Mobility Without Mayhem: Safety, Cars, And Citizenship

摘要

Jeremy Packer's well-written and thought-provoking book examines the influence of automotive-related safety risks and prescriptive ideals of "good" driving from 1945 to the present. He argues that while auto accidents and other social risks associated with mass mobility-such as crime, sexual violence, and juvenile delinquency-compelled Americans to turn a worried eye toward their roadways, the solutions they enacted willfully ceded the very freedoms that justified automobility. Packer traces the path to today's all-encompassing safety ideology-where safety is equated to civic morality-by showing how "good" driving soon vilified many women, the young or adventuresome, motorcyclists, and racial minorities, when compared to the more "disciplined mobility" of ruling elites (pp. 8-9). In short, the social mayhem spawned by individual mobility allowed for more restrictive governance.