If technology could bring traffic fatalities down to nearly zero, why not embrace it?

"Compact, low-rise villages and cities made sense based on how far people could reasonably travel on foot or by horse. This was true all the way up until the late 1800s. Then came an invention that let people travel incredible distances in seconds, entirely reshaping cities with dense population clusters."

"Before elevators, buildings stayed squat because stairs limited height. Walking up two or three flights isn't terrible. Carrying a briefcase up 10 flights of steep, dark stairs to the office is, pardon the pun, another story. It didn't take long for skylines to change following the invention of the elevator."

"Each early elevator had its own operator who mastered the timing and touch of hand-crank controls. These operators wore their Sunday best as a psychological reminder: 'We will safely get you to your destination.' Brilliant minds innovated on the elevator, adding safety technology like automatic brakes, but it was the human touch that eased public nerves."

For millennia, walking and horseback riding determined settlement patterns, creating compact, low-rise communities. The late 1800s elevator invention transformed this reality by enabling vertical transportation, allowing buildings to rise far beyond the practical limits of stairs. Early elevators required trained operators wearing formal attire to reassure passengers of safety. The 1945 New York City elevator operators' strike marked a pivotal moment, forcing automation of elevator systems. This technological shift eliminated the need for specialized operators and accelerated the vertical expansion of cities, fundamentally reshaping urban infrastructure and skylines decades before automobiles influenced horizontal urban sprawl.

Read at Fast Company