Cars, Culture & New York City

That's the title of an exhibit currently at The Museum of the City of New York, which shows how the auto dominated many aspects of city life. There are also showings of current "Streetfilms" by 'Livable Streets' showing how to undo it.

1 minute read

July 23, 2010, 8:00 AM PDT

By Irvin Dawid

Cars, Culture, and the City shows "how central the car has been to New York's evolution" just as it has to cities like Detroit of LA that are far more auto-dependent.

The exhibit includes much memorabilia including a "1909 book, Street Traffic Regulation, by William Phelps Eno, who also, we are told, wrote the world's first city traffic code, for New York, in 1903 and is credited with the invention of the stop sign, the crosswalk, the one-way street and the taxi stand."

The shaping of the city by the auto precedes the reign of Robert Moses. "The nation's first road for high-speed cars, we learn, was the Long Island Motor Parkway, designed in 1908."

Contributor's Note: This article appeared as a "Last Chance" segment of the New York Times. An article on the exhibit first appeared on March 19, "Cars and the City, Imperfect Together".

Thanks to Gladwyn d'Souza

FULL STORY: The Anatomy of a Citywide Traffic Jam

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 in The New York Times - Art & Design

History / Preservation Transportation New York Museum of City of New York Automobile Culture

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