Doug Gordon

Claiborne Avenue in 1968 and I-10 today

Signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, otherwise known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, ushered in an unprecedented era of roadbuilding in the United States, becoming the largest public works project in the country’s history. Designed to spread freedom and prosperity — and, as the name implies, provide for the national defense — these highways tore through urban neighborhoods, destroying once-thriving communities and displacing countless citizens, many of them people of color. In this special report, we examine just what inspired this massive project and the effects it had on two communities, one in New Orleans and one in Syracuse.

This episode was produced with the generous support of the Helen & William Mazer Foundation.

Join The War on Cars on Patreon and listen to exclusive ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!

Order our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Find us on tour and get tickets at lifeaftercars.com.

Thanks to Cleverhood for sponsoring this episode. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get the best rain gear for walking and cycling.

www.thewaroncars.org

Today we celebrate the publication of our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves From the Tyranny of the Automobile.

In this episode, we serve up a sample of the audiobook and talk about some of the things we learned and that surprised us during the process of bringing Life After Cars to publication. Also, who should play us in the movie version? Listen to hear our thoughts and let us know your opinion.

We are so grateful to all of our listeners and supporters for making this day possible. Go out there and get your copy of Life After Cars wherever books are sold.

Our Bookshop.org link. Please support independent booksellers!

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!

Thanks to Upway and Cleverhood for sponsoring this episode.

www.lifeaftercars.com

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Brad Lander has been a fixture in New York’s progressive political scene for nearly two decades now, and has earned a reputation as a strong advocate for bike lanes, bike share, driver accountability, and congestion pricing. This year, though, he’s become known in a new way. As a candidate in a crowded Democratic mayoral primary, Brad cross-endorsed Zohran Mamdani, who eventually won the race with a margin that shocked the Democratic establishment. And in June, mere days before the primary ended, Brad was escorting a man named out of an immigration hearing when he was arrested by federal agents. Brad joins us to explain how his defense of the Prospect Park West bike lane as a then-new member of the New York City Council became a formative experience in his political career and why the courage and coalition building it takes to stand up for safe streets are also the same tools it takes to fight fascism.

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!

***Our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, will be published on October 21, 2025 by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Pre-order now.***

Purchase tickets for our Life After Cars publication party and live show at The Bell House in Brooklyn on October 28th. And find don’t miss our shows in San Francisco, Vancouver, Washington, DC, and more.

The War on Cars is produced with the generous support of the Helen & William Mazer Foundation.

This episode was sponsored by Cleverhood and Upway. Listen for the latest discount codes.

Should the bus be free? That’s the question everyone following the New York City mayoral race is asking, with Democratic primary winner Zohran Mamdani promising to focus on fast, free buses if he’s elected. Eliminating bus fares is a big idea, but is it a good one? Like a lot of things in politics, there’s no simple answer. That’s why we welcomed Yonah Freemark — a researcher in cities, land use, and transportation at the Urban Institute — to the podcast to walk us through the pros and cons of making the bus free for everyone. Whatever you think about it, the good news is that everyone is talking about bus riders. That’s a win in our book.

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!

***Our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, will be published on October 21, 2025 by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Pre-order now.***

Purchase tickets for our Life After Cars publication party and live show at The Bell House in Brooklyn on October 28th. And find us in other cities for our book tour including San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, and more.

The War on Cars is produced with the generous support of the Helen & William Mazer Foundation.

This episode was sponsored by Cleverhood and Upway. Listen for the latest discount codes.

Check out Mamala Food by Dani Finkel. (She designed our logo!)

SHOW NOTES

Learn more about Yonah Freemark and his work at the Urban Institute.

Watch Zohran Mamdani on The Breakfast Club. 

Charlie Komanoff: Free buses would mean faster buses and more riders. (Streetsblog)

Andrew Cuomo has a less ambitious free bus plan. (Gothamist)

Boston has free buses on three routes. (Boston.gov)

New York’s free bus pilot. (MTA.info)

This episode was recorded at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio.

www.thewaroncars.org

This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, presale tickets to live shows, and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.

While we were researching and writing Life After Cars last year, we read and pulled information from dozens upon dozens of books. There were also a handful of books that caught our attention but that, try as we might, didn’t quite warrant inclusion in our own. In this Patreon exclusive, we talk about two of these books: “Road Safety: How to Reduce Accidents” by T.S. Skillman (1965) and an anthology called “He Rides Beside You” (1957). For very different reasons, both are fascinating examples of the mindset of people who knew a life before cars and, more than halfway into the 20th century, were grappling with the reality of life during cars.

Become a Patreon supporter of the podcast for access to the entire episode.

Pre-order our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, coming in October from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. And catch us on tour this fall and beyond. Tickets for live shows are on sale now!

This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, pre-sale tickets to live shows and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.

Are cyclists too mean online? To read some of the headlines about a recent study, you’d think the answer was yes. “Forceful bike campaigners can undermine UK cycle lane planning, report finds,” blared the headline in The Guardian. The subhead said that “toxic” online debates can make officials and other people in government reluctant to pursue cycling-related transportation projects. Adding one and one together, any reader would likely assume that it’s those “forceful bike campaigners” who are mostly responsible for the “toxic” online debates. This story spread online and confirmed a lot of people’s priors. Those darn cyclists! If only they’d behave they’d deserve safer streets!

Not so fast. The actual study was a bit more complicated than the headlines and social media posts might have led people to believe. It also offers good lessons for effective engagement to get the change we want at the scale we need, no matter the issue.

Become a Patreon supporter of the podcast for access to the entire episode.

Pre-order our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, coming in October from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. And catch us on tour this fall and beyond, including at our book publication party and live show at The Bell House in Brooklyn.

Why have some cities become places where it’s easy to hop on a bike for daily transportation needs while others have languished or even been left behind? Is there some sort of magical combination of forces that separate the best cycling cities from basically everywhere else?

Those are the questions asked by Cycling Cities: The Global Experience, a research project headed by Dr. Ruth Oldenziel, a Professor in The History of Technology at Eindhoven University of Technology. Nthoki Dorcas Nyamai, an Urban Development Researcher at International Planning Studies, TU Dortmund University, also joins us to talk about her research into African cities, local advocacy and cycling culture in places like Nairobi, and more. Looking far beyond the handful of Northern European cities that consume so much attention in the cycling world, the Cycling Cities project challenges us to take a bigger view of the factors that determine whether or not cities prioritize people over cars and to think beyond traffic counts or even two wheels. Ruth and Dorcas’s research may surprise you.

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!

***Our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, will be published on October 21, 2025 by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Pre-order now.***

Tickets for our Life After Cars publication party and live show at The Bell House in Brooklyn on October 28th are now available to the general public. They’re going fast, so get yours now.

This episode was produced with the generous support of the Helen & William Mazer Foundation.

This episode was also supported by Cleverhood. Listen to the episode for the latest discount on the best and most stylish rain gear for walking and cycling.

Learn more about how an electric cargo bike can change your life and save $500 off a new bike with code WARONCARS500 at Xtracycle.

SHOW NOTES

Read about the Cycling Cities project and learn more about Ruth Oldenziel and Nthoki Dorcas Nyamai

Here’s the Guardian story about Amsterdam becoming an cycling city almost “by chance” that we mention in the episode.

thewaroncars.org / lifeaftercars.com

Recently, on an episode of the Netflix show Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, the subject turned to bike lanes. Or rather, the subject was turned to bike lanes by Natasha Lyonne. The actress, writer, director and producer said that bike lanes should be “shut down” and claimed that there is no space for them in Manhattan. Journalist Alissa Walker of Torched was on Everybody’s Live as a “public transit expert” to talk about Uber, but soon found herself — as a public-transit-riding Los Angeles resident — defending bike lanes and explaining the rational apportionment of urban space to some pretty famous New Yorkers, all of them brilliant and talented. So why is it that otherwise intelligent people often say unintelligent things about bikes? Why do nearly all conversations about transportation, even one that’s not about bicycles, devolve into NIMBY-style complaints about cyclists? What can advocates learn from a conversation that, if you strip away the big stars and the studio audience, was indistinguishable from a community board meeting?

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

***Our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, will be published on October 21, 2025 by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Pre-order now.***

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive exclusive access to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!

This episode was produced with the generous support of the Helen & William Mazer Foundation.

This episode was also supported by Cleverhood. Listen to the episode for the latest discount on the best and most stylish rain gear for walking and cycling.

Learn more about how an electric cargo bike can change your life and save $500 off a new bike with code WARONCARS500 at Xtracycle.

LINKS: 

Support Alissa Walker’s outstanding journalism by becoming an annual subscriber to Torched… and save $10!

Follow Alissa on Instagram.

Read Doug Gordon’s take on the Everybody’s Live episode in Streetsblog.

Watch Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney on Netflix.

Read the reaction to the episode on Reddit.

thewaroncars.org / lifeaftercars.com

This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, pre-sale tickets to live shows and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.

And don’t miss our new book, “Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile,” now available for pre-sale wherever you purchase books.

Enjoy this preview of our live show, recorded before a sold-out crowd at The Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis and presented by Our Streets on April 24th, 2025. Our guests included Minneapolis City Council member Robin Wonsley, State Representative Samantha Sencer-Mura, filmmaker D.A. Bullock, and John Edwards of Wedge Live.

Patreon subscribers can hear the entire episode. Sign up today and help support our independent podcast.

NOTE: This episode was originally released as a Patreon-exclusive bonus. For more episodes like this, please join The War on Cars on Patreon. We’re an independent podcast and rely on listener support. Thanks!

Marco te Brömmelstroet, also known as “The Fietsprofessor,” returns to The War on Cars to discuss a new study he co-authored with Dr. Ian Walker, another former guest of the podcast. The study takes a look at a phenomenon where people accept the harms and risks associated with cars in ways they wouldn’t in other areas of life. But unlike Dr. Walker’s previoius study — and that of Dr. Tara Goddard, another friend of The War on Cars — this new study asks where motonormativity comes from and examines the ways in which it manifests itself differently depending on factors such as where a person lives or their perceptions of the beliefs of their friends and family. The results are fascinating.

Marco also studies language and how it affects people’s perceptions of mobility and had a lot to say about how we can tell better stories about who and what our streets are for.

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

***Our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, will be published on October 21, 2025 by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Pre-order now.***

This episode was produced with the generous support of the Helen & William Mazer Foundation.

This episode was also supported by Cleverhood.

Save 15% on the amazing Arclight Pedals and everything from Redshift Sports with code WARONCARS at checkout.

LINKS:

• “Why Do Cars Get a Free Ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity,” a study by Marco te Brömmelstroet and Ian Walker.
• Read Marco’s book, “Movement: How to Take Back Our Streets and Transform Our Lives,” co-authored with journalist Thalia Verkade.
• Follow the Urban Cycling Institute on Bluesky.

thewaroncars.org / lifeaftercars.com