It's Finally Infrastructure Week

04/03/21 • 37 min

1 Listener

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?

This episode was sponsored in part by Cleverhood. To celebrate the arrival of spring, War on Cars listers can now receive 25% off of stylish, functional rain gear designed specifically for walking and biking. Enter coupon code WARONCARS at checkout.

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and get cool stickers, access to exclusive bonus content and more.

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 explains everything 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.

Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek.

Email us: [email protected]

TheWarOnCars.org

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and get cool stickers, access to exclusive bonus content and more.

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 explains everything 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.

Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek.

Email us: [email protected]

TheWarOnCars.org

Previous Episode

TEASER: Lessons from Copenhagen with Mikael Colville-Andersen

Mikael Colville-Andersen is an urban designer, TV host and writer whose name is practically synonymous with Copenhagen, bicycling and smart urban design. Doug had a chance to interview him for this special bonus episode. The full interview is available exclusively to Patreon subscribers of The War on Cars.

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Next Episode

The Emperor's New Tunnel

Two years after it was first announced, a tunnel project in Las Vegas by Elon Musk’s Boring Company was finally revealed to the world. Originally conceived as a way to whisk Las Vegas Convention Center visitors from one side of the sprawling complex to the other in futuristic-looking pods, the $53-million project turned out to just be... just a bunch of Teslas in tunnels. Oh, and there were flashing lights. Nevertheless, in a recent CNBC segment, anchor Shep Smith and reporter Contessa Brewer were tasked with making “a highway underground” sound innovative, thrilling and worth the hype. So how’d they do? Not great. Aaron Gordon — senior reporter at Vice’s Motherboard — called the segment, “the most embarrassing news clip in American transportation history.” Aaron, not to be confused with the podcast’s other Aaron and other Gordon, joins all three The War On Cars hosts to discuss the disappointing project, the embarrassing coverage and whether any of it will make a difference in changing people’s perspective on the alleged genius of Elon Musk.

This episode was sponsored in part by our friends at Cleverhood. To celebrate the arrival of spring, listers of The War on Cars can receive 25% off of stylish, functional rain gear designed specifically for walking and biking. Enter coupon code WARONCARS at checkout.

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and get cool stickers, access to exclusive bonus episodes and more.

SHOW NOTES:

Watch CNBC’s Shep Smith and Contessa Brewer go giddy for “a highway underground."

Aaron Gordon saw the segment and declared, "This Is the Most Embarrassing News Clip In American Transportation History.”

More from Aaron Gordon at Motherboard, Vice’s tech news site.

Subscribe to Aaron Gordon’s newsletter, Urbababble.

Pick up a copy of On Bicycles: A 200-Year History of Cycling in New York City by Evan Friss and other titles at our Bookshop.org page.

Get the new “Aaron Napper Sack” tote bag and other great merchandise including coffee mugs, stickers and apparel at our store.

This episode was edited by Doug Gordon. Our music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Our logo is by Dani Finkel of Crucial D.

Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek.

Email us: [email protected]

TheWarOnCars.org