1920, when the street lights were in the middle of the road in Philadelphia

As someone who is interested in both history and design, including urban design for cities, this photo (which I just found on the Duke University site) caught my eye, because it just makes so much sense. Of course, it didn't work, and that's why street lights are no longer just plunked down in the middle of the street. They may be on medians, but not just right there, where someone could accidentally drive right into them, which I'm sure they did.


This just seems to make so much sense to my eye. Of course, any design is only useful if it works well in practice, and my 21st-Century eye has a hard time imagining those poles lasting for more than a few minutes nowadays before someone drives into one, and knocks it down.

There are also no stop signs, and no lines drawn on the street. There are trees lining the sidewalk, where the children can play. And other than cars staying to the right, it looks like driving there was just a question of watching where you were going. The speed limit was fifteen, so it wasn't as if they were going all that fast. If a kid did run out into the street, a car could slow down and stop without much fear of being violently rear-ended, the way I've seen often in Phoenix, Arizona, where I live.

Speaking for myself, this is how I learned to drive, in Minneapolis, in the 1970s. There were no lines on the roads (and since it snowed so much you couldn't have seen them, anyway), and other than the major intersections, there were no stop signs. They were called "uncontrolled intersections". You just looked, the same way that you push a shopping cart through a grocery store. I've never seen someone swerving at high speed in the produce aisle when I decide that I want to go get some bananas, although I'm sure it happens.

I'm inclined to think that this photo was taken not long after the street lights were installed. Even if people were careful drivers, being behind the wheel while intoxicated was not unusual in the 1920s, and one pole might be easy to miss, but when it became two, it would be more difficult. I suppose with enough whiskey in you, a single pole could turn into four, and moving around!

A-Ooogah! Let's be careful out there!

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