Speaker
Description
Walking and cycling are seen as “vulnerable modes of transport”. Children in particular are - and must be - seen as vulnerable road users. Because of their own limited competences and their sometimes erratic behavior, “children in traffic” to a large extent means children as road victims. How has this understanding evolved? In the 1960s and 70s there was a lot of discussion about the dangers of (car) traffic. The place of pedestrians and cyclists in the mobility system was renegotiated, the “unprotected” road users have been identified as being in need of protection. But protected from whom and what? How was their counterpart constructed in the social discourse? Who was actually to blame?
Children, especially those on their way to school, played a special role in this debate. Apart from play mobility and the accidents that occurred there, the routes to school were an unavoidable necessity. As such they were much discussed. A comparison between two German cities, Dresden and Karlsruhe, shows how the discourse developed in both West and East Germany. Where was the discourse different or similar? What solutions were discussed? And what role did politics and individuals play in the description of the problem? Which actors took part in the debate and what was the role of civil society organizations?
To facilitate the comparison, Peter Norton's concept of road safety paradigms in the 20th century will be used to contextualize actors, measures and the question of guilt and liability. In this way, the inner German comparison can be situated and compared with the situation in other countries. Measures such as traffic education or school route maps can be evaluated in terms of their significance – both for the discussion and for the goal of protecting children.
Biography
Silke Zimmer-Merkle is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Technology Futures – History Department at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Her fields of expertise and interests include history of technology and mobility, as well as cultural history and history of ideas. In her ongoing research project, she investigates historical types and meanings of children’s mobility. Currently she is carrying out a research and exchange semester at the Dresden University of Technology (TUD), Institute of History.
