Why Psychology Thinks
That Dodging In and Out
, of the Motor Traffic Is
' Adding to Our Agility
and Grace, and Increasing
i Our Power to Think
I Quickly
Narrow escapes like that shown above are supposed to be a curse to
pedestrians, but psychology assures us that they are really a blessing
in disguise. Note how the woman, in her eager
ness to escape the onrashing automobile has un
consciously struck a pose quite like that of the
classical dancer in the photograph below. If she
escapes with her life after years of dodging cars,
Professor Shaw thinks she will be not only quicker
witted but will have the grace and suppleness of
muscle that make a great dancer
Below, the whirlwind leap
of a modern dancer which
easily may get its inspira
tion from the speed of our
automobOes and the swift
ness, pedestrians have to
develop to escape death
under their wheels &/
By Professor Charles Gray Shaw, Ph. D.,
Of New York UmvertH^
Perhaps when
there are four
or five auto
mobiles to
every inhabit
ant we shall
all be able to
stretch our
selves like this
Side stepping automobiles
is recommended as one of
the best ways of training for
this land of acrobatic dance
Sir Thomas Lipton m
one of the first “horse
less carriages,” a vehi
jde that wasn’t swift
enough to make any
body very
. . ——, nimble of
foot or brain
The “shimmy” was invented before
we had as many thousands of miles of
smooth highways as we have now. Can
it be, as the above little sketch suggests,
that it was inspired by a trip in a none
too easy riding car over a bumpy
pavement ?
f^g^HE automobile Is doing its first
■ century; already it has been re
sponsible for countless changes in
our national life. The car came into
existence at a time when business was
dull and labor low. By creating a new
get of wants it made men move and busi
ness hum.
The range of the ante is almost limit
less. One person in every little group
has one. Everybody talks about motor
ing just as almost every modern house
has a garage as well as a kitchen. In
deed, the auto has bfcugbt about more
changes than the war, has cost more,
and threatens to be almost as deadly.
These changes are not all of a physi
cal nature; they affect the m:nd us well
as the body. Cars put us in different
places and in different frames of mind.
Just how are motoring and dancing con
nected? Before we can answer that
question we must measure the general
effects of the auto upon our minds.
. The psychological changes wrought hy
the ford are not so wide and vivid us
the physical ones, but they are none the
less real. Men and women have learned
to live out of doors,'to sec more of life
and to breathe more deeply. Our grand
fathers were content to take a little trip
now and then, once a year perhaps; but
grandpa’s children are doing that sort
of thing weekly. As a result, the range
of life has been extended by the addition
of new views and new acquaintances.
The automobile makers are getting us
away from Main Street and giving us
some of the world at large. They ure
the nation’s dancing masters.
All of the people walk some of the
time and some of the people walk all of
'the time. It is among pedestrians that
the great change of step has taken place.
The an to makes as step lively, so that we
pirouette our way along the sidewalks
and across the streets. The car has put
the spirit of Terpsichore into our slow,
heavy steps and made dancers of us alL
The horse had to grow accustomed to
the car, and he did so with little trouble.
The result is that a hor^e who shies at
an auto is a great ranty. In like man
ner, we human beings who walk had to
change our mental habits and our steps
to make room for the omnipresent car
which has taught us the quick thinking
of the boxer and baseball player, the
quick stepping of the professional
dancer.
Nearly a century ago Balzac observed
that there was a difference in gait be
tween country folks and city people.
The provincials in France forged ahead
with a heavy tread wholly different from
the neat, mincing gait of the city-bred
person. This difference was attributed
to the fact that, in the country, one
moves along without any fear of the in
terruption which comes in the city, wh"r«
there are other people to share the side
walk and carriages to dispute the cross
ings
Country people moved on expecting
nothing, and thus caring nothing how
they walked. City people had to have
.■ harp eyes, alert brains and quick atop*
in order to prepare for emergencies.
The difference in mental attitude ap
peared at once as a difference of step.
This general principle now appears ip
an extraordinary manner in both coun
try and city; now all people trnd to
tango. When cities were small and
thinly populated there was less danger
of rupning into a follow walker. When
traffic was light and
the horse set the pace
there was little fear
of one’s life at the street crossing. Bat
all this has been changed.
The slow-moving vehicle keeps to the
curb; the pedestrian clings to the walk
until the time comes for him to make the
crossing. The effect of this social situa
tion is felt all the way down to our toes.
We have learned to walk differently. We
start and stop instanter. We change ear
gait and direction in the fraction of a
second. We demand rubber heels and
take delight in the dance. Something
bas put us on our toes and nmp as
dance.
The automobile, Is the cause of the
new step. The car came m just before
the modern dance and has taught us to
tango. Autos themselves are
guided by traffic policemen
who raise their warning
hands or flash out the signs
“Go-Go!” "Stop-Stop!" The
whole affair is mechanical
and prosaic.'
Not ao with the prilra /
trian. He must have an !■
alert eyd to detect the oons- t
tng of the onrushing car
from east to west, up
town or down. His ear
must 'Latch the whirr
of the motor before the *,
sounding of the belated
born. In a word, the
pedestrian to tho age
of motors must have now eyes and new
ears.
Along with these sense improvements,
the pedestrian is required to have and
possess a nervous system which is capa
ble of translating what he sees and hears
into what he must do. This nervous
system of his must he im the qui vive
to stop and start the tnusculAr machin
ery. to alter direction and speed- All of
these psychological factors promote the
dancing stop.
l/ot any one stand on a busy corner
and observe what goes on in the nervous
system of the pedestrian and he will
awaken to the fact that wc have become
a nation of dancers, with Henry Ford
and the rest of the antomobile makers
as the great teachers of the terpsichorean
art.
Men do not sannter along with eyes
one way and feet another, hut conduct
themselves as n dancer on the floor or
a boxer with his shadow sparring.
Women, who can no longer wear the long
skirts and trains of the pre-automobilo
age, find it possible and agreeable to
express the dancing step peculiar to the
sox. Both women and men are now
alive to the situation which the car
has produced, alive to the tips of their
toes.
In addition to thn physical change in
the national step, the auto has caused
psychological alterations just about as
marked- The most significant among
such changes is the new co-ordination be
tween nerve and muscle, between organ
of sense and organ of action.
We have always been in possession of
these elements, as the eyes which am- and
the legs which move, but the readjust
ment of these sepurate processes, sensory
and motor, is something of recent origin.
It dates hack to the beginnings of the
horseless carriage and has advanced step
by step with tho improvement of the
car. The rapid and more perfoct co
ordination of the faculties which per
ceive and those which act connects itself
with the dancing step now so prevalent
upon our steeta.
Then there is something deeper even
than the neuro-muscular co-ordination.
This is the general sense of prepared
ness which all of us must feel when we
leave the house or any other place of
safety and fare forth upon the street.
Our mental lives have had to make room
for newer and greater expectations.
In the old days, when traffic was simple
and slow, expectation was at a minimum.
We knew just what would bo at the
curb when we came along. Then we
knew just what we should no in the pres
ence of the slow-moving horse or the
staid trolley on tt tracks. The brain
worked under low pressure since there
was not much for it to think about in
the way of movement.
But when the flotilla of autos made
its appearance it was necessary for the
brain to awaken, think up new possibili
ties of motion for the body and moke
those motions possible.
It was a wonaer mat me coming ui
the auto into the social life of man did
not cause an increase in human nervous
ness. There is enough national neuras
thenia, but it seems impossible to at
tribute any of this increase to the lively
situation caused by fear of the car at
the crossing.
There may be increased nervousness
among those who drive the car, but this
is not the case with the pedestrians who
meet it at the crossing. Instead of giv
ing way to panic and shattered nerves,
the pedestrians who had to adjust their
steps to the car found it possible to do
this by adopting the dancing step and
the dapcing state of mind. Indeed, the
whole mental life of man may be said to
have become lighter because of the rapid
changes which were taking place in his
consciousness.
We may not live as gracefully and
nobly as did the women and men of the
’80s and ’90s, but we live more easily
and with less of gloom and melan
choly. Our blood has been stirred, our
nerves tuned up and oar eyes cleared
by the motor life of the age.
It is a significant fact that the auto
and the modern dance came into man’s
life at about the same time. There may
have been no connection between the two,
no reason why we should turn from
dodging autos to dancing in a restaurant,
but still there is a kind of understand
ing between the garage and the ball
room.
The dance itself took on an informa!
character which makes it look like a kind
of walk or strolL No longer is it the
formal dance of the Victorian period; it
is something which suggest* the semi
aesthetic movement of a person crossing
an auto-ridden street. Furthermore,
there is a kind of likeness between the.
jazz of the dance and the strident horn
of the auto.
In either case, whether we are on the
street or the dance floor, we have learned
to adopt a step which will get us through
safely. We must dance in our walk or
die in the tracks of the track.
In thus increasing the amount of mo
tion in the world the automobile has
made us a more active race of women
and men. Then it has added to the
grace of life, so far as bodily movement
is concerned.
This is not the greatest possible gam
for us, since it does not mean an in
crease of national intelligence, but in
i telligence often depends upon action, so
k that the increase and perfection of
movement may result in simi
lar improvements in the brain.
On the mental side, the auto
which we must avoid hat in
creased brain power on
the side of attention, which
is a most important factor
\ in mental life. In learn
i ing to look out for the
% auto we have sharpened
I * our wits generally, so that
tl\e car has made us a
Jr ■ more alert people mental
f / ly and physically.
/ The American is a crea
ture who can adapt him
self to new and ever-changing
circumstances. He was at
home m the world of alow
thing?; he is making himself at home
in-the world of motion. This appears in
his moving pictures, his airplanes, his
rapid transit, his automobile drying and
automobile dodging.
As Americans we have still to learn
the art of life as it was practiced by the
ancient Athenians. We have no Socrates
to guide us; we feel that we cannot trust
wholly to Kord. But the Kord tendency,
which is motion and action, may have
the power to show us how to live grace
fully in the mod-ro world of force and
action.
If we are. as seems probable, better
adapted both mentally and physically to
the high speed of the age than we were
twenty years ago. a large part of this
change for the better in us must be
ascribed to the automobile.
How extraordinarily nimble and grace
ful of muscle and brain we shall become
when there are as many motor cars as
human beings is something to stagger
the imagination.