Let’s talk about traffic.

Yes, I know your morning commute makes you contemplate roid-style road rage against that asshole who keeps letting people in the lane, or the prick who never goes the goddamn speed limit.

But most modern “traffic jams” are actually quite regimented and orderly, unless there’s some pile-up. So be grateful, because…

The stop sign wasn’t introduced until 1915.

Traffic lights and driver’s exams didn’t become commonplace until the early 1920s, as a government response to the outstandingly high number of car crashes.

American states didn’t begin painting traffic lanes until the mid 1920s, nor were they officially standardized until 1939.

So with that in mind, let’s go back to the Victorian era, before any of those.

If you lived in a major American city, behold your downtown:

Chicago, 1909. There are no streetlights, street lanes, or stop signs. That’s fun.

Broadway, New York, 1869. A colorized, restored version of an original 1869 print, examining the “serried mass of seething humanity”.

Let’s say you live in New York, with the most crowded streets in the country. How the bloody hell do you cross the street?

Firstly, understand what you’re up against. Nowadays drivers are terrified of hitting pedestrians, because they’ll get sued and deal with lawsuits and insurance.

It was the precise opposite in Victorian times. Personal insurance didn’t exist. Pedestrians were often terrified of crossing the street in major cities because they were without protection of any kind. Traffic policemen could barely do anything. Since there were no stop signs, traffic literally didn’t stop. Drivers gave absolutely no thought to pedestrian safety.

Oh, you and your child almost got trampled to death? Tough shit, out of the way.

Secondly, once you’ve grasped that you honestly might not make it to the other side, especially if it’s rush hour, you need a plan (of sorts). If traffic is continuously flowing, you could wait for a lull and make your mad dash.

Maybe if I go right now, I can run across before it picks up…

…nope, this is Victorian-era New York. Try again.

Ok, that horse-drawn coach by the sidewalk is going slower than the streetcar next to it. If I wait until the streetcar passes, maybe I can go before the coach comes… but then I’ve still got three more carts going the other way… oh look the coachman and truckman are in another fistfight… wait SHIT I missed my opening!

LOL nice try.

Eventually you’d forego useless logic, take your chances, and pray you didn’t get stranded in the middle of the street, because you’d truly be shit-outta-luck unless you found an escape.

Crosswalks are for the weak. 120 years ago, that could’ve been you.

There might be a standstill traffic jam, in which case you’d haul ass across that street and zigzag between anything in your way. Be prepared for some asshole to shove you into a horse, because these roads are too damn crowded. Speaking of horses…

…they made Victorian traffic 1,000 times worse.

Horses are living things- you can’t just pump the breaks and expect them to stop. They get stubborn, spooked, exhausted. They don’t go in completely straight lines. They kick. They’d stall traffic immeasurably because streetcars and automobiles would get stuck behind them. City horses were practically abused by their drivers; they were underfed, overworked, and made extremely nervous by all the havoc.

There are countless reported cases of frantic, runaway horses. In the middle of crowded city traffic, where there was no room to move. Add that to your list of worries.

How many thousands of people do you think that killed?

11/10 EDIT: “In New York in 1900, 200 persons were killed by horses and horse-drawn vehicles. This contrasts with 344 auto-related fatalities in New York in 2003; given the modern city’s greater population, this means the fatality rate per capita in the horse era was roughly 75% higher than today.”

It all sounds so… medieval. Surely there was public outcry, or something?

Actually, there was nothing major until after the era. People complained, but largely accepted the state of things, and simply got used to it. The Victorian era is partly characterized by an obsession with success and progress and any collateral damage, even people, received little to no compassion.

It always amuses me when people romanticize this era based on films or Currier & Ives prints (think winter-wonderland Victorian-style Christmas cards). I want to sit them down and tell them, grandfather-to-grandkids-style,

Let me tell you a story…

London Bridge, 1890. Imagine crossing this in the London fog.

_____________________Sources:

-Otto L. Bettmann: The Good Old Days- They were Terrible! (1974).

^^^^^read this book.^^^^^

Footnotes