The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 193 - When The Cars Came

Episode Date: July 25, 2016

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine what happened when cars appeared on American roads. SOURCESTOUR DATES REDBUBBLE MERCH

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. You're listening to the dollop! This is a bi-weekly American History podcast each

week. I, Dave Anthony, read a story from American history to my friend Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. It's hot! We're inside of a volcano today. We're gonna die. We're dying. God, do you want to look who to do? I'll do one bottle. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Dave, okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna become a tickly podcast. Okay. You are queen-fakey of made-up town. All hail Queen Shit of Liesville! A bunch of religious virgins go to mingle and do what? The thing. Hi, Gary. No, I miss you dad, my friend. No, no!

First of all, this podcast is brought to you by our sponsors on Patreon. I want to thank each and every one of you. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much. We should also explain to fans running if people... Yeah, here's some in the background. We don't give a shit. We're so... It's really hot. It's really hot. Los Angeles is on fire. Yeah. And we need a fan. Yep. Because fire is coming from the sky. Yeah. And unfortunately, unlike most of our fans, this one has a blade... Well, hold on. Cut that out. Yeah, Dave, but I think the difference here is that this van oscillates unlike a lot of our lists. Hmm. All right, so thanks for

listening. Yeah, I think that was... This was the dollop podcast. There's something there. This is a weird last one. That's... There's something there. Weird final podcast. Fans. Unlike... Unlike... No, okay. Yeah, go ahead. No, sorry. Yeah, I thought I had it. There's something... There's something in there. There's a diamond in that one. I don't think there is. Little... All right. 1769! France. Whoa. Nicolas Joseph Cougnant. Built a large, heavy, steam-powered tricycle. What? America's smartest toddler. No, he's in France. He's not American. Oh, well. It is believed that it ran for 20 minutes at 2.25 miles per hour, or 3.6 kilometers per

hour, while carrying four people. After waiting for 20 minutes, it was able to begin another 20-minute journey, or drive, because this is considered by many to be the first true automobile. So it was a revolutionary moment. Yep, it was the... It was the first tricycle that was powered. It would have been great in LA because it takes 20 minutes to get everywhere. Hashtag business. Oh, you can listen to us all the time here. Others then got to work building their own versions of the automobile. Steam buses were running in Paris around 1800. American inventor Oliver Evans was the first to operate a powered road vehicle in the US in 1805.

Okay. He'd come up with the aid with the high-pressure steam engine in 1801, but couldn't convince authorities to let him use it on the Pennsylvania turnpike because it might scare horses. That's so amazing that the turnpike was horses. Merging horses, excuse me. Signal, yes! Signal! If you use your arm to let me know which way you're going. My good man, I could barely see a horse that came up behind me and then just bumped into me. Honey, quit switching lanes. We're in traffic. It's just gonna be as bad as in this one. Now be quiet, darling. This one seems damn it. I shouldn't have switched. Then in 1805, he finished a steam engine

scow, which he named the O'Rookter Amphibulus. It was 30 feet long and 12 feet wide. Wow. What? So... That'll really scare the horses. Yeah, oh fuck y'all. Yeah. He put wheels on it. It ran on land and water. Wow. This was the first powered road vehicle in the US. He drove it through the streets of Philadelphia. Well, I imagine the streets he could fit it on. Yes, and I'm sure they tossed batteries or whatever they had at this time at him. Without a doubt. Yeah. We'll just cow shit. Boot him, yeah, yeah. Others were also crazy. Take your wide train and stick it up your ass. Fucking big car. Fuck you. Why am I from Boston? Throw some

double D poop at him. I'm visiting here. Or regular D. I'm thinking of boobs. Huh? What? Others were also creating their own steam vehicles in the US. In 1863, Scientific American wrote about the test of a 650-pound vehicle that could go 20 miles per hour. So these are just monsters. Oh fuck yeah. Yeah. We started big. Yeah, well fuck yeah. We went from small to huge. We're Americans. Of course, our first car was 30 feet long and 12 feet wide. Best country in the world. Okay, so this guy builds. Frank Curtis of Massachusetts built a personal steam carriage for a man in Boston. The cost was $1,000. Okay. But the Boston man

could not make his payments, which led to the first car repossession. Wow, you had to repo a steam, a steam vehicle? Fuck yeah, man. You got to pay the fucking bills, bitch. Light steam cars were being built in the US in the 1890s. The Stanley Brothers designed and sold a light steam car called the Locomobile. Okay. Well, in today's terms, I feel like you would find that in Long Beach. Correct. But this was... Back then, it was the combination of locomotive and automobile. Right, but now they'd be like, watch out for the fucking Dodgers this year, bro. Yeah, what's up, your Locomobile? There's so many Locomobiles at the park near where I live. Yeah, the

kind of raising... I got caught in a traffic jam that was based on that. Yeah, just like the shocks of the car. Yeah, and I was, I was one of those ones where I was like, with this, you really just got to sit here and take it. Excuse me, gentlemen, I know your cars are bouncing, but I'm trying to get to lessons to buy some cucumbers. I'll sit down and shut up. Sorry. It's always funny to be next to a guy whose car is bouncing. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's what you're doing. Yeah. If your car does it, though, I mean, you got... I'm gonna turn on Fleetwood Mac. Yeah. Same deal. So the Locomobile was the first commercially successful,

successful, American-made automobile. Did you say it was a sex car? I felt like I said sexful. I was trying to say successful. You could have sex with this car. This is a car you can... Now I'm liking the Locomobile. I can fuck this car. Where have you been? Oh my god, dude, I just... Oh, Locomobile. Really banged my car. Sorry I'm so late. I was just really having sex with my car. They were about a thousand built in 1900. We're gonna have a bike. The Locomobiles proved to be somewhat unreliable. They were finicky to operate and prone to fires. Okay. I mean, I would imagine that that would be part of a... I mean, a problem with this. Yeah. They had small water tanks and could get

about 20 miles per tank. Steam cars had to be warmed up for about a half hour before they could be driven. They also needed kerosene to heat the water and gasoline for the pilot light. Okay. So it's like a bomb. Right. We just described a bomb. Right. A drivable bomb. Yeah. Yeah. Pinto would eventually do this again. Yeah. The first Pinto is what we're talking about. But Steam engines weren't the only design. There was also the electric and gas-powered cars. There were many all over the U.S. building cars. By 1898, there were more than a hundred companies created to build and sell automobiles. Okay. Good. Competitive market. Yeah. At the

beginning of the 20th century, 40% of American automobiles were powered by Steam, 38% by electricity, and 22% by gasoline. It's a shame we got away from it. No, it's all fine. Well, electric was favored, though, because gas cars were unreliable, noisy, and vibrated a lot. Okay. The steamer obviously needed a lot of water, and it caught on fire. The electric was easy to start, quiet, and didn't need a lot of maintenance. Well, obviously. Get that one out of there. Yeah. The first battery-powered American car was built by William Morrison in Iowa. It could hit speeds of 14 miles per hour. Bam. Boy. You kidding me? Look out.

You kidding me? You want to catch me? You got a trot, motherfucker. You just flew by me, and now I'm gonna run and catch up to you. You got a skip. You can drive by me again. Good luck. Good luck catching me. You're gonna have to really run. Hey, look at me running past your car. Screw you. Goodbye. Damn it. We need to create steam-powered humans. We'll show him. The problem with electric cars was no battery-charging infrastructure. What do you mean? Well, there's no electricity really. Oh, so you mean there was, right, okay. 19, 10, 3% of houses had electric. Right, okay. So that's hard. Basically, you would drive your

electric automobile somewhere and then stop. You'd call your friend with a steam engine to get a lift home so you could go charge your piece of shit. But the electricity in homes increased to 35%, 35% between 1910 and 1920. Okay. 20 companies were selling electric cars. 3,000, 33,842 electric cars were registered in the US. So that's a lot. Yeah. More problems though. The speeds of electric cars were low and their range was short. Plus, it took a long time to charge them. Oh, and there was this overrated guy named Edison who was making a big push for electric cars. He teamed up with a guy named Henry Ford

to build cheap, mass-produced electric vehicles. Okay. Then Texas hit oil. So they were on the path to hold on. Okay. Texas hit oil, shitloads of it, right? Yeah. And gas became cheaper than electricity. But Ford was still into the idea of the electric car. The problem was is that he ordered all his batteries from Edison. And all those batteries sucked ass. At least Detroit had, at least Philadelphia had some to the throw. They were so shitty they couldn't make a car move. Okay. But okay, was Edison just making shitty batteries? Or was he just like had had batteries been? No, he was making shitty batteries. There were

other people that batteries had been invented. They were good because obviously the electric car was a thing. And then Edison just made shitty ones. Was he? And Ford could have bought them from another company, but he was in business with Edison. And he was like, well, I'll just walk away then. Right. Instead of making these things work. Well, he quit. Yeah, he quit on the electric car. I've had a real up and down with him. Well, he's a Nazi. I mean, really. And then came the ladies. For whatever reason, electric cars were marketed towards women. It was a clean car. They could putter around town in and it didn't have

the complications of a real powered car, which had levers and pedals and other things that confuse the female brain, the little brain. Yeah, the lady. Yep. So electric became associated with feminine and gas with masculine. Well, I'm glad that went away. You know, I really always do think that I always think about like how you just you just have these things that even if they're good for you or they're positive, people will be like, what are you pussy? What are you a pussy girl? Sweet, sweet girl car. What are you lady? Yeah. You know, like, but they are, I mean, as someone who really doesn't, I don't eat meat. It is often

where people are like, why? So you can blow your boyfriend. You're like, why does that? I don't understand. It's actually just a health thing. Yeah, it's a personal choice. It's not sexual. Now, watch me eat this phallic piece of meat. That's different. Yeah. Okay, so gas is masculine, right? So there were a few gas gas gas. There are a few cars around when 1900 came and this was a new thing for roads that have been used by horses and people for ages. Okay. The car immediately caused problems. In 1903, William Phelps Eno, a rich guy, printed 100,000 copies of his quote rules for driving on the condition that the City

of New York adopt and distribute the guide. Okay, I'll only print these up if you hand them out to everyone. Yeah. Okay, sure. This is considered to be the first traffic code in the US, but it was basically just a codification of custom. So be generous. Yeah, be nice. Don't drive into horses. Yeah, right. At first, cops didn't want to deal with it. We should get some of those back. What? Don't drive into horses? Well, just laws that are sort of based upon politeness. No. You don't think? No. Okay, how about this? Let me pitch you on this. I've often thought this. There should be two classes of driver's licenses. Okay. There should be

like a class where if you have like less accidents and you go and take the test and you score a certain level on a driver's test, that you're sort of given, I don't know, a lane. Oh, a special lane. A special lane. The premier lane. Yeah. For a premier driver. Well, we already have the lane, but it's now for paying people or, you know, carpoolers. Why don't I just throw like competent people in there too. Okay, that's fair. And then the others. Just fucking idiots. Yeah, let's be out there bumping into each other. Right now, that's what we have. All idiot lanes. Right. That's going good, right? Yeah. Yeah,

yeah. At first cops didn't want to deal with his new laws. They weren't traffic cops and cabs and truck drivers didn't really think cops could tell them what to do when it came to driving. This often ended with the beating of a cab driver to get him to move. Sorry, how did they get there? What do you mean? It would normally just end with them beating up a cab driver. Yeah. Well, when the cops told the cab to move is he would be like it could be a horse in carriage situation. It could be a car. Right. But the cops are just cops are telling the cops didn't want to have to do with traffic. They want to deal with real crime. And then

they'd be like, move your car and the guy back. Fuck you. And then they beat him. Yeah, beat the crap out. Okay. And you know, it was always evolving his rules. He came up with stuff like painted markings to guide drivers. Okay. At one point, he would be brought in to deal with Columbus Circle because there were so many car accidents there. Okay. He came up with the idea of having all the traffic in the circle go in one direction, which is the opposite of what was happening. At that time, cars in the circle would go in two directions. Wait, are like a roundabout with people going two directions? Yep. Wow. Apparently that turned out to be

problematic. What part? Wow, that is I would pay if I could travel back in time. This is my first destination. This is your number one circle when the traffic is going in opposite directions. Wow. That's that's the best thing that could ever happen. And they were getting into accidents. Can you believe it? I just I don't see how making a left. Yeah, I like I'm just trying to even think of how you get out of it. Like there would be times if you'd be on like lap 80 be like, damn that. I'm never getting out of it. Yeah. Fucking crazy. Okay. But that came much later. For now, cars were just getting started. Dave, these new machines on the

road were a problem. At the turn of the century, streets were shared by horse drawn vehicles, bicycles and push carts. Single horse wagons made deliveries of ice, milk and goods to every kind of resident. And then there were the pedestrians. Up until now, pedestrians ruled the street. Quote, the streets were absolutely black with people. Okay. People would just walk across the street or down the center of the road, wherever they pleased, they would stop to buy food from a cart vendor in the middle of the road. They'd stop and talk to friends wherever they wanted. They

had no need to worry about anything. When you say it was black with people, that's I think they mostly wore black colors. Everybody wore black. I don't think they only let black people on the street. Okay, it's black people street day. I mean, I was gonna say, let's counter to a lot of things I've learned on this podcast. That's all they only let black whatever you would like to do black people in whites. Stay out of here. Get on a sidewalk. You savages. Quote, they'd stride right into the street casting little more than a glance around them anywhere and at any angle boys 10 12 or 14 would be selling newspapers in

the street delivering telegrams and running errands. There were also no playgrounds. Back then the street was considered the best place for children to play. What? What? What do you mean? They're they even in a time of horses and carriages. How does that make sense? I think the horses and carriages moving so slow the kids could get out of the way. But like a playground in the street? It wasn't there wasn't a playground. She was just the street. You get that's where you'd play. You don't play in the street. Play stick ball. Game on. One of those. Game on. Exactly right. That's exactly what it was. Game on. They should be

careful. I felt like I was just transported back in time. Listen, I'm very good. You know, I've always had an eye to history. It wasn't just people. There were also tons of horses between 150,000 and 175,000 in New York. Chicago had 83,000, Detroit 12,000, Columbus 5,000, which meant manure was everywhere. There were also pigs sheep and cattle in the street. Pigs regularly roamed the New York City streets in herds. See, okay, now I'm hearing about this and to me I like that time better. A time when I could walk around the streets and just see pigs. Yeah, way better. Did you see the pig that came out

of the ocean in Poland and started attacking people? Not all pigs are great, man. A pig came out of the ocean and attacked people. Look, I've seen the video. It was clearly an ocean pig and it clearly started attacking people when it got out. I'm still, I'm team pig still. Okay, all right, you see the video and then you come back to me. I'm into it. With cars appearing in the 1890s, they had to be a bit careful, but for the most part, cars were so rare it wasn't much of a concern. In 1896, the first gas-powered vehicle was driven on the streets of Detroit. It was moving as fast as 20 miles per hour. Newspapers at the time

said it was quote, tearing along the street at a lively rate, dodging people and teams of horses. Dodging people 20 miles an hour. Yeah. Think of how much time, I mean, think of that now. You'd be like, oh, we should move soon. Yeah, right? Yeah. Then they were like, yeah, they'd never seen anything like it. It's a stained demon. We're all gonna die. In 19... Save the pigs. Save all the piggies. Just imagine we're right into a herd of pigs. Just make a little car bacon. By 1900, there were more, but they were, the cars were handmade and they were all owned by the rich. Cars were considered rare and dangerous by the

masses. So were people sort of like looking at them like, like, I don't like cars. Screw cars. Yes. Yeah, okay. They were considered, they were called pleasure cars because they were basically looked upon the way we look at yachts today. Right. That's what they were like. Just a fancy, just a fancy pants way of rubbing our faces. You had money. Totally. That's exactly what it was. God, I can't wait to be one of them. In 1902, the number two selling car, the number one selling car was Oldsmobile. 2,750 were sold. Okay. Between 1904 and 1908, there were 241 auto manufacturing companies in the US. One was the Ford Motor Company,

which kicked off in June 1903. Ford built eight different types of cars before he came up with the Model T in 1908. Okay. It was gas, not, not a not moving electric car. Thanks, Addison. Everything changed with the Model T. Being affordable, the middle class could buy one with ease and they were fast hitting up to 45 miles per hour. Okay. Most of the cars were sold in cities, which is where most of the people were walking around on the streets. Okay. What? Well, I just think we're setting up for some bad stuff. What do you mean? Why? It feels like some vehicular manslaughter might be starting. We might be inventing vehicular

manslaughter. In 1908 in Detroit, just two months in the summer, 31 people were killed in car crashes. Geez. Many others were injured, but those statistics were not kept. Now, is that more pedestrians getting hit or is that just deaths in vehicles and pedestrians getting hit? Mostly pedestrians. That's the right answer. Since cars were new, there were no stop signs, no traffic lights, no traffic cops, no lanes, no street lights, no brake lights, and no speed limits. But if we can, why were the people dying? We'll get to that. No. Oh, I see. Well, it's cars. Well, it's because there were no stop signs. Very hot. Yeah. Drivers did not have to

get licenses and there were no driver education courses. You were taught to drive by the car salesman. Wow. Or sometimes organizations like the YMCA. Weird. Car salesman way better. Yeah. People didn't quite understand the concept of speeding and turning. What was the car salesman teaching? Cars. Cars were constantly skidding across the road or doing what was called turned turtle, which meant they flipped over. I could picture it right away. Suzuki actually made a company that did that. Detroit Free Press, quote, an automobile containing a bridal couple, several wedding guests, three children, and many bottles of liquor

round to the corner of LaBelle Avenue onto Woodward Sunday evening and turned turtle going 40 miles per hour. Turn turtle. 10 were hurt. What about the liquor? That's fine. Thank God. Come on, move out of the way. Move out of the way. Can we just save some of this liquor? Can you talk about how many people are in the car? Come on here. Get your mouth on the liquor. Blow into it. Drink it, drink it. Come on. Drink it up. I was married once. Huh? We're all married. I was married once. Hi. Yep. Talking about the couple. Oh, she's red. Oh, a kid. All right. So driving and drinking totally legal. Well, Dave, it should be. I mean, you know, at this

point, there's no real laws. Let's have some fun. Soon, a bulletin was put out for drivers called sportsmen like driving to explain velocity and centrifugal force to avoid turtling. They actually put out a manual to tell people not to go around quarters. It reminds me of when people didn't know that choking was a thing in the Heimlich one that we did. Yeah, I just it's hard to imagine that like people didn't know you couldn't go fast. Doesn't kick in. But how would they ever know? Because they never went faster on a corner. They've never seen it. Think that just by living like when you'd be like, I don't think so. If a horse rounds a corner faster, it's

probably more dangerous. If you run down a hill, it's more dangerous. Speed is more day like and I'm telling you, God, these fools. Society was not prepared for the explosion of cars. By 1909, there were 200,000 autos in the US. Politicians, police and judges discussed how to deal with the issue. No one had ever had to deal with the concept of the rights of the road. And who was the guilty party in an accident? Should the pedestrian have gotten out of the way of the car before before being hit? Was it the driver's fault? Things turned quickly against the car. Public opinion was always that it was the driver of the car. Most saw the automobile as evil. There were editorials and court arguments

made. The Georgia Court of Appeals wrote in a judgment, quote, automobiles are to be classed as ferocious animals. And the law relating to the duty of owners of such animals is to be applied. However, they are not to be classed with bad dogs, vicious bulls, and evil, disposed mules and the like. It's good to clarify, though, that it's not going to be the car won't be treated like a mule. Right. That's good. That makes sense. But it is a ferocious animal. Right. Yes, it is a ferocious animal. In many ways. Oh. Except when you can turn it off. Turn it off. Right. And have total control of it. Right. Right. Put stuff in it. Sure. Yeah. Touch it. It's yours. You own it. Drive around in it. Drive

around in it. Do everything. Put gasoline in it. Yes. And just like the Flintstones, it's a ferocious animal. Thank you. Yes. But there was another smaller group of people who saw the automobile that it would lead to a better life. Popular journals like Harper's Weekly and Scientific American published articles extolling the automobile and talking shit about the horse. Wow. Yeah. They were stepping in it, if you don't mind. Yeah. Talking manure. Some said the horse was unprofitable, too costly to buy and to keep. Others said the car moved faster than the horse, which would prevent traffic jams. Okay. Right. Quote, it is all a question of dollars and cents. This gas leaner Oats proposition. Oh my God.

Yes. That is correct. Gas v. Oats. We all remember gas v. Oats. Oats take longer to chew. I've got a suggestion. I've missed my case. Could we perhaps just feed the horse's gas? Yes. Let's feed the horse's gas. And oat the cars. Let's give the cars oats to see who is better. I've been drinking liquor from the street from a couple that died, maybe. And I saw a video of a man getting fucked by a horse at Washington State. So we've all got stuff back here. He did not make it. You're talking about, um, yep. Okay. The automobile is always smart to film that. Yes. Yeah. Why wouldn't you? Why not? You want to keep it for later? Yeah. This is me getting I can prove it. Plus horses made tons of shit, literally. In Milwaukee

in 1907, they don't even don't even 350,000 people and 12,500 horses, which led to a hundred and 33 tons of manure a day. That's right. Yeah, that's exactly your people. That's that explains you. Then we molded it into a human put a suit on it and ran it for governor. In Rochester, New York, there were horses, uh, that produced enough manure in a year to make a pile 175 feet high, covering an acre of ground. Well, I think I speak for everyone when I say let's get to work on shit acre. We can make a show called Brown Acres. I don't know why the health officials in the city decided to measure it that way, but that's what they did. Are there any questions after our statement? Uh, yeah. Can we have another

unit of measurement besides a mountain? Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. It could fill, uh, 15 pools, uh, that were really big. I think I'm just saying, can we have like a, like a, like I heard that there's a hundred and 33 tons of manure a day. Yes. Can we have something like that? Yes. Okay. Yes. Uh, that would be enough that if we had a glass that went to heaven, we could fill it with the equine poo. Yep. Are there any questions now that that's cleared up for sure? How did you get the job? It's a funny story, actually. My aunt, you'll like this. My aunt Carol, uh, died. Uh-huh. Does she? Okay. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So she's dead. Of course. Horses died. Of horse courses. City horses had a very short

average lifespan. Two years. What? Yep. Work to the bone. Yeah. That's terrible. And because the roads were paved or cobbled, horses would often fall. If a leg was broken, they would be shot in the street and just left there. Well, I could see that being a traffic issue. That's kind of their, that's kind of their smuggler, right? We got a horse down on, uh, Third Avenue. I'm looking down on Third Avenue right now. We got a horse down. Oh, when they shot him in the dome, he's down. Ladies and gentlemen, if I were you, I'd get in the left lane right now, get in the left lane. You're going to be wanting to avoid that. Or take Second Avenue. Also, everything down on Sixth Avenue is finally cleaned up. But

again, remember, we have a horse down and he's really bleeding out, gang. So this might be a bit of a cut in here. Yeah, go for it. We have a herd of pigs coming up a housing street. All right, guys, housing. All right, guys, as you know, around four, four, 35, the pigs really start coming out. So we've got pigs down on Houston. So everyone keep your eyes peeled. Oh, Spring Street is now playground. All right, guys, the Spring Street is finally pregnant. It looks like people are finally using the roundabout to go in different directions again. All hell is breaking loose. Might be time to just jog. Jog. What is strange from cars to jogging? What is strange? A horse was to, I'm going to go sleep. Others

made the crazy argument that having dead horses and shit everywhere was a health problem. Who? And the cars and the cars that alleviate that. Horses were blamed for cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery and infant diarrhea due to all the flies they attracted. Okay, first of all, I could knock I could I could take the time to knock down why each one of those is okay. But I won't. Also infant diarrhea is where you shit infants. Oh, now that I see is problematic for overpopulation. Not great. How's your hangover? I got nine kids. I got nine of them. But I don't know what I want to do. I'm telling I'm not drinking again. That burrito did not agree with me. I have Quinn tuplets. So I don't know what

to tell anybody. Oh boy, I just made a two year old. I'm going to go number two year old. An insurance company had done a study in the 1890s and concluded people living near and working in stables had higher rates of infectious diseases. The quote, Queen of the Dung Heap was blamed the fly. Oh, okay. I for a minute, I thought I was someone who's like the way to eliminate flies was to get rid of the horse. The two sides fought it out in the media and in the courts. Meanwhile, the number of great like public argument to be like arguing over flies on poo. Yeah. Cars don't make poo flies. Well, that remains to be seen, sir. Sir, I will I bring to you the Queen of Dung. Some guys shitting behind

his car. See that one did. That's a baby. I'm sick. Meanwhile, the number of pedestrians and children being hit by cars went up and up and up and up. This was the new type of mass death that had interrupted a basic way of life for many. Most who lived in most who died lived in cities. People rarely blame the pedestrian who would just walk out into the road without looking wherever they wanted. Most just blamed the new part of the equation, the car. We've been walking out into the road without looking for generations. What's great is we've almost kind of resorted back to that time with texting now. Oh, yeah. So we're almost back to life. Well now and Pokemon go. Oh, yeah. I'm terrified of the roads

right now. I've seen people driving around doing it. Yeah, but do you know how gratifying it is to find one? Oh, man, I found a squiggly do the other day. Yeah, say, I mean, that's worth that's worth it. That's worth it. Yeah. Excessive speeding was seen as the reason for most accidents in Detroit. There were no regulations on cars until 1909. Detroit was not like New York where the wealthy had cars in Detroit. It was the middle class buying them. The city set a speed limit to match the pace of horse drawn wagons to deal with the issue. I mean, just imagine overtaking horse. What five miles an hour. They were like there were no accidents when they were just horses. So everyone should go the rate

of a horse. Our plan is to completely take away the advantage that the car has. But this just made the street slow as as they were when people weren't being killed. Right. Yeah. This was easy to pass because in 1910 the car wasn't yet essential and everyone figured slowing them down would work. Okay. The car was to look at as an unnecessary tool. Unfortunately, the speed of a horse wagon was so slow that cars kept stalling in the street. Very quickly, this was just like just imagine just being like what how I'm not going to get home. No, there's dead horses. There's kids. There's cars that can only go five miles an hour. That's a fucking nightmare. The traffic got quote thicker and thicker. Wherever automobile

laws were enacted. If the law was broken, the punishment was severe for drivers. Large fines, jail and charges of manslaughter and murder. When a pedestrian was hit and killed in one afternoon in Detroit, police arrested 450 people on speeding charges and brought them before a judge. But at the same time, if someone was hit by a car and crippled for life, the most the driver could be charged with was reckless driving and get a max of 15 days in jail. Just like look, I'm not saying our laws today like make sense. There's many that are just flawed and are like double backs on each other. But I mean, what? So if you kill someone, the book gets thrown at you. If the person can never walk again and is

a vegetable in two weeks. Lucky you, sir. I'm going to need you to hang on until the verdicts reach pal, please. In New York to keep mostly elderly people safe, the Broadway the Pope mobile was built. Broadway squad was created about a dozen officers were used to basically help old people across get across the street so they wouldn't get killed. I'm really hoping that they were like singing and dancing while that was happening. What else could it be? Take my arm. We're going to cross the street. Don't worry, Grandma. We're not going to hurt your feet. Come on. We're the Broadway boys. Two, three, four, please. No. The grandma's talking. I can't understand. Now give me your ramen. I'll take your hand.

We're going to cry. Oh God, car. I don't want to cry. What, ma'am? I don't want to cry. Ma'am, we're going to help you. We're the Broadway crew or boys. I don't want to cry. You don't want to cross? No, I live on this side. But we're the Broadway boys. Come on. I'm going to die right here. No, no, no. Even if you don't want to. Come on, lady. God, what a bitch. This one's a real bitch. The worst musical theater cop group I've ever seen. What? The worst musical theater cop group I've ever seen. That's great. How many have you seen? This is it. Yeah. You're also the best. Are they the Broadway cops? Yeah. Broadway cops. That would have helped. Oh, then the traffic squad was greeted. Sure.

Who would rotate in four man shifts covering a busy intersection where many accidents occurred. The Detroit cops came up with hand signals to deal with cars. Quote, the upright hand is the signal to stop and the swinging hand across the body, the signal to start and go. Right. Pedestrians stopped to watch the hand movements, but no one in the cars had any idea what the fuck the cops were doing. So I guess the real problem here was getting the word out that these changes were being made. You just kind of like put a guy out there and you're like, don't figure it out. Hey, Todd's dead. I love that no one had any idea we're holding up your hand meant. No. No one had any fucking idea. No. Well, the

first time it happened. They'd never seen it. They were just like, okay. First time someone wave. First time someone gave them a thumb up. All right, go, Hitler. Quote. I think that man wants to see us to see his hand. Hello hand. Oh, we've hit him. Here's my quote. The drivers who happened to notice the signals of the officers did not seem to understand what was wanted and drove by making it necessary for the traffic traffic officer to run after them and explain the meaning of the signal. Hello to you too. Boy, this guy really wants a hello in person. You fucking asshole. Hello officer. This means stop you shit fuck. Well, I've only looked at that as a wave. Well, yeah, no, that that is a go.

That's when you later. This is a you fuck. In 1913, the New York Times published a subtle article titled automobile death harvest doubled in three years. Yeah, death harvest, death harvest movie. Come on, let's write it down. Death harvest. Yeah, fuck yeah. According to the article, the National Highway Protection Asian Society of New York and New Jersey began keeping automobile records in 1910. Was that just stuff to play in your car while you drove? Yes. Okay. Like KTEL. Right. 95% of deaths were pedestrians being struck down in the street. Sorry. 95% of deaths in car accident deaths were pedestrians being struck down. That's crazy. There was a search. You're just seeing a person die a day. Oh, I see a lot

of people. Jeez. There was a surge in deaths during the summer months when people were out and children were more likely to be playing in the street. Get them out of the street. Why are they still in the street? Because that's where they play. But don't people at some point make a connection and be like, boy, a lot of people are dying. That's where they belong. Where are you going to play stickball? A saloon? Right. Thank you. Deaths from trolley cars and wagons decreased while deaths from autos went from 112 in 1910 to 221 in 1912. So that's a two year increase. That's a lot, a lot, a lot. It's a good pop. 41% were children. Many others were elderly. The two groups easily made up the majority of those killed. It's

like street measles. I now would like to see a movie called Street Measles. All right. In May 1910, a Brooklyn lawyer was arrested for hitting a 16 year old boy. Okay. The teenager was okay and the lawyer gave him a ride home. Okay. Obviously. How you doing? Some things are different from today. Yeah. So what do you like to do for fun? You want to lift? Yeah, she goes fast. You know that. Yeah. I just ran you over. Yeah, let's go for a ride. I'm scared. I'm scared. Get in the fucking car. On the drive to the kids house. The driver hit a six year old girl playing with her friends on the street. Pick her up. This time he was arrested for homicide. Come on. I got a whole car of them.

I keep hitting kids. How was your drive home? I killed nine. Yeah. And they're in the car. I dropped off two killed nine. That's not a bad day. Not a bad day. Now I was speeding to do it. You passed the you passed the driver's test with those. Yes. And I'll tell you what I'll notice a lot of the officers are being much sweeter. They're on the streets waving now, which I think is nice. Yeah, it's very sweet. Yeah, very good. And it wasn't just cars hitting people or horses or whatever was around. Accidents were occurring because cars scared horses, which would cause the horse to take off, sometimes trampling people. Oh my God. It's a fucking nightmare. I mean, we just put a tent over this and you sell tickets.

You thought this was going to be easy. Yeah, I really didn't think this transition would be that difficult. The push to build playgrounds was seen as one answer to the deaths that started making cars drive slower. In New York, many of the drivers love the idea that a guy invented a playground. That's what yeah, there were no playgrounds before cars. It's just amazing. We'll have your monkey bars, your rings, your slides, all in one. Huh? I'm not the cars. No, no, no, no. All right, Jesus, God. In New York, many drivers were chauffeurs because many wealthy people drove cars. An article in the New York Tribune said there was a rising tide of anger against hired drivers. This is like Uber. Yes. Was this

Uber? Sort of. Uber horse. Uber horse. The article went on to say that driving actually made people want to smash into things and that quote, some automobile drivers take pleasure in their deadly work. Wow. It's a little bit of propaganda. Yeah. It's pushy. The chauffeurs who stayed at the scene of an accident were considered a rarity. At this point, drivers did not. So like it was called the hit and stay and that was weird. Yeah. What are you doing? Why are you doing this? I want to help. I did something wrong. I'd like to look at the blood. Okay. Jack, I'll do the talking. Drivers do not have to demonstrate any skills to get a license. They just had to pay two dollars to the city. Okay. In 1914, the Cleveland

Police Department installed the first permanent red and green traffic control light at the corner of 105th Street and Euclid Avenue. But people just thought it was Christmas and still killed people. The red light faced in just two directions and police controlled the side street traffic. Okay. Nobody thought drivers or pedestrians would obey the signal without a cop there. And it was a total shit show. Oh, God. The first permanent light worked so poorly that drivers would just drive through it unless a cop was standing there staring at them, which entirely defeated the purpose of having a traffic light. That's great. So it would stop and they'd be like, how long am I supposed to wait for this goddamn

thing? Later. In 1914, Detroit Police Sergeant Harry Jackson cut the corners off of a square sign to create an easily recognized octagonal shape for the first red stop sign. All right. Not everyone liked it. Neighborhood groups often fought against the installation of stop signs. They thought the signs were not friendly to pedestrians because they never had the right of way when crossing a street on foot. So this now is giving pedestrians the right of way, essentially. They're saying it doesn't give them the right of way. They're saying that because of that, cars always have the right of way now. It kind of is like that in England when I was driving there, like a crosswalk is not like you like wait. Yeah,

you like wait for them to go by in some places. Yeah, that's what they're saying was happening. Okay. One study concluded that while 90% of drivers obeyed traffic lights, only 41% stopped at stop signs. Drivers just not in the stop signs. We are terrific. Fuck that. Being American, being America, an Illinois court briefly ruled that stop signs were illegal because they violated the rights of an individual to stop cross streets. Thank you. That was exactly the sort of thing that led to people being killed and people are not big fans of kids getting killed. So besides stopping them from playing in the street, they started teaching kids the rules of the road in school in 1915. Okay. 1915. Yeah, whatever you had 1908 was

the explosion of cars. Seven years later, they start teaching kids they shouldn't die in the street. Didn't take too long. The game red light green light came from an instruction manual taught in school. Wow. That's some genius branding right there. Yep. And by 1916, one quarter of the entire Detroit police force, 250 cops were being used to handle traffic. York became the first city to create a traffic court and Detroit the second. Others soon followed. The same day that Detroit announced they were creating a traffic court, the 17th person was killed in the first 24 days of May 1920. Wow. Eight of them children. Oh my God. It wasn't long before the Detroit police admitted they couldn't deal with the car

situation. They cannot pull more men from the regular beat to deal with the traffic. And there weren't enough traffic cops to deal with all the cars. The city was losing to crazy drivers. And newspapers were drawing attention to the death toll. In 1917 Detroit police officer William Potts added a yellow caution light at intersections to help pedestrians have time to cross and allow cars to fully pass through intersections between light chains. We named holes after him as an homage. A pot. Yes. Yep. Also pull pot. Yeah, right. Potts also built the and the roast. Yes. Keep going. Potts also built the yes. Yes. Potts also built the first four direction light in 1920. He was like a traffic light God. By 1918 Chicago,

New York adopted. Was he like was that like what people like? Hey, there it goes. Potts. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Potts. I was wondering if you weren't busy later. Maybe you want to come on by. Yeah. You want me to bring my light? Are you Potts? Yeah. Hey, how you doing? I guess I never heard your voice was crazy. How you doing, girl? You like yellow lights? Hey. I was going to give you the green light, but now I think I'm going to give you the red. Okay. Don't talk to Potts. How you doing? Run away. You want me to bring a roast? Red light. Red light. Yeah. Red light. You ain't seen our laws. In 1918. Oh, did I do this? Nope. Chicago, New York started using the lights and they quickly

spread throughout American cities. But cars were still creating chaos. Parking and block streets were an issue. Most multi story commercial buildings did not have parking spaces. And since there were no laws or even etiquette for parking, people would just stop their cars wherever. I mean, we have etiquette now and we're terrible. What was it like when you could just do it wherever? Yeah, I'm stopping here. There's some great video of when China first got like a mass of cars. It's just like that. It's just people stopping wherever. This is not, this is like not in these times. This is like fairly recent. Yeah. No, I mean, they, well, I was going to say, I mean, like if you look at traffic in Beijing, it's, I mean, it basically

is like you almost have to do what you're talking about originally, which is where you just look for everything and prepare for the worst. When you, when you have a society, then you introduce something like cars. It's fucking chaos. Yeah. Nothing is built for that. It's complex. Yeah. Residential neighborhoods had no garages or driveways, so cars blocked those streets as well. Inconsiderate drivers were nicknamed fliver boobs. Well, I don't think anyone wants to be addressed as that. That should stop this out immediately. Hey, fliver boob. Excuse me. Oh, I'm going to forget my fist. I know my yes, sir, sir. Challenge you to a boxing thing. Fliver boobs. Fliver boobs by the automotive American automobile. I believe they held a contest to come up with that name.

And that one. Yep. All right. Joy Riders also became a new term at this time for people who stole cars and drove around at insane speeds, either abandoning the car or at some point crashing it. Fun. The terms road hogs, speed maniacs and Sunday drivers all started at this time appearing regularly in newspapers. Roadhog was probably confusing considering pigs were roaming the streets for a while. Thank you. Maybe that's what they were talking about. Might have been. And then there was the term juggernauts. Those were cars that were out of control and drove into a crowd of people waiting for a streetcar. It happened so often they came up with a nickname. Now we just call it Elderly's at Farmer's Marcus. Oh, fuck, there was another juggernaut today.

Hey, I'm just trying to get some naval oranges. So often that they gave it a nickname. That's that's how often people were driving into crowds of people. Yeah. Well, look, I guess it makes sense for how we use it now, too. It's a real juggernaut. What do you mean? I just can't fathom how a person was killing a group of people often. Well, it's just a real juggernaut. It's the law of the land. Sure. From the Detroit Free Press 1919 quote screaming pedestrians were scattered like nine pins. Some were bowled over and tossed against storefronts by the juggernaut. The passenger evidently frightened by the cries of the crowd, leapt from his seat, running swiftly disappeared into the darkness. Smart. Just the passenger?

Yeah, just the passenger. Okay. Driver stuck around. I think so. Okay. Then I support the move. And he was like, I got a strike. Yeah. The pin boys come out. Pick them up. And the term hit and run driver was coined. Okay. These are all negative terms created by pedestrians to attack drivers, not the other way around. These all pushed the narrative that the street was the place of the person on foot, not the car. Street was right. Okay. If Philadelphia judge lectured drivers in his court, quote, it won't be long before children won't have any rights at all in the streets. Something must be done to end this menace to pedestrians and to children in particular. Okay. What are you talking about?

It's ups, except I am speaking here, sir. What we're saying is that soon the streets will not be for children. Someday barbarism is this someday. The kind of lunacy is happening in my courtroom. It's time to bring back steam powered tricycles. Yeah. But when police did try to limit the amount of time kids played in the street, parents objected. Okay. I wish you could see his confused face. But what is it? It's their way of life. Again, it just reminds me of choking for people to just be like, where will they go? It's like the field. Go to the field. It's their way of life. Go to the field. All right.

For a little while, all they have are fields. I've seen far and away. For a little while, New York police arrested kids, but that only went on for a short time because quote, what a run. It frightened and shamed the child and angered his parents and guardians. Wait, getting arrested scared kids? Yes. And shame them. Mason. Shame them. Tays them. Thank you. That's how you gotta do it. Everyone cops would stop something because they're fratting and shaming people. Yeah. A St. Louis parent wrote, quote, Children must play. It is so funny though, because like if you think about today, we have that same campaign. Advising kids to play like there is like a get out and play. Yeah.

Children must play in exclusive residence sections. It is difficult to keep a child out of the street. In other and more crowded sections, it is practically impossible. How am I supposed to keep my child out of the street? You answer me that, sir. Parent him. Who is this? Who is this parent him that doesn't understand reason or life parent him. You can't tell the child not to play in the street. It is the street is parent. Child and street are the same. They are one. Okay. Street child. Excuse me. Play. Where do they go? Get out of here. The streets are leave. You go to the street. Well, I say street time. What does that mean? Get out. It means all children to the street. Get out. Sign up a bitch. In the summer of 1919,

a headline in the Des Moines News read, Boys ordered off the street. Get out of here, boys. The city's head of public safety was quoted. Children, all to be allowed out. It's great that there is like a children's news bulletin. Attention, five year olds breaking news toddlers. Children old enough to be allowed out of their own yard should go to a park athletic field or vacant yard for their play. If they are too young to go to such a place, they are too young to leave their homes. Field. Field. Get into the field. Easier in places like Des Moines than in a place like New York City. True. Most kids in New York did not have a yard or park or vacant field to play. What's this guy talking about a yard for? What the fuck is that? You know what? What's a yard? You know a yard? Is this the street, right?

Yeah, the streets. That's what you're talking about. So let's go to the yard. Let's go to the yard. Yeah. Too dead. Streets were fairly busy in New York. The kids were not usually allowed into parks like Central Park. They won't even listen to the park. Central Park was reserved for upper and middle classes. Children were only allowed in at certain times of the day and in specific areas. And the park's large police force made sure that unescorted children and other undesirables by which I mean poor people, shall I say, were discouraged from entering the park. Which is why there was that big rise of millionaire kids at this era. That's what I'm talking about. Right. Just to get in there. Just wanted to get into the park. Yeah. So safety first campaigns began. They instructed kids in school the perils of

playing in the middle of the street. I can't believe how much explanation it is taking for people to grasp that this is severely dangerous. And there are fields. Not in New York. There's still parks. There's grass. They couldn't go to those parks. There's grass. Where? There's more grass. There's a lot of grass now and we're even sure that they've built more. Back then it was just all covered in fucking pig and horse shit. Like it wasn't. Well go play in the shit. And then shanty towns were built. Go to the shanty town. If there was a lot someone was building something on it to live there. I think I could find a space for these kids to play. I'd love to give a shot. They instructed. Okay. So when you go back in time, you go back in time and do that and

I'll go to the circle. No, I want to do other things first. That'll be on my day when I got to get a bunch of chores done. They instructed kids in school the perils of playing in the middle of the street. There were also posters and advertisements to promote safety. Saying things like don't play in the street. In 1918, safety advertisement number 17 was released with affirmations that quote each child should be taught to remember so they would not get hurt during vacation. First, I must not play in the streets, especially in one frequently used by automobiles and other vehicles. Good. I must not throw stone or other missiles at any vehicle. Missiles? Well, you know, objects of rock like things, cans, whatever. Missiles.

It is dangerous and it is a dangerous and senseless habit. So since that's number two on the list, I'm guessing a lot of kids with wrong shit at cars. Yeah, it seems to be the response to not being able to play in the streets. Right. See, right now they're mortal enemies. Right. I must not use roller skates or coasters on the street. I must stay on the right side of the street and near the curb while riding a bicycle. Okay. A lot of dying. Yeah, I'm just stunned. Neighborhood kids started looking for streets that didn't have much traffic on them. This was so they could live. The streets without much traffic began to be called play streets and they were officially sanctioned by the city in 1914. Wow, streets where you would have to

give the right of way to playing. Yes. Hopefully they're done with their game soon. The movement to build playgrounds had begun in 1906, but it would be decades before there were playgrounds everywhere. That is a long time for people to get the word on that. A centralized place where they can go play. Well, we just heard about it. What about the street? No, no, no, we're not doing the street anymore. 40 years ago, we made a playground. I don't know. Look, it's flat. No, you idiot. No. Roll the ball. How do you not know about playgrounds? You can run around. Yes, that is what a playground will provide. You can ride a bicycle. It's just not in the street. You can play tag. Oh, my God. The street seems like it's perfect. Oh, my God. I walked out there

yesterday and put on a hat and then I looked at myself and I said, I look good a hat and I stood in a straight. I am surrounded by confounding idiots. May 18, 1919. The Des Moines news ran this headline. 11 children hit by cars this month. Jeez. And there was a picture of the 11th victim, eight year old Jimmy Hall, right under the headline. He had a fractured skull. Sorry, the Jimmy Hall? Jimmy Hall. The article listed the injuries of all 11 kids as well as their addresses and the addresses of the drivers. Oh, well, that is OK. Interesting. Interesting. Interesting. There was also some healthy shaming going on for drivers in Detroit. John Harrigan was a wealthy 26 year old who hit and killed a city street worker while driving drunk. He was convicted of

manslaughter and then marched down the street in handcuffs during the safety parade of 1922. How the fuck are you going to have a safety parade in the streets? Don't play here. Parades. Let's go. Parade. I don't know why there's a boat there. Yeah. Safety parades had started in 1920 and became a way for people to grieve their losses publicly and vent their frustration at the seemingly unstoppable death wave of cars. Was it loss? It was just lost on everyone that they were doing this in the streets. You're very stubborn. It is crazy. It is crazy to have a campaign. Just to have a campaign about how the streets aren't safe in the streets.

It's insane. Thousands of people would come out to the parades. Thousands. The kids were probably like, how come they get to play there? Why? That's going to be fine for us. The parades would include the wrecks of cars being towed. Inside the wreck would be place cards that would say things like he tried to make 90 miles per hour or follow this one to the cemetery. Some wrecks would have a mannequin behind the wheel dressed up like Satan and bloody corpses as passengers. Well, you know, I mean, I like the artistic expression, right? Children who maybe a little much children who had been crippled from car accidents would ride in the back of convertibles or open cars waving to the other kids watching. I'm sure it was fun for them to get in a car. Why is that

one way with his foot, dad? That's his that's his new way of waving to that's all he's got left. That's all he's got, son. Now shake his foot and say it's nice to meet him. Washington DC held a parade that included 10,000 children dressed as ghosts. Each one represented a death that year. Oh, God. Why are we dressing like this for fun? Remember your brother? Oh, yeah. Okay, so you're him today. Okay. Is that weird? Yeah. Okay, let's start crying. Oh, God. Behind the kids were the grieving mothers of the dead kids wearing a star to indicate they lost a child. I don't think these are parades. These are these stopping parades. Those are different things. These are processions. Half of all kids killed by cars were killed on the blocks where they lived. Okay. Cities held poster

contests for safety weeks. When Milwaukee held a safety week poster competition, citizens sent in horrific designs of car accident victims. The winner as picked by a local newspaper was a drawing of a grief stricken woman holding the bloody corpse of her child. Blood was on his clothes and on his bare legs. Yeah, my inspiration was that the idea that, you know, like when a kid gets hit, the idea that the mom has to like pick him up with all the blood. Yeah. So it was that also Rush 2112, the album cover. Yeah, yeah, that was big. Kind of a gap in there, but those are my two big hits. Those are the big those. Those are the ones. Those are the ones I'm known for. Those are the ones. Yeah. Second place went to a woman sobbing while her daughter holds her mother's hand

and asks, was daddy hurt much? See this one I like because this one is a little more, you know, there's dialogue. It's dialogue. And it gets the point across a little bit better. You know, everyone's doing the dead kid. I did like an alive kid that's sad. Yeah. You know, because daddy's gone. And he's talking. Daddy's gone. He's talking. Okay. So he's like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, where's daddy and the mommy's like, I can't talk right now. I'm sad. Yeah. That's the whole poster. That's what's going on right there. Pretty good. Nice runner up. Yep. Nice runner up. I got myself some cash. Yep. That's what it's all about winning. Make the money. Another winning poster shows death standing atop a mountain of skulls holding the corpse of a woman. Now this one's a little bit

different. A little more avid guard. Uh, vultures fly above. Yeah, there's some birds. Amid the skulls is a wrecked car. See, that's the tie in. That's the tie in. That's how I bring it together. That's the tie right there. I was just sitting home. I'm banging my head. I'm like, Jesus Christ, I just got a mountain of skulls, a lady up there. What the fuck? I put some birds in the sky. And then I'm like, this is stupid. This got nothing to do with this could be like a black Sabbath cover. Then I yeah, you know, it came to me fast. Because you look, I looked outside and I saw a car. I was like, all right, a car. Right. I'm doing a driving through the people's heads on a car thing through the heads. Another from Memphis had a man holding up the body of an

unconscious girl just hit by a car. He says the pity of it. Different little casual. Yeah, a little cash. Hey, this one's dead. Hey, look, she's dead. This one didn't make it starting to remind me the ads in the movie Crazy People a little bit. Most safety councils like the posters of grieving parents holding up the bodies of dead children the most. Yeah, those ones really register. The 1922 Oak Park Illinois Safety Commission put up 50 posters all around the town that just said, don't kill a child. Well, I mean, don't tell me what to do, sign. I like also that you might be specifying with cars when that could just be a rule for society. Yeah, I mean, he could he could be walking in with bats. Yeah, I killed it with a bat. What are you talking about? Oh, you mean

any time. I don't want to live in a world where I can't kill kids. All right. Is this not Oak Park? Why do you think I'm over here? My bad. I've learned a valuable lesson. They call this the kid killing city, don't they? No. What? No. Oak Park. Come on and kill a kid. No, you've made that up. No, I'm pretty sure I saw it on a thing somewhere. Sweet God. Like a sign or a brochure. No, you've made it up. Get over here and run over one. You've even changed the slogan. Hit a boy. That's not what just boys. Yeah, it was like save the girls, hit a boy. You're a murderer. In Detroit, kids getting killed by cars was so common that in 1919, they started ringing the bells in fire stations, churches, schools and city hall twice a day in memory of all the people

killed by cars. That bell guy was like my shoulders. He's killing me. Intersections had giant A, B, or C cards to remind people to always be careful. Teachers would read the names of kids killed by cars to their classes and describe how they died. Interesting lessons. Can you not read that one? That was my brother. Read it. This is how we learned. No, but that was my brother. I know. That's the name you picked. I know, buddy. That's the name you picked. I don't want to read this. Come on. Now remember your ABCs. Other cities printed what were called murder maps to show the locations of car deaths. And for no accident week, posters would be made of young mothers covered in their child's blood while reaching up to heaven. Oh God, I wish there was something we

could do about this. If only there was something to do. I know. Let's ring bells and make posters. Seriously, who is the PR guy for this campaign? I don't know, but it is more blood. Does this sound familiar to anything yet that's happening in America? No, seriously. The courts are trying their best to stem the accidents. In Manhattan in 1920, 41,000 people appeared in traffic court and 11,000 were sent straight to jail. Brooklyn's numbers were almost the same. People also started taking the law into their own hands after accidents. July 22, 1921 seemed like a fairly average day for the time. The New York Times headline was four killed, seven hurt in auto accidents. I literally just picked a day because I have this newspaper

thing that I pay for. So I can go through all old newspapers. And I just picked a day and Ramley went to the front page. Really? And that was it. Oh my God. Quote, when this truck killed Daniel Dooley, six year old in front of his home in the Bronx yesterday, Peter Valenti, the driver, was set upon by an angry crowd who kicked and cuffed him and threatened him with worse violence until he fled for safety to a shoemaker's shop. Please, I need to get these cobbled. Lock the door. Can you fix my shoes? There's blood on them. Yeah. Yeah. Valentin was beat so badly that he was removed to Fordham Hospital where he was held

on charges of homicide. This was becoming increasingly common. People were being dragged out of their cars and attacked by mobs after they hit someone. No more violence. Motorists were defended. I mean, think about it, though. Yeah. The way to stop someone hurting someone is to hurt them. Motorists were defended by a few as a persecuted minority being attacked by the tyranny of the pedestrian. Yeah, those bastards. They were called murderers and some wrote to newspapers to defend themselves. Quote, drivers. Sorry, we are not a bunch of murders and cutthroats. That's just a guy. It's a good start. But just imagine like if you drove a car at this point, you were a fucking animal. Yeah. People just hated you. It's how we feel

about PT cruisers now. Same deal. Pedestrians did just to continue to do whatever they wanted, even with all the death. Cities had begun making crosswalks in 1915 and by 1920- I mean, I can only imagine those went terribly. They're not effective now necessarily. Right. By 1920 almost every city had them. But pedestrians just ignored them. A safety expert in Kansas City said that when police tried to keep pedestrians out of the road, they would just demand that the police step aside. In one case, quote, women used their parasols beating the policeman. Move, move. The policeman just gave up. I'm crossing. I'm a walk here, I'm not down there. I'm walking here. And it's 20 feet away. No. You fucking animal. Beat him.

The auto industry became concerned that urban dwellers would never buy a car because of the tide of public opinion. I can't imagine. And when sales dropped suddenly, car makers realized they had to act to deal with what was happening in cities. After steadily rising for years, car sales dropped 12% in 1923. And they weren't just disliked by people who were seeing pedestrians killed. They also just weren't needed in cities. So they had to change the narrative. But it wasn't going to be easy. In 1924, the New York Times published an editorial titled Nation Roused Against Motor Killings. At this point, editorial cartoons often showed a car driven by the Grim Reaper mowing down innocents. And this one was no different. That's exactly. These really are

starting to sound like Megadeth album. This editorial started by saying, quote, the horrors of war appear to be less appealing than the horrors of peace. The man in the street seems less safe than the man in the trench. And said, quote, the homicidal orgy of the motor car was especially gruesome in New York. A horgy. It was a horgy. That was because pedestrian saw walking on the street as their right still. The editorial went on to quote, a New York City traffic court magistrate, Bruce Cobb, the slaughter cannot go on. The mangling and crushing cannot continue. It's great. I mean, it's just like an epidemic. You must be like, you hear about Todd dead car car. Got him. Yeah, got him. That just keeps happening.

I don't know what we're going to do. Yep. There's no solution here. Nothing to do. In fact, in the first four years since I'm us to stay, more Americans were killed in automobile accidents that had died in the battle in France. Oh my God. Pretty good numbers. Yeah. The World War One. Now more people have died from cars in three years. We need to invade cars. Bomb the cars. What are we just going to sit here and take a car on the bluff? The automobile industry had a huge public relations problem. By 1925, auto accidents accounted for two thirds of the entire death toll in cities with populations over 25,000. That is crazy. That's cramming with all the disease and shit back then. Yes. That's crazy.

This is pre penicillin and shit. I don't remember that model of a car, but it sounds dangerous. Anti car legislation was being introduced all over the country with stiff penalties, including jail time, permanently losing one's license and heavy fines. There was a push to force car makers to just make them cross the street. That should be the penance. Thank you. Yeah. There was a push to force car makers to build cars to go no faster than 25 miles per hour. That's insane. This was a terrifying thought for manufacturers. The entire lure of a vehicle was the speed. One man wrote a letter to the St. Louis star suggesting to quote equip cars with some sort of governor to limit them to 15 miles per hour. Governor doesn't mean little politician.

Oh, no, I think when you would turn a corner, a guy would pop up and you go, Hello, governor. We just passed a law. Don't do this. Hello, governor. That's all that would happen. Well, problem solved. We've got governors in them. 42,000 people in Cincinnati signed a petition calling for car engines to be designed to shut off after hitting 25 miles per hour. It should be shut off after hitting people. Thank you. The auto industry organized a massive campaign to stop this possible law. It was well funded and on election day, it was defeated. Now the beast was born. The auto industry was going to change the narrative. They had to turn cities from

pedestrian havens into places that people thought were for cars. The car lobby, which called itself motordom, these names, got together and came up with a campaign. It was made up of car makers, rubber companies, the gas industry, car dealers and auto clubs. The goal of the auto coalition was to stop any restrictions being placed on cards, including traffic signals and restriction on parking. Boy, they really just can't get it right. It would be weird if this had any parallels today. Yeah. Any restriction was a violation of what they saw as their right to the road. The goal would be to convince everyone in the country that streets were for cars, not people. And if you were run over, it was your own fault. First weapon, former Ford Motor

Company executive, James Cousins, a short cigar eating Canadian who was... Cigar eating? Well, you know, he chomped on it. Oh, okay. I love a cigar and mustard, please. Yum. I'm out of my fucking mind. Now, let me smoke that hot dog. I'm backwards, baby. He was one of the most hostile executives in the auto industry. He had worked for Ford for years, but quit after a screaming match with him. He fought unions brutally and now his focus was on pedestrians. Cousins became Detroit's commissioner of street railways and later its mayor. In his positions of power, he insisted that adult pedestrians were just as guilty as drivers of causing accidents. They were just carelessly crossing the street whenever they wanted. They were jaywalking.

And that was a harsh word, literally. And he was using it with purpose. One of Motordom's goals was to popularize the term as a negative association with pedestrians. How is jaywalking? Like, that doesn't sound like... The term jay meant the time country bumpkin. Okay. He was bumpkin strolling. At the beginning of the campaign, the word jaywalker wasn't well known and it was considered crude and vulgar. When it had been used in 1915 by New York's police commissioner,

the New York Times responded with an editorial criticizing the word as, quote, a truly shocking name and a highly appropriate slur. How dare you say that in public? Jaywalking. Cousins demanded that people only cross streets on designated corners, an idea that was fucking insane to most people. I can see that. People who hated cars were furious.

I can see that. In Detroit, city council Alderman Sherman Littlefield, quote, the dog... Oh, they dog the people enough as it is. I'm not in favor of trying to herd people into certain places to cross streets. What the fuck is this? It's BS. What are we animals? We're only men.

Pro car activists had put jaywalking on cars for Boy Scouts to hand out to pedestrians who weren't crossing at street corners. At a New York safety event in 1922, a man dressed as a country idiot was softly rear-ended over and over by a car. Ah, it keeps happening. Oh, my moly. I don't know what the problem is. I'm a stupider, a stupid.

At the 1922 Detroit safety week parade, there was a huge tombstone float that blamed the jaywalker, not the driver. Probably the most controversial float at the week parade. Quote, erected to the memory of M.J. Walker, he stepped from the curb without looking. Well, you know, Walker had that one coming his whole life. They were making the jaywalkers seem like an unsophisticated idiot. He was the white trash country moron that had been and is still so joyously vilified by city elites.

Want to appear sophisticated? Don't walk in the street like a country bumpkin who just rolled into town and don't know no better. The elitism of city dwellers was used against them to herd them like cattle. By 1924, the term jaywalker appeared in the dictionary when he crosses the street without observing the traffic regulations for pedestrians. So it took him a fucking year. It's still work, though. While all this is going on, newspapers were shifting their rhetoric.

Newspapers were now making nice money off car ads, so they also started blending pedestrians. Dave. What? What's wrong? I can't believe that I'm on the side of pedestrians. Yeah, they're the little people. The Providence Sunday Journal printed it. It's just but it's just bullshit the way like it's just the way they did it.

Yeah, it's just a shame that and I understand like it is weird to think that that's such a huge transition but still for it to have to come down to like no it propaganda manipulation inventing like characters who are like I'm too stupid to wait till I see a spot across the street. It came down to corporate propaganda. Yeah, all the companies getting together and the newspapers making money. Which upsets you because you know that's how we get fucked constantly. The only way we get fucked. The Providence Sunday...

I mean it makes me think of like it really just I mean that is just such a microcosm of what not even with traffic with everything but even with traffic today. The way parking tickets are insane, you know, the way like all that stuff, the way like how that all works is because we're just like, ah, damn it. Right. You know, we're just... Fuck, what can I do? Yeah, the apathy. The Providence Sunday Journal printed an article titled The J-Walker Problem. There was money in the cars winning the road but there was no money coming from the pedestrian side.

And it wasn't just cousins all over the country and motor dome was on the attack. John Hertz of Chicago... We should have just made like expensive J-Walking shoes. You start that industry. Right, you start that business. That's the business right there. That doesn't come until the early 90s. Excited.

John Hertz of Chicago's Yellow Cab Company said, quote, we are living in a motor age and we must not have only motor age education but a motor age sense of responsibility. Yeah, trust the man whose name is Hertz. Hertz, yeah. Cardular, quote, the automobile is here to stay. The streets are for vehicle traffic. The sidewalks for pedestrians.

Yay. Anyone who was crossing outside of crosswalks was a J-Walker and, quote, crossing the street in the Rube fashion. Oh. Yep. The 2S night's not bad. No, that's a great way. The way to do it.

It means you're chasing something that's cute or an emergency. Or taking off your clothes. Exactly. They tried to paint the J-Walker as an even scary character. John Hertz. I'm looking to cross the street. Oh, jeez. Woohoo.

John Hertz again. We fear the J-Walker worse than the anarchist and Chicago is his native home. Oh, don't tell them I'm hiding in the basement. But just to fucking say what he means, anarchists at this point were blowing shit up everywhere. One of them had just blown up a school full of children and killed like 200 children. Yeah, exactly. So he's saying that the pedestrians are worse than guys that are killing children. Sure.

Pedestrians. Yeah. Yep. Chicago was the site of a heated battle. The city coroner, Oscar Wolfe, responded that accidents were due to speeding cars. And with the mayor, the two started a war on speed to save children. In newspapers, the two sides fought. Notre Dame declared Wolfe a derelict of his duty.

And these fights were erupting all over the U.S. Leaflets were handed out to pedestrians. And in Syracuse, a Santa Claus was set up at Christmastime with a megaphone, where he denounced pedestrians in the street as they walked as J-Walkers. I mean, it is really like, I mean, that's just, that's just low. I think we've, we really, I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot of horrible tactics. But the idea that you make Santa get involved in the argument, I'm on the side of cars. Ho, ho, ho.

I hope you've been good pedestrians. Ho, ho, ho. And San Francisco, a mock courtroom was created outside. People watched as J-Walkers were lectured on the stupidity of J-Walking. How do you declare not real? Millions of people all over were learning the meaning of the word J-Walker. A lot of pedestrians were not into this new anti-J-Walking bullshit. The war on crossing.

A Chicago editor wrote that calling one a J-Walker was wrong, as he was quote, likely to be a fairly alert frontiersman, trusting to his instincts. He's stupid. And St. Louis, a man who wrote to the paper, quote, we hear the shameful complaint of J-Walkers to console J-Drivers. It is the self-conceited individual who thinks people are cattle and run upon them tooting a horn. The street belonged to the people and not to any one class,

and we have an equal right. In fact, more right than the automobile. There's always this fucking guy who ruins your side. This dickbag is in every fucking debate of anything, and he comes up with that kind of shit, and he says stuff like that, and he ruins it for your side. Like, yeah, that's so true, because like you're on the side and then you hear J-Drivers,

and you're like, we could just do so much better. Honestly, to screw it. You know, honestly, I'll just look. Where are the, where's the crosswalks? I'll just look. Soon, J-Driver was getting traction to be used against drivers. A Washington Post editorial said, quote, the J-Driver is even a greater menace to the public

than the J-Walker. Slam! Drop the mic! Yeah. See that? Two could play the J-Labeling game. The label was endorsed by Washington D.C.'s deputy traffic director. A play was written called The J-Driver. Mm. But in the end, shockingly, J-Driver failed.

I can't imagine why. It did not have the support of a wealthy organization like J-Walker did, and it didn't fit with drivers because they were mostly well off. Right. Well, there you go. Right. They could be called selfish or cold-hearted, but the idiot term J did not fit to drivers of cars.

Yeah. Because he was more of a sophisticated asshole. Yeah, exactly. Because your J is you're making it a country bumpkin scenario. You're like, stupid people are driving. They're like, only the elite driver. They're like, eh. I have a lot of money, so maybe rephrase that.

Toot, toot. J-Lionaires. Goodbye, idiot. Ah, damn it. Or should I say, idiot? That was good. He's off. That was good. Los Angeles was the city that led the way of pedestrian control. There, police had tried rules that stopped pedestrians

from walking on the road and not to cross diagonally, et cetera. But they were not effective. The city painted crossings and posted signs warning that jaywalking was prohibited. The signs and crossings were ignored. Then, in 1922, Motordom came together to form a commission called the Los Angeles Traffic Commission. They hired Miller McClintock to solve the jaywalking problem.

He created a traffic ordinance that he hoped would serve as the model for all cities in the country. It went into effect in January of 1925. There were strict rules for pedestrians that were punished with fines. They had to stay in the crosswalks and follow signs. If there were no signs or crosswalks, they had to hold up their hand to stop cars.

That's right, sheeple. Stay within the lines. But he knew these rules wouldn't be enough as long as they'd been ignored everywhere else. So, they came up with an education period where Los Angeles knows it would be taught of the coming changes. A well thought out sales campaign began led by the automobile club of Southern California. Police, the auto club, oil companies distributed flyers.

The week before it began, radio was blanketed. Who invented flyers? That guy was key. That guy made so much money! Radio was blanketed. Also, pedestrian tunnels were built under roads for kids to walk home from school. So, now we see those everywhere and they're not used. Yeah, right, right.

I always wondered what the fuck they were for if they never used them. They are good, though. This is so much better. I don't know why they don't use them. They have those all over England. They have them all over here. Anyway, this helped promote the idea

that pedestrians didn't belong on the roads. When the time came to enforce the law, at first police went with public shaming. This is part of the plan. Here's your ticket. I wrote you one for being a dickhead. So, here's the plan. Instead of quietly riding a ticket,

they would blow their whistle and yell at jaywalkers. Great. At least two men were so upset they started fistfights with the cop and had to be arrested. Whose side are we on here? I mean, that is unbelievable. But most people, when they heard the whistle, jumped back onto the curb.

Oh, he's going to mock me. This had the effect of also educating the people who weren't walking. So, the people who are standing around watching, it educates everybody. You cross, they shame you. They blow the whistle. Wait for the curb.

And they go, no. Yeah. I'm gonna stand on the curb. I'll just never cross. By not arresting people, they avoided angering everyone. And they also avoided the courts, where judges often favored pedestrians.

Smart. After a few months, they then started arresting jaywalkers, but the time period of education changed everything. From now on, as they rolled this out across the country, they would take into mind the psychology of people. By giving pedestrians the right to wave to stop a car, it gave them a bit of power over the car for the first time.

And the Los Angeles traffic code of 1925 became the model for the US. And the public shaming goes without saying. But in the end, people still continue to do what they wanted, law or no law. Motordom continued its reeducation through media. They said that, quote,

pedestrians must be educated to know that automobiles have rights. The media was pushed to write about how the driver in an accident should also be seen as the victim. God. Poor Larry. He hit that lady. You think he feels good?

Yeah, well that, yeah. You think Larry feels good that that lady's all over his bumper? I guess I never thought about Larry. Well, Larry was just driving along, and now a woman basically exploded on his car. Is he okay? Yeah. He feels terrible.

Okay, I feel bad for Larry. There's a dead woman on his car. He feels awful. He is kind of the victim. Thank you. Yeah, that makes sense. Well, my condolences to Larry. Thank you.

Sorry that old bag got all over his car. Right? Yeah. Do you have a hose? Huh? We need a hoser off. Got him in different area codes, bro. Wait.

Huh? Triple A articles were repented in papers under reporters' names. Wait, one more time? So the Automobile Association of America would write articles, and then newspapers would reprint them using the names of their reporters. That doesn't happen today. That doesn't happen today.

All the time. The Chicago Tribune sold space for, quote, traffic talks that stated pedestrians were responsible for 90% of all accidents. Can we see those numbers? No. Don't J-Walk was always the answer. Those fighting against cars like Bruce Cobb

suspected what was up but had no proof. J-Walking slowly became an acceptable term to describe pedestrians not following the rules. And by sponsoring safety education in schools, motor dumb was assured the next generation would see J-Walkers as the bad guys. Victory. Also, peer pressure was used to educate.

In 1925, a 12-year-old was accused of J-Walking. His classmates gathered to watch his trial, put on by other students. He was convicted by a student jury and sentenced to wash school blackboards for a week. Others were forced to write essays about why J-Walking is wrong. And in the end, J-Walking won out.

The term we use, the streets are for cars. Once they got, once they were able to get into schools, that was it. Yeah, they changed it, right. So all those kids coming up. That is true, early education, right. All those kids coming up no longer thought the way that everybody had thought

for over 100 years. 100 years, right. That the roads are for people. So they got into the schools and that's how they really liked it. That's how you do it. But that is fast. That really is fascinating.

I would never have guessed it would take so long. When I started reading it, I was, I could not, but then, I couldn't believe it, but then you get into the American psyche of freedom and liberty and I get to do whatever the fuck I want. Right. And you realize that, I mean, I think there are things we do today

that are no different than saying I want freedom and then walking out in front of a truck. Yeah. That's, and we go, that's right. I want to die this way. It's so fucking stupid on some levels. On some levels, freedom is fine, but there's shit you do that you just shouldn't have.

That's just too much. Well, I think, yeah. I mean, you know, look, yeah. What really bothers me is the idea that it is, you know, again, like now it doesn't seem that crazy because everybody has a car for the most part and we're so dependent on cars, but again, the idea that it was the money play

that gets you there. Instead of, instead of reason. Yeah, exactly. And discussion. Right. Instead of kind of bad, I mean, what it was was a bunch of people had money invested in something that they were afraid wasn't going to work.

Right. And therefore they had to take the war very seriously. And no one, but at the end of the day, the people with cars were being wildly irresponsible. Yeah. They were the ones speeding everywhere and killing people. They were also when they had a left turn, they wouldn't make a wide left turn.

That had to become a law because they killed so many people making a sharp left turn that they would. That's how most people were dying. They weren't making a wide left turn. So they had to make a law to make the wide left turn, but people would still make the sharp left turn. It's hard because it is, you know, it is in advance, but you also are like, you know, I mean, yeah, I don't know.

And it's frustrating. It's frustrating to even think that now I never knew that and call people like, say, I J walked or whatever. You know, when you cross the street, you're like, hope I don't get caught. You know, the fact that that it's just ingrained in our heads. And also the fact that the idea that the elite city people didn't want to be called a country fucking room

was used against it. It's just fucking amazing crazy. You want to go J walk? Well, that's J walk. We signed J walkers. We signed J walkers.