The Historical Lie of Car Dependency

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The popular belief that car dependency was a choice made by the American public is a historical lie that has been perpetuated over time. Contrary to what was taught in museums, history books, and classrooms, the preference for cars over other modes of transportation was not a democratic choice. Industry groups actively pushed for car dependency, acknowledging internally that it was not the mass preference. Internal conversations from the 1930s revealed industry insiders strategizing ways to convince people to buy cars, including the construction of expressways to incentivize car ownership.

In 1991, two police officers stopped Tupac Shakur for jaywalking. He said he was knocked unconscious during his arrest, and sued the city of Oakland for 10 million dollars. His lawyer says many of the police brutality cases he's worked on started with jaywalking stops.

Peter Norton’s book is Fighting Traffic.

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