Car Culture
Streetsblog LA
LA Isn’t the Only Place with Bike Vs Car Incidents
Two recent road rage incidents are all over the news in Portland. Earlier this month, a drunken man on a bike became aggravated when a driver, himself a self-described bike advocate, reprimanded the cyclist for blowing a stoplight. The cyclist threatened the driver, picking up his bike and hitting the car with it. Then this week, a driver struck a cyclist and continued to drive as the victim, who escaped without serious injury, clung to the windshield.
July 18, 2008
Play the Lottery for Free Gasoline
Following the example of desperate car companies and brothel owners, Sacramento State Senator Dean Florez floated an idea to attract new people participate in the state lottery: instead of just giving away money to the winners, give away free gas!
July 11, 2008
Study: Highways Don’t Pay for Themselves
As debate over the merit of congestion pricing rages on throughout LA County, a new report by the Texas Department of Transportation, hardly a hotbed of anti-car radicalism, throws cold water on one of the leading arguments against road pricing: that the roads where Metro wishes to place variable tolls are already paid for by gas taxes.
July 9, 2008
Cartoon Tuesday: It’s (Not) Funny Because It’s True
This AM New York cartoon, currently making the rounds on e-mail, was surely a ridiculous exaggeration when first published in 2004. But it's not as far off the mark today. As the Times reports, Florida is the latest state to start giving away free "gas for life" as a lottery prize. And though the jackpot, in reality, is $2,600 in prepaid gas cards every year until the winner's death, some Floridians say they would prefer that prize to the game's $250,000 cash payout, regardless of which would actually be more valuable.
July 8, 2008
July 4th Road Rage Crash Grabs Police and Media Attention
Yesterday LAist broke the story, with graphic images, of a road rage-caused crash between two experienced cyclists and an emergency room doctor with a bid of a trigger temper. Unlike past incidents, the mainstream media jumped on this story with graphic images making the story more “viewer friendly.” KNBC and CBS2 both ran stories on last night’s news and the Bottleneck Blog and KFI 640 both have stories online.
July 8, 2008
Ad Nauseam: Auto Zone, or Twilight Zone?
This Auto Zone ad is one for the ages. The dark ages.
June 24, 2008
Georgia Governor Comes Around on Commuter Rail
Display of Georgia progress at the Welcome Center on I-85, near the South Carolina border
June 23, 2008
O’Connor: We Need to Count People Movement Not Car Movement
In her latest "online chat" Metro Board Chair Pam O'Connor took a shot at transportation planning and how we decide whether or not a street is doing its job. In response to a question about bus-only lanes, O'Connor channeled her inner transportation reformer and made the case that we make so often here at Streetsblog: Streets are about people, not just cars.
June 18, 2008
The Windshield Perspective, Same As It Ever Was
From the way back machine comes this remarkable essay, "The Last Traffic Jam," about the blind spots that plague the motoring mentality. The anonymous author, writing for Time Magazine in 1947, delivers observations about road rage and the endemic violence of driving that still apply today.
June 9, 2008