How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”
Report a link problem
Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderNow is an opportunity, perhaps first in ~100 years, perhaps last, to recover the streets for unaugmented humans: slow down cars in urban areas, increase qualifications for humans to drive, eventually ban human drivers entirely, leaving only automated vehicles with enough sensors and going slowly enough to reduce auto-related deaths for pedestrians and passengers alike to zero.
If you cross the street "near" a red traffic light, that costs you 5€ in Germany. If you admit that you did it intentionally, the ticket price doubles. Happened to my wife some years ago when walking to a bus stop on the other side of the street. How did the cop know that it was intentional? She remarked that there was no car in sight, neither left nor right, on a straight road in town. Oh, and what's the…
"It's strange to imagine now, but prior to the 1920s, city streets looked dramatically different than they do today. They were considered to be a public space: a place for pedestrians, pushcart vendors, horse-drawn vehicles, streetcars, and children at play." I think this point is very important. After the automobiles took over, the street slowly ceased to be the #1 public space where people hangout, shop, play or shoot the bull. Fast forward to today's US, spending an extended time…
From 2015. Thought it looked familiar.
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 3
- Total points
- 1013
- Total comments
- 928
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-01-15 | How automakers invented the crime of “jaywalking”First breakout | smacktoward | 187 | 189 |
| 2016-05-22 | The forgotten history of how automakers invented the crime of “jaywalking” – Vox | walterbell | 4 | 0 |
| 2017-05-02 | Forgotten history of how automakers invented the crime of “jaywalking” (2015) | esalazar | 5 | 0 |
| 2018-01-16 | How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”Best thread | JackFr | 429 | 424 |
| 2018-08-27 | Automakers invented the crime of “jaywalking”Hall induction | pseudolus | 3 | 2 |
| 2019-09-13 | Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking” | paulpauper | 4 | 0 |
| 2019-11-27 | Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking” | weiming | 3 | 0 |
| 2021-10-20 | The forgotten history of how automakers invented the crime of jaywalking (2015) | turtlegrids | 2 | 0 |
| 2023-05-11 | Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking” | djrobstep | 4 | 1 |
| 2023-10-12 | Automakers invented the crime of jaywalking (2015)Latest 20+ point return | freedomben | 368 | 312 |
| 2026-06-02 | Automakers invented the crime of jaywalking (2015) | nivethan | 4 | 0 |