Car Culture
Streetsblog Basics
Fun With Data: How Workers Commute
Bike Pittsburgh has posted some great, sortable data about how commuters get to work in major American cities, drawn from a Census Bureau report. As you'd expect, New York comes in as the city where the least amount of people commute solo by car -- only 23.3 percent, followed by 37.2 percent in Washington, D.C. and 38.4 percent in San Francisco. Wichita, Kansas ranks as the place with the highest percentage of drivers: 85.1 percent of commuters use a car to get to work. The unfortunate national median for commuting by car is 74.15 percent.
October 9, 2009
The Assumption of Inconvenience
Early this week, I noticed a number of my favorite bloggers linking to this Elisabeth Rosenthal essay at Environment 360, on the mysterious greenness of European nations. The average American, as it happens, produces about twice as much carbon dioxide each year as your typical resident of Western Europe.
September 30, 2009
LaHood’s Distracted Driving Summit: Follow It Live
If you've got some free time at your desk over the next couple of days, drop in on the U.S. DOT distracted driving summit.
September 30, 2009
Fighting for the Right to Bike to School
A couple of stories we've linked from headlines this week point to the continuation of a disturbing trend: families whose parents are questioned, criticized and even intimidated for encouraging their kids to bike or walk to school.
September 15, 2009
What Should We Learn From Moses and Jacobs?
There is probably no more beloved figure in urbanism than Jane Jacobs, who fought to preserve some of New York City's most treasured neighborhoods and who gave urbanists some of the field's fundamental texts. As Ed Glaeser notes in the New Republic this week, Jacobs died in 2006 "a cherished, almost saintly figure," while her principal antagonist, Robert Moses, remains popularly reviled as a villain.
September 9, 2009
Jay Leno Plays Vehicular Manslaughter for Laughs
According to Movieline (via New York Mag), Jay Leno's new prime time show, set to debut on NBC in September, hasn't exactly been generating a lot of buzz. But since nothing says funny like a grisly hit-and-run, this promo, co-starring Fred Armisen of "Saturday Night Live," should turn things around.
August 20, 2009
Zipcar Takes the Anti-Urban Route
While Zipcar looks to entice drivers to give up vehicle ownership, another pillar of its marketing strategy is that car-sharing is an environmentally friendly service for city dwellers who normally travel by other means, presumably including public transit and even their own two feet.
August 3, 2009
Tom Vanderbilt Dissects “The ‘E’ Word”
In the latest issue of TA's Reclaim, "Traffic" author Tom Vanderbilt revisits the May New York Magazine profile of Janette Sadik-Khan, and its portrayal of projects like car-free Broadway as tributes to the city's oft-mythologized non-driving "elite."
July 31, 2009
Kalashnikovs for Clunkers: The Next Stimulus Plan
In case you don't qualify for the federal Cash-for-Clunkers rebate program, Mark Muller of Max Motors in Butler, Missouri, has an offer you might want to consider: get a free AK-47 with a new truck.
July 28, 2009
Help Your Landlord, Win a Year Full of Expensive Hassles
As car manufacturers again turn to free gas gimmickry to boost sales, New York developers are looking to lure tenants and buyers with -- that's right -- free cars.
July 6, 2009