oa ‘Razende verkeersmonsters’: Strijd om de straat

‘Racing traffic monsters’: Struggle on the street. Sensory and emotional negotiations in letters to the editor concerning cyclists and motorists in Amsterdam, 1880-1935

Between 1880 and 1935, the streets of Amsterdam transformed into increasingly busy traffic arteries. This article seeks to explain how this transformation came about by examining how the sensory and emotional experiences of Amsterdam’s street users changed with the arrival of the bicycle and the car. Through a sensory and emotional discourse analysis of letters to the editor of Amsterdam newspapers, it investigates which sensory and emotional stimuli road users experienced, how and why they developed sensory and emotional competences to deal with them, and why it took them so long to do so.