Coaches, Sleighs, and Speed in the Street: “Vehicularization” in Early Modern Amsterdam

Abstract

Throughout urban Europe, the introduction and presence of vehicles in the city caused tensions of safety and scarcity of space. This article discusses the vehicle culture of early modern Amsterdam, where vehicles and their users had no undisputed right to the streets. The current view in the historiography is that regulations that tried to curb wheeled horse-drawn vehicles were ineffective and that the streets rapidly became a vehicular space from the seventeenth century onward. This narrative is reconsidered by differentiating by vehicle type and location within the city. Specific parts of the city formed distinct vehicular spaces, and draft horses carrying sleighs formed an underestimated but important part of early modern street life. This difference between wheeled and non-wheeled vehicles is explored through new empirical observations from notarial attestations, and additional attention is paid to the role of vehicle speed and the gendered nature of early modern vehicle culture.