Peter Norton, a historian of technology at the University of Virginia, will present the 2012 Alan M. Voorhees Distinguished Lecture, “Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City,” on Thursday, October 18 at the Special Events Forum, Civic Square Building, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick. The event will begin at 5 p.m. and is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
Norton is the author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City (MIT Press, 2008), which contends that the motor age came to the city only after a tumultuous struggle between pedestrians, parents, auto clubs, street railways and other groups that competed over different ideas about what streets are for. His article “Street Rivals: Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street” (Technology and Culture, 2007) won the Usher Prize of the Society for the History of Technology for “the best scholarly work published during the preceding three years under the auspices of the Society.”
The Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center is a national leader in the research and development of innovative transportation policy. Part of Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, the center brings to bear the full array of resources of a major research university on transportation issues of regional and national significance. The Bloustein School has established national and international reputations for excellence in educational and research programs in the areas of urban planning, urban studies, public health, and public policy. The center and lecture’s namesake, Alan M. Voorhees, was one of the nation’s pivotal figures in city planning and transportation concerns. From Atlanta to Zurich, Voorhees set the pace in initiating a myriad of ventures related to planning and transportation.
RSVP is requested to Stephanie Kose, 848-932-2832 or by e-mail tokose@ejb.rutgers.edu.