Cartoon Tuesday: The Plight of the American Bipeds

Sometimes it’s easier to make your point with a joke rather than a lecture.

Here at Streetsblog, we spend a lot of time bemoaning the the urban design that has pushed people indoors and into cars.  But this video, which reader Erik Griswold tells me is a great “homage” to documentary film-maker Ken Burns, uses stock footage and a voice-over to beautifully and humorously make the point that humans are designing pedestrians in to an endangered status.

The video paints a bleak picture for North American bipeds that reinforces the image that many planners have that people who walk are second-class to people who drive:

Populations still exist in the hearts of cities, in declared safety zones and near institutions of higher learning….Much of the bipeds habitat has been destroyed, and access to their food supply has been made dangerous.

While efforts are underway to save the biped, we may be running out of time.  We must act now before its too late.