The War on Cars

The War on Cars, LLC

The War on Cars brings you news, commentary and stories about the worldwide battle to undo a century's worth of damage wrought by the automobile.

  1. Aug 4

    Human Transit with Jarrett Walker

    Jarrett Walker's career has been dedicated to improving the quality of public transit in the United States and beyond. A specialist in bus network design, he has led transit planning projects around North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand for decades. He is also the author of the book Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives. It's a classic in the field, and a revised edition came out from Island Press last year. We talked with him about why buses should get more love and how transit advocates can fight for their systems in a hostile funding environment. Plus, should we even be thinking about making buses free? Or is making them fast and frequent more important? Find out more about Jarrett Walker and his work. Buy his book, Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives, at our official Bookshop.org page. Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Save 20% on everything in our official merch store with code HOTBIKESUMMER. Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway or sell your own bike! Visit Upway.co to get rolling. Thanks also to Cleverhood. Use code DOGDAYS now through the end of August to get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling. Get 20% off a FEND foldable bike helmet by using this link. TheWarOnCars.org

  2. Jul 28 ·  Bonus

    PREVIEW: Bike is Best with Adam Tranter

    ***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, presale tickets to live shows and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.*** For our July bonus, we speak with Adam Tranter, the former cycling and walking commissioner for the city of West Midlands in the UK and the founder and CEO of Fusion Media about effective messaging for better and safer cycling. Some of you may know Adam as one of the co-hosts of the Streets Ahead podcast. At Fusion Media, Adam created the #BikeIsBest campaign, which included a brilliant video that showed people using far more powerful tools than they needed to do ordinary household tasks. It cuts right to the absurdity of building a system where people default to using pickups, SUVs, and other large automobiles just to do simple tasks like getting milk at a nearby store. In this conversation, Adam explains that a concept called "pluralistic ignorance" can make it difficult to build the kinds of streets we all want, but there is hope. Sign up on Patreon to hear the entire episode. Buy our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, wherever you get your books.

  3. Jul 21

    Final Dispatches from Book Tour

    Our final Life After Cars book tour roundup episode is here, with our reports from Atlanta, Memphis, Chicago, Montréal, Orlando, Portland, Maine, and many, many more great North American cities! We get into the good, the bad, and the ugly of everything we saw out there on the road. Plus a discussion of…Reverse Copenhagen Syndrome? Become a Patreon supporter for access to ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content. Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Save 20% on everything in our official merch store with code HOTBIKESUMMER. Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway or sell your own bike! Visit Upway.co to get rolling. Thanks also to Cleverhood. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling. TheWarOnCars.org

  4. Jul 7

    Sidewalk Nation

    In most parts of the United States and elsewhere, sidewalks exist in a legal grey area. They are public spaces that, at least when it comes to things such as maintenance and snow removal, are largely the responsibility of private property owners. They are subject to all manner of laws that govern what kinds of activities can take place on them, laws that change not just from city to city, but sometimes from neighborhood to neighborhood, block to block, and address to address. They are also an important part of the transportation network and a key component in the effort to keep pedestrians safe, although certainly not a panacea, even in rural areas. Michael Pollack, the author of an excellent new book, Sidewalk Nation: The Life and Law of America's Most Overlooked Resource, thinks that sidewalks need a whole lot more consideration in legal and governing circles, and even goes so far as to advocate for the creation of a Department of Sidewalks that can cut through the rather opaque rules that govern these narrow strips of concrete. (Or other materials, given that many sidewalks are often governed by historic preservation laws.) ***For an extended, ad-free version of this episode featuring a bonus conversation about sidewalk delivery robots, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.*** SHOW NOTES: Buy Sidewalk Nation: The Life and Law of America's Most Overlooked Resourc and support independent booksellers at our official Bookshop.org page. Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Save 20% on everything in our official merch store with code HOTBIKESUMMER. Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway or sell your own bike! Visit Upway.co to get rolling. Thanks also to Cleverhood. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling. TheWarOnCars.org

  5. Jun 30

    PREVIEW: Urban Planning Pop with Pondless

    ***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, presale tickets to live shows, and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.*** The musical artist known as Pondless, who as a civilian goes by the name of Aaron Oliver, writes and performs pop songs about urban planning. If that sounds kind of out there, well, so is he, in the best way possible. We talked with him about why this country is divided into Houstons and New York Cities, why Boston does not exist, and how he came to write a love song to Robert Moses.  Pondless is @itspondless on Instagram and TikTok.  Our bestselling new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, published by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House, is available wherever books are sold. www.thewaroncars.org

  6. Jun 23

    Rethinking Criminal Consequences for Drivers Who Kill

    What should happen to drivers who kill or injure someone with their car? Does a focus on punishment for "reckless" or "dangerous" drivers let everyone else off the hook and never force them to look at the larger harms of a transportation system based around personal car ownership? Those are the questions asked by Ian Loader, a professor of criminology at the University of Oxford, who argues that the law's focus on "motonormative punishment" is just another way of masking the larger problems caused by a car-dominant society. In a new study, Professor Loader proposes a vastly different way of thinking about criminal punishment organized around five harm reduction principles. Plus, is it really wrong for news outlets to write headlines like "Pedestrian Hit By Car," or is there more to it than advocates are willing to admit?  ***Join The War on Cars on Patreon 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!*** SHOW NOTES: Read Professor Ian Loader's study, "Beyond Motonormative Punishment: On Road Safety as Environmental Regulation." Curious about motonormativity? Listen to our episode with Dr. Ian Walker, who coined the term. Learn more about the concept in our episode with Dr. Tara Goddard and our episode with Marco te Brömmelstroet. Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway and save $100 off any purchase of $800 or more with code TWOC100. Visit Upway.co to get rolling. Thanks also to Cleverhood. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling. TheWarOnCars.org

  7. Jun 9

    Changing Lanes

    What does it take to make a street safer for everyone? In the US, it typically requires a combination of tragedy, grassroots organizing, and political leadership. Even when these ingredients come together, success is never guaranteed, as so many projects become battles about more than just bike lanes. Changing Lanes, a new documentary from director Ben Wolf, covers the fight to make McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, safer following the tragic death of a beloved teacher at the hands of a hit-and-run driver. Featuring interviews with such notable figures as Janette Sadik-Khan and former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, Changing Lanes moves beyond bike lanes to tell a story that's very much made for this political and cultural moment. Wolf joins us along with advocates Bronwyn Breitner and Kevin LaCherra, as well as New York State Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, to talk about how they fought to make McGuinness safe and the broader lessons they learned along the way. ***Join The War on Cars on Patreon and listen to ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content,  invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!*** SHOW NOTES: Stream Changing Lanes on Amazon or Kanopy. Watch the film's trailer. Learn more about the film and request a screening at ChangingLanesDoc.com. Read more about the Make McGuinness Safe campaign and learn about where the project stands today.  Catch up on the corruption that led to a powerful family's downfall and the indictment of a top aide to Mayor Eric Adams, via Streetsblog. Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway and save $100 off any purchase of $800 or more with code TWOC100. Visit Upway.co to get rolling. Thanks also to Cleverhood. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling. TheWarOnCars.org

  8. May 26

    PREVIEW: Sean Duffy's Great American Road Grift

    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, presale tickets to live shows, and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars. See the USA in your... Toyota? That's what US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and his family have done with their reality-style online series, The Great American Road Trip. The way Secretary Duffy explains it, the show is a celebration of the country's 250th birthday. Duffy has told interviewers that "To love America is to see America," so he's packed up the family SUV and hit the road. This being the Trump administration, the trip isn't just an exercise in patriotism but a giant conflict of interest packaged as a reality TV show. That's hardly surprising given Duffy's history with reality TV—Sean Duffy met his wife Rachel Campos-Duffy while shooting MTV's Road Rules in the late 1990s—but it is concerning given that the series is sponsored by nearly a dozen companies that have business before USDOT. Reporter Henry Burke—a senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project—breaks down the many questionable and outright shady details behind Sean Duffy's trip across the country, from the opaque non-profit organizing it to the many transportation-related companies footing the bill. Our bestselling new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, published by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House, is available wherever books are sold. www.thewaroncars.org

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The War on Cars brings you news, commentary and stories about the worldwide battle to undo a century's worth of damage wrought by the automobile.

Information

  • Creator
    The War on Cars, LLC
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    249
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © The War on Cars, LLC
  • Show Website
    The War on Cars

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