States seek billions of dollars per year in raised premiums from drivers who have committed traffic violations. It should therefore be obvious that the government (and insurance companies) benefits from driver indiscretions and the dutiful work of thousands of police officers. Whether the government admits it or not traffic tickets are a wonderful way to raise revenue. And with the Country in an undeniable financial panic and near bankruptcy, what better way to quash the financial fears than by robbing its citizens. If you have recently received a traffic ticket you are well aware of how expensive they are. Further, the costs of some individual traffic tickets are illogical and offensive. The manner in which officers are quietly informed to fill their quota of traffic tickets is the modern equivalent of the Roman Empire's tax collectors. Therefore, if you have received a traffic ticket, particularly one that is considered a "moving violation," why wouldn't you fight it? Some states consider such "minor violations" criminal, so you must fight these allegations to preserve your record. Too much is at stake. For those states that consider traffic violations mostly "civil," you should still fight as there undoubtedly will be negative impact if you do not. More to the point, the financial penalties are arbitrarily set so at the very least fight the amount indicated on the face of the ticket. We all try to limit our taxes (lawfully), and ultimately this is simply another form of taxation. The Traffic Ticket Handbook is specifically dedicated to those individuals who have been cited for speeding tickets or any moving violation and wish to learn more about the traffic ticket process and how to fight and beat the ticket. If you have been cited and need to protect your insurance and driving privilege, this book is for you. The Traffic Ticket Handbook will explain how the different speed measuring devices work and how they can fail. You will learn how to structure an argument and raise legal issues like a lawyer. In addition to speeding tickets The Traffic Ticket Handbook looks at the major moving violations that will harm your insurance and potentially suspend your driver's license. If you are considering hiring an attorney to help fight your ticket, The Traffic Ticket Handbook also gives advice on how to hire a well qualified traffic ticket attorney. And finally, The Traffic Ticket Handbook gives you practical tips on how to avoid a future traffic ticket. The Traffic Ticket Handbook is a valuable resource for any driver who has ever received a traffic ticket and wants to beat the charge. Learn from a traffic defense attorney who has personally handled more than 10,000 traffic tickets in court.