Politics of Cars

@thismachinekillsfascists.bike

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Car culture dominating society is social murder. Posts are mostly about the US, sometimes focused on parenting. sometimes writing more at https://politicsofcars.beehiiv.com/

picture of The Lost Subways of North America book
Additional Uninsured Motorists coverage for car insurance. 6 month premium is $445.90.
Bladerunner screencap Police captain talking You know the score, pal If you're not a cop or SUV/truck driver you're little people
A tax credit can be repealed, but a price decline cannot. (Trump is, unfortunately, doing the next worst thing: His tariffs raise the price of clean-energy inputs, making Americans pay extra for technology that the rest of the world gets for cheap.)
Wapo post, 0 likes
Woman speaking into camera in front of a violet screen caption: [no one's] doing anything they care about because no one can accomplish this many things
Picture of a building beside a road. Narrow sidewalk has no curb between it and road. Right corner of building has a dent that might be leftover from a crash. There's a bent metal pole beside it, also probably due to a crash.
This time around, Markey and Pressley argue in their 16-page report that eliminating fares motivates riders to take public transit and saves them money. Forking over less for the bus leaves people with more for groceries, rent, and spending at local businesses, which flows through the economy and back into residents’ pockets,
The businessman from the Little Prince, busy counting his stars
Map of three subway lines caption: This is the Singapore metro map from 2006.
While Interstates were regularly used to destroy black neighborhoods, they were also used to keep black and white neighborhoods apart. Today, major roads and highways serve as stark dividing lines between black and white sections in cities like Buffalo, Hartford, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and St. Louis. In Atlanta, the intent to segregate was crystal clear. Interstate 20, the east-west corridor that connects with I-75 and I-85 in Atlanta’s center, was deliberately plotted along a winding route in the late 1950s to serve, in the words of Mayor Bill Hartsfield, as “the boundary between the white and Negro communities” on the west side of town. Black neighborhoods, he hoped, would be hemmed in on one side of the new expressway, while white neighborhoods on the other side of it would be protected. Racial residential patterns have long since changed, of course, but the awkward path of I-20 remains in place.
Screencap: Chart caption: imagine that you could build a place without the criminals, the poor,
We are attracting new riders, not getting riders “back”. Any new growth in ridership will be in new and different markets. Smart agencies have already made these adjustments (we‘ve often helped) by shifting service to weekends and to more regular all-day patterns, instead of the old intensive peak. (Increasing numbers of agencies are above pre-COVID Saturday ridership as a result.) The great mass of briefcase commuters is gone but there are many others who will use our service if it is useful. So it makes no sense to talk about getting “back” to 2019 performance. Even if that were possible, it’s not a fair description of what we are doing now.
One white property manager in her late 50s told a reporter that she voted against mass transit because it was used by poorer residents and immigrants, whom she called “illegals.” “Why should we pay for it?” she asked. “Why subsidize people who can’t manage their money and save up a dime to buy a car?”
ureheads who do not actually wield much power. People in the overseer class do wield enormous institutional power-even necropolitical power over who lives and who dies.58 It's just that their power is predicated upon repressing other people who look (or speak/have sex/come from places) like them. We will explore what I have observed to be the four major archetypes of histori- cally marginalized people within institutional hierarchies in more detail in the coming pages. In his eponymous book about the phenomena of "elite cap- ture," philosopher Olúfęmi O. Táíwò wrote, as the book's subtitle says, about "how the powerful took over identity politics (and everything else)." The term "identity politics"
Black cop did not just bear the police officer's indignity of walk ing until they had flat feet (though it's a misnomer that co cops walk so much, as most police spend so much of their time in cars that they're more likely to be killed from vehicular crashes than in any other way on the job).37 If a Black cop could survive the torment of being flat-footed in two worlds and still believe that Yes, policing is not just necessary but ultimately, it's good-well, anyone could and should come to the same conclusion. (As someone who suffers from flat feet myself, I am using this ableist slang mindfully.)
Second, none of this bodes well for Tesla’s valuation. The collapse in SpaceX’s valuation over the past month or so has outpaced even Tesla’s, meaning SpaceX would need to hand over more of its shares as acquisition currency. That, in turn, would dilute Musk’s pro forma control of the resulting entity, since the best set-up for him on that score is SpaceX, where he has almost unfettered control, trading at a big premium to Tesla. In that context, a difficult, or dilutive, hiving off of Tesla’s operations in China, depressing the company’s value, could actually help him. Regardless of what has and hasn’t been discussed or decided, the latest news should remind Tesla’s investors that, when it comes to a likely SpaceX deal, their interests are not wholly aligned with its main architect.
Jason Mantzoukas
White Tesla side picture tinted windows Driver seen holding phone in hand, circled in red
Doctor Strangelove's Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper talking about bodily fluids
carry out tray of sushi
large red bullet attached to a large red truck to carry it
Almost 400 law enforcement officers, including 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 Texas DPS officers, came to Uvalde during the shooting.[229] Before tactical units arrived, police officers inside the school, who numbered at least 19, made "no effort" to breach the room where Ramos was located
crude drawing of BMW convertible and a person standing nearby car is labeled "Engine" person is labeled "Lungs"
“It's as good a driver as I am,” said Dick Amacher, 78, a retired General Motors engineer from Rochester Hills who drives his Model Y and Model 3 on FSD 98% of the time
a bench with multiple arm rests in the middle intended to prevent a person laying down
For example, if the federal government magically rapidly doubled miles of US metro rail and bus routes, all with world class low headways, % of opex from fares would plummet until cities reoriented to use it. If somebody's theory of transit fares is that this decline would be a sign of failure, then of what use is that theory?
“In terms of bang for your buck, these projects are a lot more expensive than is necessary, and they provide a form of transportation that is increasingly obsolete,” said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a transportation official in the first Trump administration who wrote the Project 2025 chapter on transportation. These projects rely on fixed infrastructure, she said, in a world with ride-share apps, e-bikes, bike-share systems, electric scooters and even autonomous cars.
firefighter train themed roller coaster
exposed rebar under a pedestrian bridge, where concrete has fallen off
Fixing US cities involves roughly these three components. Land use (~dense infill), car and road policies (~higher costs for driving, fewer and slower car traffic lanes, etc), and better transit (more lines and higher service levels). Ideally all of these levers would be pushed forward to fix US cities ASAP, alas. Land use is held back, mostly by segregationist NIMBYs, but one of the more coherent concerns is that given car dependency across a city, one pocket of dense infill will still be car dependent and increase local traffic. Car and road reform is held back, mostly by segregationist carbrains and traffic "engineers", but also by nominally left people and even supporters of The War on Cars who think it's unfair to raise prices or remove space from cars until drivers have options, ie good transit. If transit merely follows those other levers after demand builds up, rather than leading and investing in new lines before other changes happen, then US cities are stuck. Fares are at best a distraction, unable to match the scale of funding needed. At worst the fixation with funding operations from fares will be an excuse to slow transit investment, until land use and roads change.
ad for TV show Old Enough, young child walking down the street alone with a safety flag and his shopping haul
man sitting in the bucket of an urban arrow cargo bike
Painting of Alexander Hamilton that says Driving every is a huge waste of everyone's money
When you ride ALONE you ride with Hitler Man sitting in an old open topped car, white outline of hitler in passenger seat famous propaganda ad
Opposition to car dominance of US cities limits itself if it acknowledges no enemies. Feel-good messaging like: giving drivers more options, reducing congestion for drivers by building bike paths to get other cars off the road, etc. Likewise with support for universal (ie, not means-tested) subsidies like perpetual low gas prices, free parking, no tolls, etc., while only adding funding for bike paths and transit. All of this avoids the tension that should be built up and maintained to press toward change. There is a real political disagreement about what US transportation (but also housing) should look like, people are dying every day, and most drivers are on the wrong side of the fight.
google map screenshot of the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, with 14 lanes of I85 (including I75 traffic) running north to south through the middle of it! The Atlanta streetcar runs east to west under the highway, on Edgewood and Auburn Ave
Calvin & Hobbes March 20 1987 Where are all the animals supposed to live now that they cut down these woods to put in houses?? By golly, how would people like it if animals bulldozed a suburb and put in new trees?!? No good, they didn't leave the keys.
picture of someone reading Ken Jennings' junior guides book about presidents on the train
Closed gate at a parking garage
a fire hydrant laying on its side after a violent driver hit it
Furthermore, if activists were to open themselves up to violence (as they have done in other movements), it cannot be effective without a commonly understand narrative. If somebody chooses to walk somewhere it should legally be safe to do so, and is killed by a driver on a hostile road, the public will blame or ignore the victim. We do not yet have a good message at our disposal for blaming the “engineers” culpable for the road nor the drivers who choose to drive dangerously through a public urban space because they think it’s somewhere pedestrians won’t be. If all the blame goes to the “engineers” and officials responsible for the infrastructure, and drivers are innocent, then drivers could reasonably object that pedestrians should stay out rather than designing safer infrastructure to slow down cars.
If car dominance is only a systemic problem, then nobody is responsible for anything. But car dominance is also a matter of personal agency. Drivers who are choosing to buy cars more harmful than they need, to drive more often than they need, to avoid following safety rules, etc., should be blamed for doing so. The corollary of this multifaceted blame is giving many more opportunities to learn and improve, short of giving up driving altogether. Drive to work, but don’t go out of your way for a Starbucks drive through. Get a car to get your kid to the doctor, but don’t buy a truck to show how manly you are. Look at the road in front of you instead of texting or fiddling with the audio, using knobs or otherwise. Stop speeding. Especially avoid speeding if a violent tailgating driver behind you wants you to, because people who aren’t surrounded by a metal cage are a lot more vulnerable than you are. Etc. Theoretically identifying and blaming harmful choices could influence drivers to stop. In practice most drivers are going to keep being anti-social as long as neither concrete walls nor fines stop them, but maybe we can influence people with some good habits to stick to them rather than adopting the bad behavior of fellow drivers.
picture of that dumb cartoon villain car that says THIS IS WHAT DRIVERS ACTUALLY BELIEVE "It started during Covid with the riots" he said. "These people are looking for peace of mind."
dumb macho roided up lifted car https://www.motor1.com/news/783694/2026-rezvani-tank-specs-price-engines/
two cybertrucks stripped down in a shop that armors cars
Feb 15 1987 Here is success Mr. Jones. He lives an a 5 acre home in a wealthy suburb. Here is the new Mercedes in the driveway. It's anyone's guess as to how much longer Mr. Jones can meet his monthly finance charges. Here comes Mr. Jones out of his attractive suburban home. He hops in his red sports car. Off he goes to work. 80 ... 90 ... 100 miles an hour! ... along the edge of the Grand Canyon!! Suddenly his steering wheel locks and he brakes fail! He careens over the edge! Oh no! Down he goes! His only hope is to climb out the sun roof and jump! Maybe, just maybe, he can grab a branch and save himself! He unwinds the sun roof! Can he make it? No! The car explodes in mid-air propelling millions of tiny shards into the stratosphere! Kablooie! The neighbors hear the boom echoing across the canyon. They pile into a mini-van to investigate! What will happen to them?
Privacy and consumer advocates warn that the proposal forces motorists to choose between data protection and affordable coverage, challenging longstanding Proposition 103 rules that rely on tickets and crashes.
The minimum limits of coverage that everyone must purchase are: $20,000 per person who is hurt or killed in an accident $40,000 for each accident if several people are hurt or killed Up to $10,000 for damage your vehicle does to property damage in another state.
Will Ferrell in a hot air balloon yelling at dogs
Calvin & Hobbes from Jan 28, 1987 Ok, everyone. The idea of a scavenger hunt is to bring us back as many of these items as you can in half an hour. Let's go! Quick Hobbes, what's the first item? An old license plate. Great! I saw one on the way over! C'mon! good thing I always carry a Swiss army knife. Nobody's coming, right? Is this game legal?
Phoebe/Joey Friends meme Even robot Cars Even robot Cars ruin ruin cities cities Even robot Cars Ruin cities Only robot Cars Ruin cities
a better route planner trip through death valley
Poster for the Odyssey movie, showing the Trojan Horse
highway interchange surrounded by medium density buildings
User Rev Magdalen with bio beginning "Anti-Fascist"
The bicyclist’s father, Manfred Keais, alleged Kelley met Dover at a gas station before the pair returned to the crash scene, where Kelley also failed to call 911 and instead called a senior partner at his law firm as well as Cedartown Police Chief James Newsome. Newsome failed to call 911 or otherwise notify dispatch, and the bicyclist lay gravely injured in the ditch for more than an hour before emergency medical services were called by a Cedartown police officer Newsome had sent to the scene, Manfred Keais claimed. His son died that night in a hospital, case records show.
user "justplainrude.bsky.social" following only me, Yonah Freemark, and TransitCenter
Phoebe/Joey Friends meme Even robot Cars Even robot Cars ruin ruin cities cities Even robot Cars Ruin cities Only robot Cars Ruin cities
black and white photo cars spray painted and flipped upside down on a city street with tram lines large crowd of people