Making the Modern City: First Auto Fatality in U.S.
A hallmark in the development of the modern city was the way that cities turned the use of public streets over to cars--a trend that is only beginning to be reversed in the world's most innovative cities.
In wake of the news of an autonomous vehicle killing a pedestrian for the first time--in Tempe, Arizona--I recalled the story of the first person killed by a car in the U.S. more than a century earlier.
Henry H. Bliss, a realtor in New York City, had just gotten off a streetcar in the evening and was at the intersection of 74th Street and Central Park West (just a few blocks from where John Lennon was shot and killed). He was struck by an electric-powered taxi (!) on September 13, 1899, and died at a hospital. The driver was arrested and acquitted of manslaughter because he had not been negligent. (Can an AV be "negligent"?)
A century later, the city placed a plaque at site of the killing -- "to promote safety on our streets and highways." It's a mile-and-a-half from Times Square, where the city has banned cars since 2009.
