In the battle to make cities better for walking, biking and transit, there’s no more important front line than local community meetings. So when a flyer advertising a town-hall forum about the New York City Department of Transportation’s alleged “war on cars” began appearing in Brooklyn neighborhoods, we knew we had to attend. On this episode, we discuss what happens when regular citizens gather to discuss losing precious parking spaces to benefit the greater good. What are some tactics advocates can use to bring people around to their point of view? Given the typical format of these forums, is finding common ground even possible? Is there a better way to conduct public meetings or is screaming at each other in a church social hall a necessary evil? [NOTE: Due to some late-breaking developments, this is part one of a two-part series on public meetings.]

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

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Twenty-one people riding bicycles have been killed this year on the streets of New York City. That’s more than double the number of bike fatalities in all of 2018. In early July, after a terrible week in which three people on bicycles were killed in quick succession, more than a thousand demonstrators showed up in Lower Manhattan’s Washington Square Park for a “Die-In” to demand that officials take more aggressive action to make streets safe. In this episode, we hear from Die-In participants and Doug, Sarah and Aaron talk about advocacy, activism and change-making. Is it better to be polite and work within the system or disobedient and disruptive? Who in city government should be the target of these urgent calls to action, the politicians or the police? What can we learn from the work of other grassroots social and political movements throughout history? And do NYPD bicycle cops ever actually ride their bikes or do they only use them as crowd control barricades? 

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When you’re used to the culture of streets in the United States of America — that is, variations on kill or be killed — traveling to countries that do it differently can be both a shock to the system and an inspiration. So it was when TWOC co-host Sarah Goodyear spent three weeks in Japan this summer, and heard exactly one car honk in that entire time. In this episode, we discuss the human infrastructure of mutual respect that makes Japanese cities so different from American ones; hear from Japanese street activists about how they’re inspired by their counterparts in the United States and Europe; and talk about what we can learn by leaving home. Also, members of a group called the Tokyo Picnic Club discuss “the right to picnic” as a basic human right for people in crowded cities. 

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

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SHOW NOTES: 

Bike ambassador Chad Feyen offers bicycle tours of Tokyo at Freewheeling Japan. You can also follow him on Twitter.

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Barcelona, Spain is testing out a powerful new weapon in the war on cars. It’s called the Superilla or, in english, the “Superblock.” Last October, Vox Media’s energy and environment reporter David Roberts spent ten days in Barcelona taking a deep dive into the city’s ambitious plan to reclaim more than half of its total street space from motor vehicles by creating five hundred Superblocks. In this one-on-one conversation, David sits down with TWOC co-host Aaron Naparstek and tells the inside story of Barcelona’s visionary car-fighting, air-cleaning and neighborhood-empowering strategy. Could Superblocks even be a solution for fixing dysfunctional liberal democracies? It’s so crazy it just might work.

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SHOW NOTES: 

Barcelona’s Radical Plan to Take Back Streets From Cars is David Roberts’ must-read five-part series at Vox. Seriously, it’s great.

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What do comedy and fighting the war on cars have in common? For answers, Doug talks with Adam Conover, the creator and host of TruTV’s “Adam Ruins Everything.” The show, a new season of which premieres on August 13th, combines humor, sharp writing and deeply sourced research to deconstruct the conventional wisdom about subjects most Americans take for granted, including cars. In this special one-on-one interview, Adam explains why taking the bus in LA is better than driving, discusses how excited he was to tell people the history of the word “jaywalking,” and offers lessons on presenting information to anyone fighting their own war on cars.

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In this TWOC extra, we present co-host Doug Gordon’s full interview with Ray Magliozzi of “Car Talk,” conducted in February 2019 at the WBUR studios in Boston and previously available only to Patreon supporters. Hear more about Ray’s thoughts on how cities are changing to be more friendly to people who aren’t in cars and learn why he sometimes runs red lights on his bike.

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No, you’ve not tuned into late-night Lite FM radio. In this special mailbag episode, Sarah and Doug hear from listeners around the world, taking your questions and comments on everything from disabled cyclists, how to make bike lanes as common as sidewalks, when to take the car keys from aging parents and grandparents, the frustrations women feel when told what to wear when riding a bicycle, whether or not cyclists should share a friendly wave with other cyclists and how to find joy while fighting a daily War on Cars.

You can find the full transcript of this episode here.

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Autonomous cars? Who needs ’em. If you want to improve your city then design it so that children have more autonomy. In this episode we hit the playground with architecture critic Alexandra Lange, the author of “The Design of Childhood.” To grow up into healthy, functional adults, kids need opportunities to experience freedom and independence. Alexandra argues that car-dominated streets make that more difficult. A city designed for cars is a city that’s lousy for families — and pretty much everyone else. Plus: The surprising history of playgrounds.

In celebration of our twentieth episode, the first twenty people who enlist in The War on Cars Patreon campaign after this episode drops will receive a bonus #BanCars sticker. 

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Show Notes: 

Visit Alexandra Lange’s web site and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

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How can we fight a War on Cars when cars might be turning into the last bastion of affordable housing in many cities and suburbs? In this episode, we talk about how the crises in transportation, housing and climate are converging in California parking lots — some of which are becoming de facto communities. Stepping in to help us understand what’s going on in the Golden State is Alissa Walker, who writes for Curbed LA and cohosts LA Podcast.

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It’s the most controversial question in all of urban biking: Why do cyclists run red lights, ride on sidewalks and go the wrong way down one-way streets? In this episode, Aaron, Sarah and Doug talk to New York City cyclists about why they behave the way they do. Plus, we seek out a higher authority for an interpretation of the legal and ethical dilemmas people on bikes confront while moving through cities. When cyclists flout the law, is it a sign that they’re all selfish scofflaws? Or are they engaging in a simple act of civil disobedience that can lead to better, safer streets and rules that reflect the difference between bikes and cars?

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