What would it be like to walk out of your home and see other people instead of cars? Can you imagine opening your door and letting your kids run around outside independently? Residents of Cully Green — a 23-home community in Portland, Oregon developed specifically to encourage a car-free or car-light way of life — don’t have to imagine it. They’re living a life more akin to the idealized version of the suburbs of the past than the reality often found across the country today. Why are developments like this so unusual? Because in most of America it’s illegal to build thanks to single-family zoning. So is Cully Green the kind of thing that could only work in Portland because, you know… Portland? Or is this a model for building better cities and better communities all across the country?

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The Super Bowl is more than a football game — it’s a massive opportunity for the automobile industry to inject slickly produced propaganda directly into the eyeballs of over 100 million television viewers. In these trying times, how did car companies handle the task of making their pitch to the public? What do these ads, dripping with nostalgia, say about America, politics and the future of our planet? What does Will Ferrell have against Norway? What was up with that Bruce Springsteen ad for Jeep? And what about all the ads that weren’t directly about cars but had everything to do with car culture? Aaron, Sarah and Doug critique this carnival of capitalism and consumerism.

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If you’ve ever spent time leafing through a car magazine or, god forbid, watching car reviews on YouTube, then you know that most of what passes for “automotive journalism” is indistinguishable from automobile marketing. That’s why it was so refreshing to read journalist Andrew Hawkins’ review of the 6,000-pound, 18-foot-long, 2021 Cadillac Escalade in The Verge last October. Rather than simply cooing over the latest high-tech doodads and distractions, Andrew reviewed the $80,000+ luxury truck from the perspective of the people who will be walking, biking, and trying to live their lives on city streets with this gargantuan SUV and its distracted driver in their midst. Aaron chats with Andrew about his stressful test drive of the new Escalade, his confrontation with the product managers at Cadillac, and the role that journalism can (or, perhaps, can’t) play in compelling policy makers and the automobile industry to change for the better. 

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In a sense, cars are a bit like the internet comments section of the real world. Driving, like leaving a reply on a message board or posting something on Twitter, can be done anonymously, dividing people from their fellow human beings and even leading to aggressive behavior… if not the complete corrosion of polite society. With custom details and bumper stickers promoting political ideologies and pithy slogans, cars are also outward expressions of personal identity… just like one’s social media presence. To unpack the similarities between the sprawling systems of online communication and personal transportation, Doug talks to Anil Dash, the tech entrepreneur and pioneering blogger who’s served as a sharp and thoughtful critic of the industry in which he has spent most of his career. Is a better, more humane internet possible? If so, what lessons can be learned for people who want safer, more humane streets? And what would Prince think?

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The best thing you can say about 2020 is that it was the year that, well, was. In this year-end roundup, Aaron, Sarah and Doug take some listener voice memos and respond to the stories that flew across the War on Cars news desk. Is it a Good Thing or a Bad Thing that Mayor Pete Buttigieg has been named the next Transportation Secretary? What will it mean for the future of the “third space” now that fast food restaurants are ditching indoor dining and retooling their parking lots and drive-thrus to cater to online orders? What’s the connection between a massive diesel tampering scandal in America and a landmark public health case in the UK? And what will it take to sustain the pandemic-induced bike boom into next year and beyond?

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Under the leadership of Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the city of Paris has transformed itself, turning streets that were once clogged with cars into places for people on bikes and on foot. In response to the pandemic, the city quickly installed “coronapistes,” temporary bike lanes designed to help Parisians move around safely. (With Hidalgo’s recent re-election, approximately 30 miles are now slated to become permanent.) To learn more, Sarah speaks with Deputy Mayor Christophe Najdovski, who’s in charge of the city’s initiatives to increase green space and biodiversity and previously served as the deputy mayor for transportation. Najdovski explains that while the changes in the French capital are the envy of people all over the world, they haven’t been without their share of controversy. Nevertheless, Hidalgo’s political will and persistence have paid off. Paris now has cleaner air, less noise, more public space and a balance of street users that is shifting toward women. Plus, we hear an update from friend of the War on Cars and Paris resident, Cécile!

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On Friday, October 30th, just days before the U.S. presidential election, a Biden-Harris campaign bus on I-35 in Texas was followed and surrounded by a “Trump Train,” a caravan of SUVs and large pickups displaying “Make America Great Again” flags and other pro-Trump signs. In video posted online, one vehicle can be seen crashing into a white SUV which was said to be transporting members of the Biden-Harris team. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.

While neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris were on the bus, other candidates for office were and the incident motivated Texas Democrats to cancel three campaign events due to safety concerns. Beyond that, it marked a frightening escalation in the use of vehicles as instruments of political violence, something that seems to be occurring with increasing frequency in this country.

To make sense of it all, Doug talked to Greg Shill, an associate professor at the University of Iowa College of Law. Greg has written extensively on the ways in which the right to drive at the expense of nearly all other forms of transportation is written into America’s legal system. (Read his longer paper on the subject here.) On Election Day, The Atlantic published his take on the Texas incident and why the drivers in the “Trump Train” had every reason to expect immunity.

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Automobiles played an oversized role in the news this year, from the country’s response to the pandemic to the strange twists and turns of the presidential election. In fact, some might say 2020 was the year of the car. Beyond the growth of drive-thru COVID testing and importance of curbside voting, there was the president’s weird virus-infected limousine ride around Walter Reed, flag-flying “Trump Trains” shutting down highways and the strange spectacle of watching President-elect Joe Biden deliver his victory speech before supporters in parked cars who expressed their excitement and enthusiasm by honking. What does it mean for the future of democracy that most of our interactions with our fellow citizens now happen from behind a windshield? Are we destined to duke it out, road-rage style, until society collapses? Or is there an off-ramp from all this madness? Plus, is there really a parking angle to the Four Seasons Total Landscaping story? You bet there is. Aaron, Sarah and Doug are together again to discuss it all.

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The long-awaited electric car revolution is finally upon us. Are you ready? Are you excited? Last week, General Motors officially launched the electric version of the Hummer. The Hummer, of course, is the purposely intimidating sport utility vehicle based on the U.S. military’s HumVee. Popularized during America’s turn-of-the-century oil wars, the Hummer has long been one the personal vehicles that is most like a gigantic middle finger on four wheels. Weighing almost two tons, with 1,000 horsepower, and 0 to 60 m.p.h. acceleration in three seconds, the 2022 Hummer E.V. begs the question: Are we simply going to try to replicate the toxic male, energy-intensive, automobile-centric, 20th century “American way of life” on electricity rather than gas? Or can we imagine and build something better? 

This episode was sponsored by our friends at Cleverhood. For 20% off of stylish, functional rain gear designed specifically for bicycle commuters, enter coupon code: WARONCARS when you check out. 

Support The War on Cars on Patreon.

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It’s often said that Americans have a “love affair” with cars and driving. Where did this oddly specific expression come from? Most people probably assume it was something that developed organically, like so many common sayings. But Peter Norton, the author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City, credits a little-known 1961 NBC TV documentary starring Groucho Marx for popularizing this famous phrase. It’s a fascinating story that finds the wisecracking comedian pitted against anti-automobile activists such as Jane Jacobs and proves that America’s so-called “love affair” with cars is more like an arranged marriage.

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