The War on Cars

What can cold cities, where people nonetheless bike year-round through snow and seemingly endless hours of darkness, tell us about what it takes to make better streets? In this episode, Sarah reports back from her trip to Finland and the the 8th annual Winter Cycling Conference, held in Joensuu and Helsinki in early February. How does active transportation figure into Helsinki’s goal to become the world “most functional city”? What’s the right way to prioritize transportation modes? And why are most fully grown Americans less rugged than the average Finnish 11-year-old?  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.   SHOW NOTES:  You can find all the presentations from the 2020 World Cycling Congress in Joensuu on the Congress website. Here’s a little movie that shows some of what it was like. See if you can spot Sarah!  Coverage of the conference from Bicycle Dutch: Cycling in the Finnish snow Winter Cycling Congress 2020 in Joensuu Coverage of the conference from The Guardian: Winter wheelies: Finland blazes trail in keeping citizens cycling and healthy Why Finland leads the field when it comes to winter cycling Check out opportunities for winter adventure cycling in Eastern Finland with Karu Survival. The end music for the episode, from the song “Cold Dead Eyes,” comes courtesy of Joensuu thrash metal band Killing Attack. You can find more of their music on Spotify. Special thanks to Tony Desnick of Cycling Without Age, Oskari Kaupinmäki of the City of Helsinki, Matti Hirvonen of the Network of Finnish Cycling Municipalities, Timo Perälä of the Winter Cycling Federation, Markku Pyykkönen of the City of Joensuu, and Maria Halava-Napoles at the Finnish Consulate in New York. Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1. Email us: thewaroncars@gmail.com https://thewaroncars.org  

For our first live episode, The War on Cars heads to Denver, Colorado to check in on the Mile High City’s battle against automobile dominance. From the announcement that the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure will install 125 miles of bike lanes by 2023 to the recent closure of B-cycle, the city’s bicycle sharing system, it’s been a year of good news and bad for Denverites. And there’s no one better to comment on the news than our guest, Kyle Clark, the host of “Next with Kyle Clark” on Denver’s 9 News. When Kyle, in a forceful on-air editorial, pushed back against a bout of NIMBYism in his own backyard, the clip swept the Twitterverse and brought the issue of bike-friendly streets to a general television audience. Kyle joins us to talk about the role TV news plays in the fight for a better city and how people waging their own war on cars can work with, not against, reporters.  Recorded February 10th, 2020 at the Moving People Forward Conference in Denver, Colorado presented by Bicycle Colorado. 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. SHOW NOTES: Watch “Next with Kyle Clark” on 9News in Denver and follow Kyle on Twitter. “New bike lane proposal is loved by some cyclists but hated by neighbors.” (The Denver Channel) Kyle Clark: “I love Denver’s history, but not more than your life, or mine.” (9News.com) “Denver bike share company B-cycle wheels out of town, as others prepare to fill the gap.” (Denverite) Denver to add 125 miles of bike lanes by 2023...  ...but the Denver Post editorial board says to do it carefully.  The president and CEO of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association says Denver is waging a war on cars and drivers.  Join The War on Cars for our next live recording in Washington, D.C., at the League of American Bicyclists’ National Bike Summit on March 16th, 2020.  This episode was recorded at the Moving People Forward Conference in Denver and produced by Sarah Moss. Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1. Email us: thewaroncars@gmail.com https://thewaroncars.org  

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