The railway in Brazilian fiction Negotiating modernity, 1888-1980

摘要

Pedestrianism is neglected in mobility historiography. This research article focuses on one of the most decisive moments in the history of walking in the urban context, namely, the dawn of transport motorisation. Several sources associated with pedestrianism in Santiago, Chile, show that during the first three decades of the twentieth century the nature of pedestrianism was deliberately steered from a natural and unquestionable right of city inhabitants to a position of pedestrian responsibility and conscientiousness. Towards the end of this period, while motorised mobility was being linked to rationality, efficiency, productivity and modernisation, pedestrianism was increasingly associated with irrationality, insurgency, unpredictability and temerity. Although pedestrians began as victims of motorisation, they were gradually blamed for obstructing urban modernisation.