Peter Norton Warns Don’t be Dazzled by the “Magic” of Automated Vehicles

Dec 17, 2025

Peter Norton, historian of technology at the University of Virginia and author of Fighting Traffic and Autonorama, offers a critical take on automated vehicles. He discusses Market Street film insights, how motordom shaped car-first cities, interactions with Waymo, why “autonomous” is misleading, and simpler walk-first alternatives that prioritize people over costly tech.

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INSIGHT

Human-Scale Streets Worked Well

The 1906 Market Street film shows busy, informal streets where people and vehicles coexist efficiently at human speeds.
Peter D. Norton calls this "smart mobility" because human judgment handled complexity better than early engineering rules.

INSIGHT

The 1923–24 Tipping Point For Motordom

Around 1923–24 motordom shifted strategy to avoid regulations that would limit car use in cities.
Peter D. Norton identifies the Cincinnati speed governor ballot push as the tipping point that changed industry tactics.

INSIGHT

Traffic Engineering Followed Its Patrons

Early traffic engineering served the interests of downtown business patrons, shaping recommendations for vehicle throughput.
Engineers framed their reports as neutral science while tailoring advice to who paid them.

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This month we’re very excited to be speaking with Associate Professor Peter Norton who is a historian at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.

Peter has authored two highly successful and thought-provoking books, “Fighting Traffic, The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City” and “Autonorama, The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving.”

Peter is a sought after keynote speaker who has given his unique perspective and insights on how we got to where we are today at many conferences around the world.

As he reveals in our conversation, even Waymo, the multi-billion automated vehicle operator owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, has had Peter share his perspectives about automated vehicles with them.

During our conversation, we refer to this amazing video showing everyday life on Market Street, the main street in San Francisco in 1906. In addition to showing how very different street scapes and traffic looked at the dawn of the automobile era compared to today, it’s also poignant in that it was filmed just days before the vibrant city was largely destroyed by a devastating earthquake and subsequent fires.

Later in our conversation we talk about “autonomous vehicles” that as Peter thoughtfully points out, are anything but autonomous and instead should be called “automated vehicles”, we refer to this safety report from Waymo.

In our “What’s Up” section at the end of the episode, Irene refers to the new Kangaroo Point Bridge that, less than a year after opening has already had over three million wheeling and walking trips, averaging about 10,000 people per day, with zero cars. Here’s a link to the Brisbane City Council’s announcement of this milestone.

And here some progress photos of construction that Squeaky Wheel Phil, (ever the active travel infrastructure nerd!) took each time he visited Brisbane, culminating in his first ride across the newly opened bridge.

This is yet another great example of “Build it and they will come.” There certainly weren’t 10,000 people swimming across that stretch of the Brisbane River each day before it opened…

We’ll be taking a Christmas break and wish all of our listeners a merry Christmas and happy new year! Look out for our first podcast of 2026 on Thursday 19th February and then on the third Thursday of each subsequent month.

Until then, keep squeaking!

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