The War on Cars

Episode 62: It's Finally Infrastructure Week

Added 2021-04-03 12:31:00 +0000 UTC

Hello War on Cars supporters!

Here's a special Saturday surprise episode featuring all three of us back together — still virtually until we're all 100% vaccinated, of course — to discuss what has felt like a whirlwind week of big transportation news. This new episode is available wherever you get your podcasts.

We'll have more new episodes this month as well as another bonus interview episode. Stay tuned...

Thanks as always for everyone's support!

- Aaron, Sarah and Doug

-----

From “sexy bike lanes” to just what constitutes a “bicycle accident,” transportation is making headlines like never before. Aaron, Sarah and Doug are together again to consider the burning questions filling our airwaves and social media feeds right now. Will US DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg force all Americans to ride cargo bikes filled with Dr. Seuss books and dump them in a compost pile, or is that just a Fox News fever dream? Is New York’s congestion pricing plan, the first in the nation, finally about to get rolling? And is it really part of a de Blasio/Cuomo/Biden war on cars? What can Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo teach us all about the harms of highway widening? What should be done about e-bike batteries? Plus, is America down with VMT?

SHOW NOTES:

Industry needs to clean up electric batteries, including the ones that power your e-bike.

Shawn Bradley wasn’t injured in a “bicycle accident.” He was injured when a driver hit him with a car.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo breaks down everything that’s wrong with expanding highways.

The US DOT is using the Civil Rights Act to pause the widening of 1-45 near Houston.

A US Congresswoman thinks Bill de Blasio, Andrew Cuomo and Joe Biden are waging a war on cars.

Fox News freaks out over “sexy bike lanes.”

It might be time to use Vehicle Miles Traveled to tax drivers instead of just the gas tax.

Secretary Pete appears to walk back a VMT tax.

Get the official War on Cars coffee mug, t-shirts and our new “Cars Are Death Machines” sticker at our new store. Plus, check out The War on Cars library at Bookshop.org.

WCAR theme music by Michael Hearst. Sound effects by deleted_user_3544904 at freesound.org.

This episode was produced by Aaron Naparstek and edited by Ali Lemer. Our music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Our logo is by Dani Finkel of Crucial D.