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Americans Shouldn’t Have to Drive, but the Law Insists on It

The automobile took over because the legal system helped squeeze out the alternatives.
by Gregory H. Shill via The Atlantic on July 9, 2019

How Cars Transformed Policing

Most communities barely had a police force and citizens shared responsibility for enforcing laws. Then the car changed everything.
by Sarah A. Seo via Boston Review on June 3, 2019

Ford Says Farewell

America’s most iconic automaker plans to drive almost all of their passenger sedans into the sunset by 2020.
by Telly Davidson via The American Conservative on May 16, 2018

A Century of Highway Zombies

Since the 1920s, “highway hypnosis” has lulled drivers to disaster.
by Carmine Grimaldi via The Atlantic on July 29, 2016
Grid Lock in New York City.
Exhibit

Traffic Jam

Car culture is so pervasive that many people take it for granted. This exhibit shows how history can serve as our “blind spot detection,” enabling us to see new possibilities for the future.
Pedestrians, buggies, and a streetcar in a Los Angeles intersection in 1910.

LA’s Traffic Ordinance Went Into Effect 100 Years Ago. It Changed Streets Across America.

The Ordinance, which prioritized cars on the city’s roadways, quickly became the template for the country.
by Alison Sant via Next City on January 24, 2025
The famous photo of the eyes from The Great Gatsby.

How “The Great Gatsby” Changed the Landscape of New York City

On Robert Moses, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the culture of environmental waste.
by John Marsh via Monthly Review on November 13, 2024
A car in a dark night on an empty road with a ghostly apparition.

The Vanishing Hitchhiker Legend Is an Ancient Tale That Keeps Evolving

The classic creepy story—a driver offers a lift to a stranger who is not of this world—has deep roots and a long reach.
by Mark Hay via Atlas Obscura on October 10, 2024
A photograph of a young Black boy riding a bicycle.

Re-thinking Black (Im)mobility

The bicycle is a symbol of youth, but in the mid-twentieth century it also symbolized Black joy and mobility.
by Nathan Cardon via Black Perspectives on September 20, 2023

The Ultimate Road Trip

On the Road with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and John Burroughs.
by H. W. Brands via The Washington Free Beacon on August 27, 2023
The first electric car model.

Three Maintenance Philosophies Fought for Control of the Auto Industry

At the very beginning of the auto industry, no less than three radically different design-for-maintenance philosophies fought it out.
by Stewart Brand via Books In Progress on June 29, 2023
Henry Ford

1922: Henry Ford on the Road to Riches

How Henry Ford managed the formation of the Ford Motor Company.
by Henry Ford via Lapham’s Quarterly on June 16, 2023
Car interior with Chuck Berry reflected in side view mirror.

An Anthropologist of Filth

On Chuck Berry.
by Ian Penman via Harper’s on May 4, 2023
Bike helmets and traffic signs.

The Cult of Bike Helmets

The history—and danger—of a modern safety obsession.
by Marion Renault via Slate on January 16, 2023
Cars entering Holland Tunnel on Broome Street in New York City, 1927.

It’s Been 100 Years Since Cars Drove Pedestrians Off The Roads

One hundred years ago roadbuilder Edward J. Mehren wrote that streets, should be redesigned for the utility of motorists alone.
by Carlton Reid via Forbes on November 8, 2022
Cartoon of Buckminster Fuller with spirals in his glasses and hands out as if hypnotizing the reader.

Space-Age Magus

From beginning to end, experts saw through Buckminster Fuller’s ideas and theories. Why did so many people come under his spell?
by James Gleick via New York Review of Books on November 3, 2022
Eight frames (in two rows of four) from "How It Feels To Be Run Over." The top four show a carriage full of people traveling along the road approaching the camera, while the bottom four read "Mother will be pleased."

“Mother Will Be Pleased”: "How It Feels to Be Run Over" (1900)

One of the earliest uses of intertitles, in this fin-de-siècle accident picture we can observe cinema discovering new forms of communication.
by Hunter Dukes via The Public Domain Review on October 6, 2022
Photograph of walkway with trees in between two roads.

Eastern Parkway Was Never Meant to Be a Highway

The case for making the street more like the pleasure road Frederick Law Olmsted intended.
by Diana Budds via Curbed on August 4, 2022
Picture of a man mopping a gas station bathroom floor.

Believe It or Not, Gas Station Bathrooms Used to Be Squeaky Clean. Here's What Changed.

Spotless bathrooms used to be a crucial selling point for gas stations.
by Nathaniel Meyersohn via CNN on June 4, 2022
Floral wallpaper, c. 1875. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Collection, gift of Harvey Smith.

Flower Power

On the women who kickstarted the ecological restoration movement in America.
by Laura J. Martin via Lapham’s Quarterly on May 18, 2022
original

History on the Road

After decades of reading, writing, and teaching about the American past, Ed Ayers sets out to see how that past is remembered in the places where it happened.
by Ed Ayers on May 17, 2022
Interior of car dealership.

Why Car Shopping is So Bizarre in the United States

The reasons have to do with the complexity of the transaction, but also with the industry’s explosive growth in its early years.
by Peter Valdes-Dapena via CNN on May 9, 2022
Motorcycle in sideview mirror

The Invention of “Accidents”

Thousands of Americans die preventable deaths each year. Why do we consider them mishaps?
by Rhoda Feng via The New Republic on April 6, 2022
Karen Kuehl, an emergency physician, displays equipment she wears while treating covid-19 patients as she urges the Roanoke County, Va., School Board to retain a mask mandate on Jan. 27, 2022.
partner

The History of Seat-Belt Laws Shows Public Health Doesn’t Have To Be Partisan

Tennessee’s surprising role in the adoption of life-saving seat belt laws.
by Erica Westly via Made By History on February 10, 2022
birds eye view of an intersecting highway with a speeding car

How America Broke the Speed Limit

How we wound up with the worst of both worlds: thousands of speed-related deaths, and a system of enforcement that is both ineffective and inescapable.
by Henry Grabar via Slate on December 15, 2021

Did Cars Rescue Our Cities From Horses?

Debating a modern parable about waste and technology.
by Brandon Keim via Nautilus on November 10, 2021
A woman setting up a picnic outside a pink car

The Sorry History of Car Design for Women

A landscape architect of the 1950s predicted that lady drivers would want pastel-colored pavement on the interstate.
by Ashawnta Jackson via JSTOR Daily on June 29, 2021
President Joe Biden behind the wheel of an electric car.
partner

Stagecoaches Could Fix Our Electric Car Problem

One solution to climate change may come from our pre-automotive past.
by Woody Holton via Made By History on May 18, 2021
COVID-19 dashboard
partner

Covid-19 Dashboards Are Vital, Yet Flawed, Sources of Public Information

Unlike our car dashboards, covid-19 dashboards do not give individuals actionable information.
by Jacqueline Wernimont via Made By History on January 26, 2021

Racism on the Road

In 1963, after Sam Cooke was turned away from a hotel in Shreveport, Louisiana, because he was black, he wrote “A Change Is Gonna Come.” He was right.
by Sarah A. Seo via New York Review of Books on July 23, 2020
An illustration of a Good Humor ice cream truck with an ice cream man standing next to it, waving. They are surrounded by ice cream products.

The History of the Ice Cream Truck

As innovations go, the Good Humor vehicle is as sweet as it gets.
by Colin Dickey via Smithsonian on July 12, 2020
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