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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton
@norton.bsky.social
13K followers 720 following 1.7K posts
Historian; author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City, and of Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving.
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 15h
Three decades later, Hoffman told an audience of young traffic professionals: “I claim no altruism whatsoever for that early interest. I was in the automobile business in Los Angeles.”
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 15h
Hoffman was also responsible for persuading Studebaker to establish McClintock’s bureau. Hoffman’s sales record and his deals with McClintock earned him promotion to Studebaker VP.
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 15h
Just before getting hired, McClintock wrote the Los Angeles Traffic Ordinance of 1925. This law, which I posted about this morning, prioritized driving and restricted walking. McClintock wrote it at the request of L.A. Studebaker dealer Paul G. Hoffman. The ordinance became a model for the USA.
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 15h
This, the first national traffic engineering institute, was funded entirely by Studebaker and named for the company’s president. It soon relocated to Harvard and later to Yale. In 1935, when Studebaker could no longer fund it, the Automobile Manufacturers Association assumed responsibility for it.
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 15h
October 13, 1925: One hundred years ago today, Miller McClintock was hired to serve as the director of the new Albert Russel Erskine Bureau for Street Traffic Research, endowed at the Southern Branch of the University of California (today’s UCLA). ...
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 15h
Just before serving as director of the Albert Russel Erskine Bureau for Street Traffic Research, Miller McClintock wrote the Los Angeles Traffic Ordinance of 1925. This law, which I posted about this morning, prioritized drivers and restricted walking. It became a model for the USA.
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 16h
The real genius behind the 1925 deal was L.A. Studebaker dealer Paul G. Hoffman. Three decades later he told an audience of young traffic professionals:
“I claim no altruism whatsoever for that early interest. I was in the automobile business in Los Angeles.”
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 16h
Thank you, @thefoxandthecity.com! In this case we really did need "the rest of the story."
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 16h
At the Albert Russel Erskine Bureau for Street Traffic Research, McClintock promoted congestion relief and traffic safety through extensive “limited ways” (urban express highways). He also called them “fool-proof highways,” because they were supposed to make crashes nearly impossible.
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 16h
Happy centennial!

It’s worth noting that originally this body, the first national traffic engineering institute, was funded 100% by one automobile manufacturer: Studebaker. It was named the Erskine Bureau after the company’s president. In 1935 the Automobile Manufacturers Association took it over.
uclaits.bsky.social
UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies @uclaits.bsky.social · 1d
🎉 Happy 100th birthday to transportation research at UCLA! 100 years ago today, the UC regents voted to establish the nation's first research center dedicated to street traffic issues. Learn more about our century-long tradition of transportation research www.its.ucla.edu/100...
Black-and-white newspaper clipping from the Los Angeles Times in 1925 with the headline “Research in Traffic for University: Studebaker Grant Gives Southern Branch First Bureau in Country.” The article announces the establishment of the first university-based street traffic research bureau at the Southern Branch of the University of California (now UCLA). A small portrait photo of Miller McClintock, the bureau’s first director, appears in the lower half of the article.
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 21h
Adjusted for inflation, Thompson’s $5 fine would be about $90 today.
norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 23h
Today there is a signalized crosswalk at midblock where Thompson was arrested. Midblock crosswalks are very rare in L.A. Most were removed on the grounds that they give walkers a “false sense of security.” I’ve named this survivor the Charles Thompson Crosswalk.
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 23h
In the center of a rapidly changing city, Broadway today is not very different than it was in 1925. Many of the buildings are the same, and even the lampposts bearing the lights that shone on Charles Thompson that night are the same. All are marked “erected 1919.”
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 23h
According to the Record, the first person arrested as a jaywalker was Charles Thompson, who was crossing Broadway between Seventh and Eighth streets downtown at about 12:35 am, during the first hour the ordinance was in effect that Saturday morning.
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 23h
“ARREST JAYWALKERS”: The L.A. Record’s banner headline was not intended as an imperative (“let’s arrest jaywalkers!”) but as big news (“police are actually arresting jaywalkers!”).
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 23h
In L.A. for the Urban History Association conference, I stopped last evening at the scene of the first arrest under the new ordinance, and reenacted the offense.
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 23h
Charles Thompson was an accidental pioneer.

The Los Angeles Traffic Ordinance of 1925 went into effect 100 years ago this year, on January 24. It was not the first such ordinance, but it was by far the most successful – and the one that became the model for the nation. ...
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 1d
The Black Tax is a work of uncompromising scholarship, engaging readability and momentous importance. It is a pleasure to see it duly recognized for its excellence.
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 1d
In LA for the Urban History Assn, I've belatedly learned that my colleague and fellow UVa historian @Andrew Kahrl has won the Lizabeth Cohen Prize for Best Book on Cities and Political Power, for his masterful book The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America. 👏👏👏👏👏
akahrl.bsky.social
Andrew Kahrl @akahrl.bsky.social · Sep 5
I am happy to share the news that my book The Black Tax was named the winner of the Lizabeth Cohen Prize for Best Book on Cities and Political Power and received an Honorable Mention for the Kenneth Jackson Award for Best Book in North American Urban History from the Urban History Association
2025 Award Winners
www.urbanhistory.org
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 2d
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 2d
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 4d
Six months ago today, Col Meyers put her duty above her career.

Six months later, we need her example more than ever.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/colone...
Colonel Susan Meyers: The Responsible Leadership We Need Now
In 1946, American prosecutors at Nuremberg taught us that resisting illegal orders is a duty. At least on paper, their standard is our standard today.
www.linkedin.com
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Reposted by Peter Norton
nickcunningham.bsky.social
Nick Cunningham @nickcunningham.bsky.social · 7d
“By 2028, an average family in the region will be paying around $70 a month extra on their electricity bills because of forecasted data center growth”

I'm once again asking why ratepayers are subsidizing AI titans?

www.eenews.net/articles/dat...
Data center boom sparks sticker shock for PJM ratepayers
New analyses show that costs passed on to utility customers to guarantee future electricity demand are rising rapidly.
www.eenews.net
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norton.bsky.social
Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 8d
Mr Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, writing for a unanimous Supreme Court, reminds us all, including the White House, that false shouts of “fire!” are dangerous and can be lethal.
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Reposted by Peter Norton
malcolmnance.bsky.social
Malcolm Nance, Leading Resister @malcolmnance.bsky.social · 9d
TERRORISM EXPERT HERE:

This statement is a clear example of what is known as “State Terrorism”: When the dictatorship will order all instruments of its state security & intelligence apparatus against its own citizens to terrorize the population.
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