Streets for Play, Streets for Freedom
The War on Cars
Streets can be more than places to move and store cars—they can be places for children to grow and thrive. Alice Ferguson and Tim Gill are the UK-based authors of a new paper called “.” Each of them has decades of experience in envisioning a world where children can use streets safely and happily. Together they are calling for a “radical, child-centric approach to transport policy and planning.” *** and listen to exclusive ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!*** Listen...
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EPISODE 170: A Doctor's View of Traffic Violence
The War on Cars
We talk with a guest who knows firsthand just how destructive cars can be. Dr. Rex Tai is a physician who works in long-term care. Many of his patients are the victims of traffic violence. His experience providing care for these people has been part of his growing awareness of how our country’s car-dependence creates and exacerbates inequality and division in our society and even in our global politics. We talk about all that, the effects of catastrophic injury for individuals and families, and how the public health crisis of traffic violence is just one aspect of a system that limits our...
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PREVIEW: Let's Get Political
The War on Cars
This is a preview of a . For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, presale tickets to live shows, and more, . For a long time, safe streets and transit advocacy organizations have had to play a careful game. While non-profit organizations can advocate for policies and infrastructure changes that protect pedestrians and cyclists and make transit more efficient and accessible, they can’t endorse candidates for office or otherwise throw their weight around when another election rolls around. Thankfully, that's...
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Tony Kushner on The Pushcart War
The War on Cars
—written by Jean Merrill and illustrated by Ronni Solbert and first published in 1964—is a charming and provocative children’s novel that tells the story of a band of pushcart vendors who fight against the organized forces of big trucks on the congested, contested streets of New York City. For Tony Kushner, the Pulitzer-prize-winning playwright, screenwriter, and author, reading the book as a child was a formative experience. “It made opposition, even nonviolent civil disobedience, seem fun and right and necessary and heroic, and something even someone as powerless as a kid can and...
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America's Hidden Desire to Live Car-Free
The War on Cars
Do people really like our all-enveloping autocentric system quite as much as everyone keeps saying they do? What kind of communities would they live in if given the choice? The answers, as a new study shows, are not exactly what so many of us have been told. Nearly one in five American car owners is “strongly interested” in living car-free, and another 40 percent are open to the idea. We talked about the implications of that study with its authors, Nicole Corcoran, Deborah Salon, and Hue-Tam Jamme, researchers at the Arizona State University School of Geographical Sciences and Urban...
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PREVIEW: What Snow Reveals About Cities (Plus More From Our Book Tour)
The War on Cars
***This is a preview of a . For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, presale tickets to live shows, and more, .*** In our latest Patreon bonus episode, we get into what we saw in the wildly different cities we hit on our last round of book tour (Miami! Pittsburgh! Toronto! Phoenix!). Then, we discuss how all the snow we have gotten this year has revealed some truths about what cars do to our cities and what we can learn from it. It’s a lot! (And it’s not just sneckdowns.) Order our new book, . And catch us on...
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Planning Livable Downtowns with Brent Toderian
The War on Cars
Brent Toderian has decades of experience in city planning, urban design, and transportation. He was chief planner for the city of Vancouver from 2006 to 2012, a time when the city hosted and was transformed by the Winter Olympics. As a consultant, Brent has advised and collaborated with folks from Auckland to Buenos Aires to Copenhagen to Reykjavik, and he often sparks conversation on social media, where he is one of the most prominent voices advocating for more human and humane urban design. We talked with him about how to make downtowns attractive and livable for families, why developers...
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Superbowl Roundup with Ian Chillag
The War on Cars
Super Bowl LX had everything, from ads for weight loss drugs and male grooming products to spots touting tax prep services and calming fears about our AI overlords. It also had one outstanding halftime performance from Bad Bunny. But what the game didn’t have was a whole lot of car ads. (Or a whole lot of touchdowns, but that’s a different story.) Why, after dominating the broadcast for decades, has the automobile industry gone cool on one of broadcasting’s biggest nights? And what did the few cars ads that did run say about the state of the nation and American culture at this...
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PREVIEW: Women Changing Cities with Melissa and Chris Bruntlett
The War on Cars
***This is a preview of a . For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, presale tickets to live shows, and more, .*** When it comes to transforming cities and reclaiming space from the automobile, some of the best and boldest leaders are women. There's Mayor Anne Hidalgo in Paris and former Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, just to name two. Why is that so? That’s the question explored by our guests, urban mobility experts , in their new book: . The Bruntletts discuss the qualities that have allowed these...
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The Importance of Livable Streets with Bruce Appleyard
The War on Cars
We talked with Dr. Bruce Appleyard, who has spent a lifetime thinking about what we mean when we talk about liveable streets—and why it is so important that we build our cities with human beings in mind, first and foremost. Bruce’s research makes an appearance in Life After Cars, and his father, Donald Appleyard, was a legend in this field for his work that led to the indispensable book Livable Streets, published in 1981. In 2020 Bruce published Livable Streets 2.0, which brings his father’s book up to date while preserving its core principles and teachings. We talked with him about how...
info_outlineTrump’s on-again-off-again tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico are causing chaos across the entire economy, but they’re hitting the auto industry especially hard. The big three U.S. automakers rely on an integrated supply and manufacturing process that sees raw materials and parts crossing international borders multiple times before each finished car rolls off the assembly line. The tariffs come at a time when the cost of car ownership is already sky-high, and when trying to find an affordable sedan from a domestic manufacturer is essentially impossible. David Zipper, a Senior Fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative, returns to the podcast to discuss the effects Trump’s economic “policies” (if you can call them that) are having on one of the nation’s most important industries. Needless to say, this isn’t how anyone should want to win the war on cars.
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This episode was produced with support from the Helen and William Mazer Foundation and Cleverhood. Listen to the episode for the latest discount on the best and most stylish rain gear for walking and cycling.
Save 15% on the amazing Arclight Pedals and everything from Redshift Sports with code WARONCARS at checkout.
LINKS:
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Learn more about David and read his writing at DavidZipper.com.
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“Detroit killed the sedan. Trump’s trade war will make them wish they hadn’t” (David in Fast Company)
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“Why car companies should fear the golf cart” (David in Fast Company)
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“One of the Biggest Victims of Trump’s Metals Tariffs: The Ford F-150” (WSJ)
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“Dealer Tells Fox Business ‘Nobody Is Gonna Buy’ Trucks Thanks to Tariffs”(Motor1.com)
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This episode was edited by Doug Gordon. It was recorded by Josh Wilcox at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Transcriptions are by Russell Gragg.