Rights and Duties of Circulation on American Streets: To 'Proceed Uninterruptedly' or 'with Reasonable Care?'

摘要

Critical mobility studies increasingly focus on legal geographies of the public street. Extending such work, we explore how statutory and case laws construct everyday circulation as right or duty, and implications for social justice. Using Ohio as case study, we analyze the ways legislative statutes define streets, mobile bodies, and 'right of way.' We then review how judges weigh statutory rights (and rights-based claims) against a 'duty of ordinary care' when assigning liability for accidents. Assessing the distribution of legal rights and duties among transport modes and spaces illuminates power asymmetries on American streets, in statutory theory and judicial practice.