Love Affair - Episode 50 Patreon Extra!
Added 2020-10-26 21:39:16 +0000 UTCWe're pleased to present this bonus mini-episode of The War on Cars, exclusively for you, our awesome Patreon supporters.
If you listened to Episode 50, then you heard my interview with historian Peter Norton about the phrase “America’s Love Affair with Cars.” There were a few things I had to leave out in the interest of time, and I’m happy to share them with you now. In the spirit of Peter’s job as an associate professor of history at the University of Virginia, if the original episode was a 101 survey course then think of this bonus like a quick 201 class. We dive a little deeper into the ways in which the promise of an inevitable march of technological progress gets in the way of imagining simple solutions to safer, more efficient streets and drill down on the notion of driving as an essential preference or a circumstantial one. Plus, after talking about Jane Jacobs in the original episode we discuss another noted automobile critic of the 1950s and 1960s, Lewis Mumford. To top it all off, Peter offers some advice and words of encouragement for frustrated advocates or anyone trying to beat back the forces of motordom in their hometowns.
As always, please feel free to email us with your questions, comments and suggestions. You can reach us at thewaroncars@gmail.org. We can't always respond to every email, but we do read them all and we love hearing from listeners.
Thanks so much for all your support. We mean it when we say we couldn't produce the podcast without it!
- Doug (and Aaron and Sarah)
Comments
I appreciated the deeper logic on the car-centric planning. Two options for public transit by my states’ transportation department were basically discounted because “everyone wants to drive”. I was curious because it sounded like they didn’t ask anyone. We are in a discusión around tolled lanes to relieve congestion outside of Wash., DC. We will see as there is a lot of pushback , but we also had a major snafu with light rail recently.
David Lloyd
2020-10-28 09:53:27 +0000 UTC
