Originally Posted by
Rowan
Social class and poverty is overt in just about every discussion in this forum. You will deny it, but to any outsider (and even the realists looking in) there are several here who wear their poverty and social class on their sleeves as a badge of honour... to justify their car-free status. Not that I am going to name names or anything
You also gloss over the social class structure that ensured the wealthy had access to motorised transport and could act as toffs in the city where the power brokers -- political and financial -- were based. Out of the city, the underclasses were employed working the factories or other forms of manual labour.
And the fear in those days -- a very real one -- was being killed by horses.
But really, when looking at people getting around in their communities, don't you find that the era immediately prior to the automobile truly was a Golden Era? The pedestrians in those old photos certainly look happy as they wander wherever they want, easily able to dodge the few horse wagons and slow moving trolleys. There might have been a pungent aroma of manure, but that was very preferable to the smog and dust particles of our times.