Title: Traffic /
Authors: Josephson, Paul R.
Year: 2017
Subjects: Traffic engineering Popular works.; Traffic calming Popular works.; Traffic calming; Traffic engineering
Abstract: Speed. Bump. Speed. Traffic considers the history and philosophy of roundabouts, speed bumps, the pedestrian mall, and other efforts to manage traffic. Exploring ways to reign in the power of the internal combustion engine, ramp back century-long efforts to increase the flows of traffic, and establish greater balance between humans and machines, Paul Josephson considers the history of traffic, and the political and other controversies that frame the belated technological efforts to calm it.
Contents: Mushrooms in Minsk -- Speed bumps in twentieth century philosophy -- Utopian visions of machines and people : a world without speed bumps -- Mumford and Moses -- The historical concatenation of congestion -- Speed bumpology -- Crashworthy automobiles as speed bumps -- Race, equality and traffic -- Pedestrian malls as large scale speed bumps -- The woonerf : the neighborhood speed bump -- Taming roads themselves -- Curb cuts for people, roundabouts for automobiles -- The bicycle as a neo-luddite traffic solution -- Gendered speed bumps -- If stopped in traffic, hope for a crashworthy automobile -- Safety delays in the name of freedom -- Speed bump downsides -- Waxing and waning of Brazilian speed bumps -- Potholes and paper money -- Speed bumps for other hopeful technologies.