Walking as necessity was killed by multiple technologies, not just the automobile
Evidence
Finally, some note should be made of the reduced necessity for walking in the modern city. This particular activity remains legal, but the extent to which it is approved is questionable. Like other historic necessities (for example, cooking over fire), it has, in the modern world, become largely a recreational activity, indulged in by masochistic cultists. Those people who still indulge in it for a living, such as mail carriers, beat-policemen and night watchmen, are frequently punished with low status, poor pay and the continual threat of attack by unfriendly dogs and people. Who or what are killing walking is a complex matter. The mass-produced automobile is usually assigned the major responsibility, but it is surely being aided and abetted by the areal expansion of the city (making possible wider, straighter streets, and itself engendered by the railroad and trolley), the telegraph, the telephone, and the establishment of relatively reliable government postal systems. â Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action inâŚ, 395
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Massively relevant to Coleâs Julius: the reduced necessity of walking undercuts the flâneurâs livelihood and streets as his stage; also feeds the automobileâs privacy cocoon that avoids stranger confrontation.
- SEED: Angle: âWho is killing walkingâ as a genealogy of urban estrangementâhow each technology de-skilled the pedestrianâs public competencies that Lofland/Cole celebrate.
Related
- Technological change converted necessary urban walking into private transit cocooning (similarity 0.87)
- Mass communication systems and the automobile reduced the necessity of urban walking (similarity 0.85)
- Walking shifted from urban necessity to a niche recreational pursuit in modern cities (similarity 0.84)