Car Culture

Editor's note: This is an essay from Jason Henderson, a Geography Professor at San Francisco State University. He was born and raised in New Orleans and spent many years exploring Louisiana's wetlands. He is currently writing a book about the politics of mobility, and frequently advocates for reduced car parking and improved bicycle space in San Francisco.

Back in January, the Daily Beast, listed nation's most congested highways.  The I-101, aka the Hollywood Freeway, was ranked #1, aka the most congested highway in the country.  Earlier this week, they came out with a list of the "deadliest" highways, and two Southern California roads, the I-15 and I-10 finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

The revolution would not be televised -- or so we thought. Hushed by the darkened room, more than 50 bicyclists, police officers, members of the media, and community leaders turned toward the projector to watch a film clip that everyone had just confirmed, by a show of hands, that they had already seen.

I've railed on General Motors and Segway in the past for the myriad impracticalities of their tandem Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility (P.U.M.A.) prototype. Now they're at it again, making headlines today by unveiling the first three models in their new Electric Networked Vehicle (EN-V, pronounced "envy") line, including the Jiao, which is Chinese for "Pride."

About half way through the above video, KTLA's Eric Spillman talks to the L.A. Marathon's Peter Abraham about the transportation plan for people wishing to be at the end of the marathon.  Under KTLA's banner of "Parking Problems," Abraham rationally explains that you should probably bike (free bike valet!) or take transit to the end of the race.  That's when things go off the tracks if you will.

The days are numbered for the military vehicle that carmakers turned into the bane of pedestrians, cyclists and planet Earth. GM has announced plans to wind down Hummer production after a deal to sell the brand to a Chinese manufacturer fell apart. According to the Times, the Chinese government wanted no part of Hummer because it is "trying to put a new emphasis on limiting China’s dependence on imported oil and protecting the environment."

Today, while working in "Today's Headlines," I noticed something peculiar at the Times website.  Instead of just giving me a list of headlines and links, the Paper of Record had me look at a series of pictures and select which ones represented my ideal vacation, what stage of life I was in, and favorite activity.  The purpose of this series, was to help determine my "ideal headlines," consider it a sort of "my yahoo" page to help me navigate the Times.

Picture a future where a smiling multi-racial police force, who apparently answers to nobody, moves unchecked through society arresting and detaining people for offenses to the environment.  Use plastic bags at the grocers?  You're arrested, frisked, and handcuffed before being frog marched from the store.  Set your hot tub at too high a temperature?  You're chased, mostly naked, through your back yard by a hoard of police officers.  Sound like a nightmare scenario dreamed up by a conservative talk radio host?  Nope, it's just another greenwashing attempt from the same car company that mocks cyclists, bus riders, pedestrians and people who drive cars run on vegetable oil.

News website The Daily Beast crunches the numbers from the most congested areas in America and finds, to nobody's surprise, that the worst driving commute in America is right here in Los Angeles.    The Hollywood Freeway ranks as the worst place to commute in the entire country based on rush hour congestion, the worst bottleneck, and the average amount of congestion per week at the worst bottleneck.