The War on Cars The War on Cars, LLC

In episode 103, we looked at depictions of cyclists in movies such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin and TV shows such as Arrested Development and asked, "Why Does Hollywood Hate Bikes?" Our co-host Sarah Goodyear unfortunately missed that discussion, so in this exclusive bonus just for patrons of The War on Cars she brings some recent pop culture specimens to examine: the NBC sitcom American Auto and the BBC soap The Split. We also respond to listener comments about some of the movies and television shows we missed last time out — including Stranger Things, The Goonies, and Breaking Away — and follow up on some new bike-related developments on the feel-good show Ted Lasso.
In this teaser, Sarah offers some thoughts on American Auto starring Ana Gasteyer.
***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.***




 

All car trips begin and end with a place to park, making a parking space “nothing less than the link between driving and life itself.” In his new book, Paved Paradise, Henry Grabar, a staff writer at Slate, argues that the need to accommodate the short- and long-term storage of countless big metal boxes on wheels is a determinative force in the design of cities, the shape of buildings, the cost of housing and even the health of our planet. Deeply reported, highly entertaining and filled with colorful stories and characters from the worlds of affordable housing development, government and even organized crime, Paved Paradise is a refreshing look at a subject that explains the world.
This episode is produced with support from Harvard University Graduate School of Design Executive Education and Radpower Bikes.
***Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive access to ad-free versions of all our episodes, special bonus content and stickers.***
LINKS:
Buy Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar and other books by podcast guests at The War on Cars Bookshop.org page.
Follow Henry Grabar on Twitter.
Read more from Henry at Slate.
Pick up official podcast tees, sticker packs and other merch in our official store.
Attend Micromobility Europe in Amsterdam in June or Micromobility America in San Francisco in October and save 20% on tickets by using the links. 
This episode was edited by Doug Gordon. It was recorded at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio by Josh Wilcox. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear.
TheWarOnCars.org

Weird things happen when you're an investigative reporter trying to cover an international oil giant like ExxonMobil. Your plane tickets are mysteriously canceled, your hotel room gets broken into, and the local reporter that you've hired is offered a lucrative job to work on something else. In this special bonus episode for War on Cars Patreon subscribers, investigative journalist and podcaster Amy Westervelt tells us what it was like to report and produce the new season of her podcast, Drilled. It's called "Light Sweet Crude." In it, she takes us to the tiny South American nation Guyana where, in 2015, ExxonMobil discovered one of the world’s largest off-shore oil reserves. Seemingly overnight, Guyana began transforming from an international environmental leader and model of sustainable development to one of the world's fastest growing petrostates.

***This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive, ad-free bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.***

In Huntsville, Alabama, it’s illegal to play ball on any street, alley, or sidewalk. In Lewiston, Maine, pedestrians must keep to the right half of the crosswalk while crossing the street. And in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, bicyclists are strictly prohibited from any kind of “fancy riding.” If these laws sound vague, arbitrary, and difficult to enforce, well, that might just be the point. In a groundbreaking new report, urban planner Charles Brown painstakingly identifies the vast array of transportation-related laws that are used almost exclusively to limit the mobility and freedom of Black Americans while providing no real benefit to public safety. Brown gives this repressive policy regime a name. He calls it: Arrested Mobility.
This episode is produced with support from Harvard University Graduate School of Design Executive Education and Cleverhood.
*** Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive access to ad-free versions of all our episodes, special bonus content and stickers! ***
LINKS:

Follow Charles Brown on Twitter.

Read the report: Arrested Mobility: Barriers to Walking, Biking, and E-Scooter Use in Black Communities in the United States.

Subscribe and listen to the Arrested Mobility podcast
Equitable Cities is an urban planning, public policy, and research firm working at the intersection of transportation, health, and equity. 
How Bike/Walk Laws ‘Arrest’ the Mobility of Black Americans (Streetsblog)

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Pick up official podcast tees and other merch in our official store.
Buy books from podcast guests and find other great recommendations at our Bookshop.org page.
Attend Micromobility Europe in Amsterdam in June or Micromobility America in San Francisco in October and save 20% on tickets by using the links. 
This episode was edited by Ali Lemer. It was recorded at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio by Josh Wilcox. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear.
Patreon supporters who want to listen to this ad-free version of the episode on Apple Podcasts or another podcast app should check out these instructions on how to find and use your private RSS audio link from Patreon. You can also use the Patreon app or listen in your browser.
TheWarOnCars.org

On our last episode, we mentioned the brief cameo that a Brompton folding bicycle had on season 2 of Ted Lasso and why that bicycle model in particular was a very deliberate choice meant to convey something special about the character who rides it, Dr. Sharon Fieldstone.
 

For this bonus episode just for Patreon supporters, we talk with Brompton's Managing Director, Will Butler-Adams, about the chance meeting that brought him to the iconic British bicycle company, where the bike industry fits into safe streets advocacy, his thoughts on building cities for people and why his company's iconic and quirky machine is the "Swiss Army knife of bikes."
 
***This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive, ad-free bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.***

Chances are, if a character rides a bicycle in a movie or TV show that character is a huge loser. From The 40-Year-Old Virgin to Arrested Development, bicycles are frequently used to represent immaturity, otherness and misfortune. Thankfully, things are changing — at least a little. Witness the Citibike-riding women of Broad City or Dr. Sharon Fieldstone, the sports psychologist who counsels the cast of Ted Lasso after commuting to work on her Brompton folding bike. Journalist Nitish Pahwa of Slate joins us to discuss the ways in which Hollywood and other parts of our entertainment-industrial complex use bicycles and cars to signify power and status.
This episode is produced with support from Rad Power Bikes and Cleverhood.
***Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive access to ad-free versions of all our regular episodes, special bonus content and stickers!***
LINKS:
“Americans Are Ready to Embrace Bicycles, but There’s One Thing Standing in Their Way” (Nitish Pahwa in Slate)
Follow Nitish on Twitter and Mastodon.
Pick up official podcast tees, stickers and other merch in our official store.
Buy books from podcast guests and find other great recommendations at our Bookshop.org page.
Attend Micromobility Europe in Amsterdam in June or Micromobility America in San Francisco in October and save 20% on tickets by using the links. 
This episode was edited by Ali Lemer. It was recorded at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio by Josh Wilcox. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear.
TheWarOnCars.org