The War on Cars

The Chevrolet Suburban is one of General Motors' most enduring triumphs — the longest-running nameplate in automotive history, to use the industry jargon, and the original SUV. In production since 1935, it's grown from an all-American family vehicle, perfect for loading up the kids and heading out into the country, into an 18-foot-long status symbol for VIPs — including titans of finance, A-list celebrities, politicians and the occasional drug lord. It's even the first vehicle to earn a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. While the Suburban used to be about suburbia, it isn't anymore. In this episode, we talk with Angie Schmitt, a journalist working on a book about the pedestrian safety crisis in the United States, about how the Suburban's rise foretold the modern SUV boom, and just how dangerous these land sharks can be. SHOW NOTES: Support The War on Cars with a contribution on Patreon. Rate and review the war effort on iTunes. Buy a War on Cars T-shirt at Cotton Bureau. And check out the new podcast from our friends over at TransitCenter. It's called High Frequency. SHOW NOTES: Angie Schmitt is on Twitter @schmangee. Keith Bradsher's book about the deadly rise of the SUV: High and Mighty. The dangerous blindspots in front of big SUVs. (The Verge) A comprehensive roundup of the Suburban's appearances in film and TV. (Internet Movie Cars Database) The Suburban gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (NBC) Pictures of the Suburban in its earlier incarnations. (Popular Mechanics) An homage to the power of the Suburban brand. (Up to Speed) A social history of the Chevy Suburban. (Car and Driver) Some of the sounds in this show were included courtesy of Creative Commons licenses, from Kinetic Turtle and nemoDaedulus. Join The War on Cars crew for two live events this spring! - A live recording in Denver for Bicycle Colorado's Moving People Forward conference on February 10. - And another in Washington, D.C., at the League of American Bicyclists' National Bike Summit, March 16. This episode was edited by Matt Cutler and recorded at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio. Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1. Drop us a line: thewaroncars@gmail.com https://thewaroncars.org

Making change happen in a big, complex, bureaucratic city is really hard. One guy who knows all about that is Shabazz Stuart, the Chief Executive Officer of Oonee, a Brooklyn-based startup company that is developing secure bike-parking kiosks at major transit hubs in and around New York City. For this episode, Shabazz joins The War on Cars crew in the studio and Aaron traverses two rivers and travels all the way to New Jersey — New Jersey! — to lay eyes on the new secret weapon in The War on Cars. Plus, we're doing some live events. Check out the Show Notes for more details. Support The War on Cars on Patreon. Rate and review the war effort on iTunes. Buy a War on Cars t-shirt at Cotton Bureau. And check out the new podcast from our friends over at TransitCenter. It's called High Frequency. SHOW NOTES: You can learn more about Oonee on their company website. Follow Oonee on Instagram and Twitter and definitely check out CEO Shabazz Stuart on Medium. Streetfilms covered the debut of Oonee's Brooklyn pod just before the holiday break in December. The world's biggest bike parking garage is in Utrecht, the Netherlands and it really illustrates the huge potential. Join The War on Cars crew for two live events this spring! We'll be in Denver for Bicycle Colorado's Moving People Forward conference on February 10. And we'll be in Washington, D.C., at the League of American Bicyclists' National Bike Summit, March 15 to 17. Hope to see you at one of these. This episode was edited by Ali Lemer and recorded at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio. Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1. Drop us a line: thewaroncars@gmail.com https://thewaroncars.org

Is the Hyperloop for real or are easily duped elected officials the only people it will take for a ride? Do e-bikes have the power to transform the suburbs? Why should politicians and the press say "crash" instead of "accident"? What's the best way to convince people to live a car-free life? On this year-end episode, Sarah, Doug and Aaron answer these questions and more from listeners fighting their own local versions of the War on Cars. Plus, what were the best transportation-related developments of 2019? Contribute to The War on Cars via Patreon. Rate and review The War on Cars on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Buy a War on Cars t-shirt at Cotton Bureau. SHOW NOTES: Who are @BicycleLobby, @Bob_Gunderson, @PlacardAbuse and the message-board hacker known as Bikesy? Instead of spending money to study a Hyperloop, perhaps Cleveland should just improve train service. Why it's better to say "crash" instead of "accident." Senator Elizabeth Warren takes to Twitter to call from an end to traffic violence. This episode was directed and recorded by Andrew Feyer at Brooklyn Podcasting Studio, and edited by Matt Cutler. Find us onTwitter @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1 and Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke. Email us: thewaroncars@gmail.com TheWarOnCars.org

Last March, renowned tech journalist and prognosticator Kara Swisher wrote a New York Times opinion piece with the headline, "Owning a car will soon be as quaint as owning a horse." In it, she declared she would sell her own car and vowed she would never again own an automobile. "The concept of actually purchasing, maintaining, insuring and garaging an automobile in the next few decades? Finished," she wrote. That column set off thousands of outraged commenters — and activated the radar at The War on Cars. We sat down with Kara at the Vox studios in downtown Manhattan to talk about what it's like living without wheels of her own, why she loves scooters, and whether we'll ever get the Star Trek Holodeck we've been promised. Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive stickers, T-shirts, exclusive access to special audio content and more. Buy an official War on Cars T-shirt at Cotton Bureau. Rate and review The War On Cars on iTunes. SHOW NOTES: Kara says owning a car will soon be as quaint as owning a horse (New York Times) Times readers tell Kara she has no idea what she's talking about (New York Times) Kara's update on life without her own car (New York Times) Kara tours Paris by scooter (New York Times) Follow Kara on Twitter. Listen to Kara's Recode Decode and Pivot podcasts. Is the Star Trek Holodeck closer than you think? Find us onTwitter @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1 and Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke. Email us! thewaroncars@gmail.com

It's one of the most famous moments in daytime TV history, but what really happened when Oprah Winfrey gave a brand new Pontiac G6 to every member of her studio audience? Leave it to The War on Cars to take that memorable (and very meme-able) moment and connect it to larger questions about mobility, access to economic opportunity and even the perverse way in which Americans pay for healthcare. In a country where everyone needs a car just to be a contributing member of society, what happens when that vital lifeline is severed? Are stories of 12-mile walks to work and individuals who help their fellow employees by buying them a car really "heartwarming," as local news stories like to say? Or are they instead signs of a society that has failed at the basics? Is anything actually solved when solving people's transportation woes is turned into a televised spectacle? Enlist in The War on Cars on Patreon. Rate and review The War on Cars on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Buy a War on Cars t-shirt at Cotton Bureau. SHOW NOTES: A look back at Oprah Winfrey's Free-Car Giveaway. "Oprah car winners hit with hefty tax." (CNN Money) "Coworkers chip in to get new car for FedEx package handler." (ABC News) "The Hidden Cost of GoFundMe Health Care" (Nathan Heller, The New Yorker) This episode was directed and recorded by Josh Wilcox at Brooklyn Podcasting Studio, and edited by Matt Cutler. Find us onTwitter @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1 and Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke. Email us: thewaroncars@gmail.com TheWarOnCars.org

For a century, the automobile has been sold to Americans as the ultimate freedom machine. In her groundbreaking new book, "Policing the Open Road," historian and legal scholar Sarah Seo explodes that myth. Seo shows how modern policing evolved in lockstep with the development of the car. And that rather than giving Americans greater freedom, the massive body of traffic law required to facilitate mass motoring helped to establish a kind of automotive police state. Is a car a private, personal space deserving Fourth Amendment protection from "unreasonable searches and seizures?" Or is a car something else entirely? It's a question that courts have struggled with for decades, ultimately leaving it up to the police to use their own discretion, often with horrifying results, especially for minorities. In this revelatory conversation with TWOC co-host Aaron Naparstek, Seo offers an entirely new way of looking at the impact of the automobile on American life, law and culture. Support The War on Cars on Patreon. Rate and review the war effort on iTunes. Buy your uniform at Cotton Bureau. SHOW NOTES: Buy Sarah Seo's book, "Policing the Open Road: How Cars Transformed American Freedom." Sarah-Seo.com Was the Automotive Era a Terrible Mistake? (The New Yorker) How Cars Transformed Policing (Boston Review) On the Road Police Power Has Few Limits (The Atlantic) Stopped, Ticketed, Fined: The Pitfalls of Driving While Black in Ferguson (New York Times) Why we can — and must — create a fairer system of traffic enforcement. Its discretionary nature has left it ripe for abuse (Washington Post) Driving (and walking) While Black: Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Michael Brown and The Ferguson Report. Supreme Court case Carroll v. United States, 1925 (Oyez) Follow Sarah Seo on Twitter. Sarah Seo, Associate Professor of Law, University of Iowa College of Law. This episode was edited by Jaime Kaiser and recorded at Great City Post and the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio. Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1. Drop us a line: thewaroncars@gmail.com https://thewaroncars.org

For a few years after Uber launched in 2009, it seemed like the on-demand ride-hailing service might be an advance in the war on cars — a way for more people to share fewer vehicles and to reduce overall automobile dependence. Fast forward a decade, and the rise of Uber (along with Lyft) has instead resulted in increased congestion, reductions in transit ridership, and the exploitation of a precarious workforce that the company would love to make obsolete altogether. In this episode, we talk with New York Times tech reporter Mike Isaac about his new book, "Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber," in which he chronicles the rise and fall of Uber's co-founder, Travis Kalanick. We hear what Mike has to say about the cult of the founder and the way Kalanick's winner-take-all mentality has negatively affected the streets of the world's cities. Support the podcast on Patreon. Rate and review the war effort on iTunes. Buy a War on Cars t-shirt at Cotton Bureau. SHOW NOTES: Mike Isaac's new book, Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber, is available everywhere, but you should get it at your local bookstore if you can. Follow him on Twitter @MikeIsaac. Another study shows Uber and Lyft suck riders off transit (CityLab) Everything bad about Uber and Lyft (Streetsblog USA) Travis Kalanick argues with an Uber driver about his business model (Bloomberg) This episode was directed and recorded by Josh Wilcox at Brooklyn Podcasting Studio, and edited by Matt Cutler. Natalie Jones taped Mike Isaac in San Francisco. Find us onTwitter @TheWarOnCars, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1 Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek and Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke. Email us: thewaroncars@gmail.com https://thewaroncars.org

In Part 1 of "The Problem With Public Meetings" we took you inside a difficult community meeting in Fort Greene, Brooklyn and urged compassion and understanding for neighbors who aren't quite yet on board with The War on Cars. Here in Part 2, we take you to yet another community meeting, this time, in Park Slope, Brooklyn where diplomacy fails, the action gets kinetic and a TWOC co-host is physically assaulted by a bike lane-hating conspiracy theorist meditation instructor. Yes, you heard that right. How do you know when it's time to stop seeking common ground with parking-obsessed, car-addicted, change-averse members of your community and start working on their utter, total and overwhelming defeat in the arena of local politics? Strap on your helmet, soldiers. Get ready for The Battle of 9th Street. Are you feeling the Shock & Awe? Support The War on Cars on Patreon! Rate and review us on iTunes. Buy a War on Cars t-shirt at Cotton Bureau. SHOW NOTES: Video of The Battle of 9th Street via Jake Offenhartz Video of the The Battle of 9th Street via Brian Howald. Bikelash's Latest Tactics: Pedophile Smears and Conspiracy Theories, Streetsblog. People have been fighting to stop the carnage and make 9th Street safer for years and years and years. It's endless. The most recent 9th Street horror: What New York Should Learn From the Park Slope Crash That Killed Two Children, New York Magazine. Is a Better Public Meeting Possible? Casey Berkovitz, The Century Foundation. Progressive Boomers are Making it Impossible for Cities to Fix the Housing Crisis. Michael Hobbes, The Huffington Post. This episode was edited by Matt Cutler. Find us on Twitter @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1 and Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke. Email us: thewaroncars@gmail.com https://thewaroncars.org

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.] Support the podcast on Patreon. Rate and review the war effort on iTunes. Buy a War on Cars t-shirt at Cotton Bureau. SHOW NOTES: Is a Better Public Meeting Possible? Casey Berkovitz, The Century Foundation. Progressive Boomers are Making it Impossible for Cities to Fix the Housing Crisis. Michael Hobbes, The Huffington Post. Background on the reaction to the NYC DOT residential loading zone program. NY Daily News. A play-by-play of the Fort Greene "War on Cars" meeting. Via Julianne Cuba, Streetsblog. This episode was edited by Jamie Kaiser. Find us on Twitter @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1 and Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke. Email us: thewaroncars@gmail.com https://thewaroncars.org

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? Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive stickers, T-shirts, exclusive access to special audio content and more. Buy an official War on Cars T-shirt at Cotton Bureau. Rate and review The War On Cars on iTunes. SHOW NOTES: Washington Square Park Die-In Coverage (Streetsblog) Hundreds of cyclists stage 'die-in' at Washington Square Park following recent biker fatalities (New York Daily News) See the guy holding the "De Blasio to Cyclists: Drop Dead" sign? That's Doug! Cyclist deaths in NYC: A month-by-month breakdown (AM New York) Robyn Hightman: The Miraculous and Tragic Story of a Life Transformed by Cycling. A phenomenal story by Peter Flax in Bicycling Magazine. NYPD Cracks Down On Cyclists, Not Drivers, Where Truck Driver Killed Bike Messenger (Gothamist) Insane video of the aftermath of an NYPD officer in a police SUV knocking a man off of his bicycle for "his own safety." Ernest Askew wouldn't give up his bike (AM New York). State Senator Sees 'Built-in Racism And Classism' Behind A Cyclist's Death In Brownsville (Gothamist) Here is Devra Freelander's web site and a great review of her work and her legacy in Surface Magazine. Cement truck drivers from the same company involved in the killing of Devra Freelander blame the victim instead of taking any semblance of responsibility (AM New York, Streetsblog, Bklyner) This episode was edited by Jaime Kaiser. Find us on Twitter @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1. The War on Cars is on Instagram and Facebook too. Email us! thewaroncars@gmail.com https://thewaroncars.org