The War on Cars

***This is a preview of a bonus episode. Become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars for ad-free access to this and all our exclusive content .*** Jessie Singer joined us on Episode 80 to discuss her new book,  There Are No Accidents.  We had promised Jessie she'd get a chance to explain the problem with public service announcements and why educational campaigns don't do much to prevent accident...

What do we mean when we say something is an "accident"? When a motorist kills a pedestrian or cyclist it is often described in the press and the criminal justice system as a "car accident" — even when there is a clear cause such as a driver who was drunk, distracted or speeding. According to a new book by journalist Jessie Singer, events that most people describe as accidents are anything but. Sin...

[This episode was originally released on October 16, 2019. We are re-releasing it in anticipation of the premiere on Showtime of the original dramatic series based on Mike Isaac's book. More new episodes are on the way!] 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 vehicl...

Remember when Uber, the mobile phone taxi-hailing app, was going to revolutionize transportation, transform cities, and lead us to our glorious robot-car future? That wasn't so long ago. So, what happened? Where did it all go? Cory Doctorow has some ideas. A prolific non-fiction author, sci-fi novelist, and technology activist Doctorow has been a keen observer and critic of Uber for years now. "Ub...

*** This is a preview of a short bonus episode just for Patreon supporters.  Become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars  for ad-free access to this and all our exclusive content. Plus, we'll send you stickers!*** The New Republic's Alex Pareene joined us for Episode 78, " 311 is a Joke ," and we had a lot of fun. We chatted about the battle for scarce street space in the big city and the role t...

Alex Pareene, a contributing editor to  The New Republic and the author of The AP (Alex Pareene) Newsletter , joins the podcast to talk about his recent run of stories on cars, parking and the competition for scarce space on city streets. We discuss 311 — the non-emergency phone number for accessing municipal services — and what it tells us about how government works (or doesn't work). What messag...

***This is a preview of a bonus episode. Become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars for ad-free access to this and all our exclusive content.*** Perhaps you've seen pictures of a person walking around in a large, wearable wooden frame meant to illustrate the space taken up by one person in a private automobile. That's the  gehzeug — or  walkmobile —  and it was invented by the Austrian civil en...

In 2019, Melissa and Chris Bruntlett and their two children moved from Vancouver to the small city of Delft in the Netherlands. The experience of transitioning to and living in a place that puts people first over automobiles forms the basis for Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives . The book, the Bruntlett's second on the lessons offered by Dutch cities, explains the many be...

Young people want to live. It seems kind of basic, right? Anyone over the age of 35 or so probably grew up thinking that the desire to live was something to take for granted, at least on a societal scale. But many members of Gen Z worry that the places they live today will soon be uninhabitable. That they won't be able to realize their dreams or raise their children the way previous generations di...

On Tuesday, November 2nd, 2021, The War on Cars recorded a live show at Caveat on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Our special guest for the evening was Choire Sicha, an editor at large at New York Magazine , who joined us to talk about YIMBYism, "bike fascism" and life in the suburbs. Plus, why does Eric Adams, the newly elected mayor of New York City, need to fix his bike's front fork? This epi...

Jason Slaughter is the creator of  Not Just Bikes,  the wildly popular YouTube channel that covers urban design and daily living in the Netherlands. Jason's videos are informative and entertaining, and whether they're about the shaky finances on which the suburbs are built or something as simple as grocery shopping, each one helps viewers understand larger concepts about building cities for people...

To celebrate the podcast's third anniversary (how did that happen?) we open up the listener mailbag and field your questions and comments. Is it time to take more subversive action in the fight for safe streets? With all the evidence on our side, why does it sometimes feel like cities keep having the same arguments over parking spaces? Why don't strollers get more respect as transportation? Is it...

*** This is a preview of a short bonus episode just for Patreon supporters. Become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars for ad-free access to this and all our exclusive content. Plus, we'll send you stickers!*** Michael Hobbes, a journalist and podcast host known for his work on Maintenance Phase and Y ou're Wrong About,  joined The War on Cars for episode 72 to discuss what bikelash has in comm...

What does bikelash have in common with moral panics? Has Paris really descended into anarchy because of all the cyclists? Are e-bikes and scooters the biggest threats to pedestrians on the mean streets — and sidewalks — of New York? What happens when reporters misunderstand statistics and rely on anecdotes to paint a picture of an urban transportation landscape that's spinning out of control? To a...

Alicia Kennedy is a food writer whose weekly newsletter covers the way food culture intersects with politics, media, labor rights and climate change. On the surface it might not seem like it has much to do with the war on cars. But it does. Because what Alicia is doing in her work is really similar to what we do: she tries to make the invisible visible. She shines a light on how huge political and...

On July 19, 2020, Amtrak restarted passenger rail service on its Vermonter line after a 16-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. You wouldn't necessarily think that this would be all that big of a deal. The Vermonter runs just one train per day in each direction between Washington, D.C., and St. Albans, a small town near the Canadian border. This train is kind of slow, frequently late, and on...

Jessica Valenti, the noted feminist writer, was curious about e-bikes. So, as one does, she posted a question about them to Twitter. Thus began her path to radicalization. After buying an e-bike of her own, she quickly found how life-changing it was — a not uncommon feeling among the converted. A lifelong New Yorkers, Jessica found that riding an e-bike changed her perspective on the city and offe...

This episode was originally released as a Patreon exclusive . Become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars for bonus episodes, early releases and more. Combine a deep love of cities and urban planning with a penchant for wearing stylish suits, smooth dance moves set to Swedish rap music and a curious fascination with drainage and what do you get?  Mr. Barricade , an unlikely TikTok star. Vignesh...

To celebrate the last days of summer, we're re-releasing our Patreon special interview with the man who introduced the world to mountain biking: Gary Fisher. Sarah talks with Gary about his sometimes psychedelic autobiography, Being Gary Fisher and the Bicycle Revolution . We also got his opinions on the failed promise of the automobile, the bike boom of the late '70s, and what the world can learn...

Tom Flood used to work in the ad industry in Toronto on campaigns for clients in the auto industry. Today he's a bit of a rebel and uses the power of social media and smart video editing to poke fun at car companies and the kind of commercials that often glorify reckless driving.   If you've ever seen commercials for cars like the Dodge Carger then you'll appreciate what Tom does. He takes those a...

We held our very first War on Cars Meetup in Brooklyn a few weekends ago. We actually started planning this event almost two years ago but, you know... a global pandemic kind of got in the way. After so many months of relative social isolation it was great to gather in person, see old friends, meet new friends, and talk with so many of our passionate, dedicated listeners. Part of what was special...

It sure was a busy week for our transportation tech bro overlords. Elon Musk announced a deal to build another one of his car tunnels beneath the waterlogged streets of Fort Lauderdale, Florida while also admitting that, "haha" the self-driving cars he's been promising for years aren't going to happen any time soon. Malcolm Gladwell launched the new season of his "Revisionist History" podcast with...

Breaking News! Following weeks of negotiations, and as a mind-boggling heat wave settled on the Pacific Northwest, President Joe Biden and a bipartisan group of ten Senators stepped out of a closed-door meeting at the White House to announce they'd made a deal. There will be infrastructure! $579 billion worth of it, in fact. The biggest federal investment in infrastructure in more than a hundred y...

We're vaxxed and we're back. In this very special reunion episode, Sarah, Doug and Aaron return to the studio for the first time in fifteen months. Fifteen months! The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wild, earth-shattering, world-historic event with far-reaching implications for The War on Cars and pretty much everything else. We revisit some of our predictions from the beginning of the lockdown, tak...

***This is a quick preview of a bonus episode. Become a Patreon Supporter of The War on Cars for access to the complete episode and all our exclusive content. Plus, we'll send you stickers!*** Sean Kenney, one of the voices in Episode 65, "Where are the Bike Lanes in Lego City?" is an artist and self-described "professional kid" who designs and creates amazing sculpture and other works of art usin...