Daniel’s Reviews > A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel to the Car to What Comes Next > Status Update

"Pedestrians must be educated to know that automobiles have rights," declared the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce's leader, George Graham. He objected to newspaper coverage that depicted pedestrians as innocent victims of evil motorists when, in his view, "it is a fair question if the driver is actually responsible for more than half the cases."

The first traffic light was installed on Westminster Bridge in London in 1868, to improve the safety of pedestrians. [...] Less than a month after its installation, a gas leak caused it to explode, injuring the policeman operating it, and it was removed soon afterward.

It was unfair to blame reckless drivers for endangering other road users, proponents of the automobile argued, when horses caused far more accidents. The danger posed by motoring was overstated, they maintained, while accidents involving horses were overlooked as being just part of the natural order of things.

A 1667 advertisement: 'All those desirous to pass from London to Bath, or any other place on their Road, let them repair to the Bell Savage on Ludgate Hill in London and the White Lion at Bath, at both which places they may be received in a Stage Coach every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, which performs the whole journey in Three Days (if God permit), and sets forth at five in the morning.'

The average speed of cars in central London today is 8 mph, the same as it was for a horse-drawn carriage in the 1890s, belying predictions that cars, taking up less space on the road, would reduce congestion.