03639nam 22006374a 450 991081827080332120230721031521.00-292-79535-110.7560/714250(CKB)1000000000472948(OCoLC)297304890(CaPaEBR)ebrary10190653(SSID)ssj0000269236(PQKBManifestationID)11954613(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000269236(PQKBWorkID)10243411(PQKB)10394841(MiAaPQ)EBC3443071(OCoLC)155844109(MdBmJHUP)muse2259(Au-PeEL)EBL3443071(CaPaEBR)ebr10190653(DE-B1597)586968(OCoLC)1280944774(DE-B1597)9780292795358(EXLCZ)99100000000047294820060313d2007 ub 0engurcn|||||||||txtccrWatching the traffic go by[electronic resource] transportation and isolation in urban America /Paul Mason Fotsch1st ed.Austin University of Texas Press20071 online resource (255 p.) Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph0-292-71425-4 Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-227) and index.The trolley, the automobile, and autonomy -- Townless highways and highwayless towns -- The building of a superhighway future at the New York World's Fair -- Film noir and the hidden violence of transportation in Los Angeles -- Stories of the MTA: contesting meanings of subway space -- Urban freeway stories: racial politics and the armored automobile.As twentieth-century city planners invested in new transportation systems to deal with urban growth, they ensured that the automobile rather than mass transit would dominate transportation. Combining an exploration of planning documents, sociological studies, and popular culture, Paul Fotsch shows how our urban infrastructure developed and how it has shaped American culture ever since. Watching the Traffic Go By emphasizes the narratives underlying our perceptions of innovations in transportation by looking at the stories we have built around these innovations. Fotsch finds such stories in the General Motors "Futurama" exhibit at the 1939 World's Fair, debates in Munsey's magazine, films such as Double Indemnity, and even in footage of the O. J. Simpson chase along Los Angeles freeways. Juxtaposed with contemporaneous critiques by Lewis Mumford, Theodor Adorno, and Max Horkheimer, Fotsch argues that these narratives celebrated new technologies that fostered stability for business and the white middle class. At the same time, transportation became another system of excluding women and the poor, especially African Americans, by isolating them in homes and urban ghettos. A timely, interdisciplinary analysis, Watching the Traffic Go By exposes the ugly side of transportation politics through the seldom-used lens of popular culture.Transportation engineeringUnited StatesCity and town lifeUnited StatesPopular cultureUnited StatesTransportation engineeringCity and town lifePopular culture388.40973Fotsch Paul Mason1965-1593067MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910818270803321Watching the traffic go by3913012UNINA