Car Culture
Streetsblog LA
Obama Wants Car Czar to Accompany Big Three Aid
More details of a possible Obama administration-led auto industry bailout emerged yesterday when Politico reported that the president-elect wants a "high-profile point person to oversee reforms" attached to any financial aid.
November 12, 2008
Texas Governor Rick Perry Celebrates 18 Lanes of “Freedom”
Texas
officials this week marked the opening of new lanes on the Katy
Freeway, a stretch of Interstate 10 that runs 40 miles west from
downtown Houston. The state has added 20 miles of interior lanes,
including 12 miles of HOV lanes, which officials say will eventually be
converted to variable-rate HOT use. The rebuilt Katy Freeway is 18
lanes wide.
October 30, 2008
Memo to MTV: “Pimp My Bike” = Ratings Gold
Via TreeHugger, this YouTube clip features Oakland's Trunk Boiz boasting about their scraper bikes, which sport custom-painted frames and rims to match (more photos here). The video has become an online sensation, drawing more than two million views. Tyrone Stevenson, one of the creators of the scraper bike style, is ready to capitalize, reports NPR:
September 30, 2008
Who Loves Traffic? Dan and the Highway Lobby
U.S. PIRG has picked a winner in its "21st Century Transportation" video contest, and it's this irony-soaked entry. Meet "Dan," a guy who just can't get enough stop-and-go time on the highway. He loves sitting in traffic, and the last thing he wants to see is adequately funded transit giving people an attractive alternative to car commuting.
August 22, 2008
Blogging Cyclist Calls for Truce in Car v Bike Culture Wars
Bravo! I couldn't have said it any better myself. As more and more cyclists take to the road in the era of $4 gasoline, Gary's writings could be a useful guide for all street users, and are worth checking out no matter your commuting choice.
August 11, 2008
This Just In: The Media Business Is Auto-Dependent Too
Think web sites are saturated with car ads? The internet's got nothing on local TV.
August 8, 2008
Tom Vanderbilt Ponders Motorist Sociopathy
Yesterday, at the end of our piece about the recent road rage incidents in usually-polite Portland and Seattle, we posed a question to Tom Vanderbilt, author of the forthcoming book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and What It Says About Us. We asked: What is it about automobility that often seems to turn nice, normal people into impulsive, remorseless sociopaths -- blasting their horns, flying into fits of rage and wielding their vehicles like weapons in a crowded, pedestrian-dominated city.
July 21, 2008