The War on Cars

As the new Trump regime begins, we talked with Dani Simons—who until recently led the Office of Public Affairs for the federal Department of Transportation—about the Biden administration's legacy on transportation. What are the stakes as we go from Amtrak Joe and DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg to an administration made up of oil barrels disguised as people? What are the last four years' biggest achi...

At last, New York City started its congestion pricing program on January 5. We knew that the local mainstream press would be out in force interviewing drivers and elevating the voices of those who were against the toll. We knew that because the New York press corps has a long history of putting the people who commute by car in New York above those who don't.  So we went out on congestion pricing's...

How do dense, walkable cities influence what people wear? Derek Guy has some thoughts. Otherwise known as The Menswear Guy, Derek rose to fame on social media for his takes on men's fashion, but he also dips his toes into urbanism from time to time, arguing that the ecosystems that support quality craftsmanship and expert tailoring are strongest in places where it's easy to get around without a ca...

This is a preview of a  Patreon-exclusive bonus episode . For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, pre-sale tickets to live shows, and more,  become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars . For our year-end bonus episode, we asked our Patreon supporters to tell us the best things that happened to them or in their communit...

Why do people behave so badly behind the wheel of a car? Why do reporters and the police use passive language to describe automobile crashes and traffic violence? How do the words we use make a difference in street safety? Dr. Tara Goddard , one of the top scholars studying what it is that cars do to our brains and the way we treat each other in the world, has some thoughts — and she's done the re...

From mockumentaries to dramas to situation comedies, Ed Begley Jr. has done it all. His truly one-of-a-kind acting career has seen him work with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, and more. But beyond his impressive resume, Ed Begley Jr. is also known for his environmental activism. He's probably the most famous person to have owned some version of an e...

This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode . For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, pre-sale tickets to live shows, and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars . Back in 2010, the notoriously pugnacious Toronto mayor Rob Ford declared that "the war on the car is over," and vowed to halt the city'...

We're not going to sugarcoat it. That election was tough. But there are some points of hope that can help us make our way forward. We got together in the studio to look at victories around the country for transit and safe streets, and to discuss how we can all hang in there together and continue making positive change in our communities. *** Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive access to...

Adam McKay is the Academy Award–winning screenwriter, director, and producer behind such movies as Don't Look Up , The Big Short , Vice, Anchorman , Talladega Nights , and more. He is also the founder of Yellow Dot Studios , a nonprofit production studio that raises awareness and mobilizes action on the climate emergency. Adam joins us to discuss his career and the existential anxiety that led him...

***This is a bonus episode that was previously only available to  Patreon supporters of The War on Cars . If you want to hear more bonus episodes like this,  please sign up today ! We'll taking a very short break to work on our book and will be back with brand new episodes in November.*** Perhaps you've seen pictures of a person walking around in a large, wearable wooden frame meant to illustrate...

This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content,  become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars . Patty Wiens is the Bike Mayor of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. We met Patty on our trip to Edmonton for the Winter Cycling Congress back in February and were really struck with her energy and drive as an advocate for people who ride bike...

Zoning is an invisible force that dictates how and where we can build housing, offices, factories, parks and more. It dictates how we access such places and can reinforce car dependency, often in ways that burden the communities that can least afford it, reinforce segregation, and exacerbate climate change and other environmental harms. In her new book, Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes our World...

This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content,  become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars . During the recent US Open Tennis Championships in New York City, top-seeded American player Jessica Pegula got some attention when she posted an Instagram reel showing her taking the subway from Manhattan to the event venue in Queens. "I...

There's been a lot of talk this election season about Project 2025, the initiative from the Heritage Foundation to prepare for a potential second Trump administration. Understandably, much of the conversation about Project 2025 has been about the stakes for abortion access, rights for LGBTQ+ people, protections for civil servants, the Department of Education, Social Security and much more. But the...

Why do Americans spend lots of money to visit walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly European cities, only to come back to the U.S. and oppose all those things where they live? Rick Steves has some thoughts. Countless people know and love the popular travel writer for his guidebooks and long-running television programs, which encourage people to explore Europe's "backdoor" destinations—those off-the...

This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content,  become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars .  In June, Doug attended Velo-city, an annual cycling summit hosted by the European Cyclists' Federation that brings the bike world together. This year's conference was held in the Belgian city of Ghent. While there, Doug wandered the exh...

Episode 133: Listener Origin Stories (Patreon bonus re-release) We're taking a short break to work on our forthcoming book and some of our upcoming fall shows. We'll be back with new free episodes in early September. In the meantime, please enjoy this re-release of our Patreon bonus episode from December 26, 2023. You can get all of our Patreon bonus episodes and more subscriber-only content – plu...

This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content,  become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars . This month's exclusive Patreon bonus episode is an interview with Holden Ringer, who recently finished walking more than 4,000 miles across the country from the starting point of LaPush, Washington. Holden is a 26-year-old originally fro...

NOTE: This is part two of a two-part episode. To hear both parts right now and without ads, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars . In part two of our deep dive on John Forester and his 1976 book Effective Cycling,  we take a look at the paltry data and research underpinning the alleged safety benefits of vehicular cycling and the long-term impact Forester had on cycling for transportation...

NOTE: This is part one of a two-part episode. To hear both parts right now and without ads,  become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars . " Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles. " That quote is the core philosophy of John Forester, the father of vehicular cycling. Forester, who died in 2020, was a major figure in the the world of cycling advocacy and transport...

Cyprine Odada is the Executive Director of Critical Mass Nairobi and an urban planner specializing in active mobility. Ever since founding the Kenyan capital's chapter of Critical Mass, the largest gathering of non-competitive cyclists in Africa, Cyprine has helped get more people on bikes from different neighborhoods, ages, and social and economic groups, changing the perception of who rides a bi...

Because it has the word "engineering" right in there, the field of traffic engineering is something most people assume is governed by science and rational rules. But a new book, written by a traffic engineer himself, argues that is not the case at all. In Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion That Science Underlies Our Transportation System , Wes Marshall — a professor of civil eng...

Why don't more women ride bicycles in London? The advocacy group London Cycling Campaign wanted to know, and so they asked. What they discovered was disturbing: Among more than a thousand women surveyed, nine out of ten said they experienced verbal abuse and aggression while biking. Ninety-three percent said drivers had used vehicles to intimidate them. One in five said they had given up riding pe...

In this emergency episode, we discuss New York State Governor Kathy Hochul's 11th-hour decision to "indefinitely suspend" congestion pricing, the program that would have charged drivers to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. Her move, announced in a prerecorded video on Wednesday, June 5th, came mere weeks before congestion pricing was set to launch, jeopardizing what was set to be a major funding...

This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars . For this month's exclusive Patreon bonus episode, we take a look at three states that have attempted to ban everything from bus rapid transit to taxing driving by vehicle miles traveled. While most of these initiatives have failed, one of...