Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

@politicsofcars.bsky.social

140 followers 140 following 750 posts

Car culture dominating society is social murder. Posts are mostly about the US, sometimes focused on parenting.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · Aug 18

What we collectively have done wrong, such that I can readily imagine how a good loving parent in our society could leave their child unattended in a vehicle. This should be inconceivable. In other words, we should have a society where it is inconceivable.

politicsofcars.beehiiv.com/p/hot-car-de...

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 2m

and there's nothing wrong with electric motorcycles, for people who want to be trained to operate them safely. They have good use cases.

Awful that our horrible infrastructure makes it unsafe for many people to ride a bike that can't go as fast.

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 6m

There are some vehicles that feel more like ebikes but operate with a throttle. Doesn't matter.

We live in a society that needs to regulate all electric motorcycles differently than ebikes. If proponents don't want a throttle to be a categorical distinction, then propose a better scheme.

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 15h

Roderick Ho, welcome to the #waroncars #slowhorses

https://books.google.com/books?id=sz_zSsCULKkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gb_mobile_entity&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&hl=en&gl=US&focus=searchwithinvolume&ovdme=1#v=snippet&q=simon%20dean&f=false

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 16h

Or, lean into the collectible aspect, have fare free transit and distribute tokens as challenge coins for riders who want one. Riding late at night or weekends, on holidays, unannounced days could have drops for collectible tokens, special tokens for kids, etc.

1 1 6

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 1d

and that's all beyond the baseline death and injury resulting from children driving

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 1d

You're asking how? You've captured it!
They speed, they fiddle with phones. They speed more if they're late. They drive even when conditions are dangerous. They tune out of driving so much that some even forget children in the back seat. It's no way to organize a society, that's for sure.

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 2d

beyond everything else about him, this account has to point out that Stoller is in favor of car dealerships fleecing car owners on maintenance
twitter.com/matthewstoll...

He only opposes big business because it squeezes out profits from the little guys, like multi millionaire dealership owners

Matt Stoller on X: "@jbouie Dislike them for whatever reason you choose, but they are responding negatively to EVs because Ford/GM have told them EVs bring a 75% pay cut. Unions are also unhappy for the same reason. It's not some weird conservative tick to dislike massive pay cuts. https://t.co/XNcC98hXbP" / X

@jbouie Dislike them for whatever reason you choose, but they are responding negatively to EVs because Ford/GM have told them EVs bring a 75% pay cut. Unions are also unhappy for the same reason. It's not some weird conservative tick to dislike massive pay cuts. https://t.co/XNcC98hXbP

twitter.com

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 2d

beyond the terminology when Stoller thinks about people making clothes in America, he's thinking about the business owners in America who can profit (somehow, not saying he understands clothing) not about any leftist goals for the workers

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 2d

"bad news is I caused a crash, good news is I can keep driving"

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 2d

Many left leaning people who generally say they'd sacrifice some privilege for a better system identify so strongly with driving they reject any criticism of drivers. Even anti car advocates who favor transit fares will say fees for drivers are inequitable. 2/2

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 2d

there's an ironic/insidious aspect that there is no plausible legal regime that has equitable laws for operating deadly vehicles, and can be followed by a large proportion of society for mobility every day. So even people who generally agree with this sentiment reject it for cars. 1/2

1 2

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 2d

they're going to remember your post like we remember that guy who decided people in London shouldn't drink water from the infection well

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 2d

sigh I know, not to quibble but it's 40k and even worse most people don't care even when there's yet another motor vehicle fatality on a route they regularly drive. As soon as the road opens they're back to speeding through it.

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 2d

@michaelhobbes.bsky.social triumphs

Reposted

Marcus P. @reluctantaxe.bsky.social · 3d

A Redditor made a graph of the percent of population of US and Canada metro areas over 1 million that live in a given density. When they ordered them by average density the lowest ranked Canadian metro area, Edmonton, was ranked 14th between Miami and Washington. 6 of the top 15 were Canadian metros

Graph of Canada and US metro areas with a breakdown of percentage of people that live in density density bands

9 28 110

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 2d

American funding for car infrastructure can be approximated as a subsidy for owners of land that should be wilderness. Build dense housing!

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 2d

@europeversuscars.bsky.social

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 3d

this is the culture of dad jokes about biking that we need to win #thewaroncars

2 110

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 4d

Healthier air in our neighborhoods, healthier food in our stores, and a healthier politica if we stop subsidizing far right land owners, all in addition to reduced co2 emissions.

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 4d

If this were paired by reasonable policies that acknowledged the climate crisis, like eliminating the ethanol mandate and most of our ag subsidies, then it would be super cheap to get land for solar. Some of it could still be used to grow produce that benefits from shade from solar panels.

1 4

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 5d

Professional political commentators by definition say things appealing enough to the guts of a large enough audience to get paid.

Not a bad thing in every individual case, but the incentives across the media environment are, to use a technical term, oof.

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 5d

many interesting slices of data in this post but the bottom line is clear. Ban cars, at least at first ban them from cities.

#bancars #urbanism

www.construction-physics.com/p/why-are-so...

The increase in fatalities is essentially entirely on urban roads — deaths on rural roads are flat. On most categories of urban road, pedestrian fatalities have doubled. Whatever is causing the increase in pedestrian deaths, it’s only happening in urban areas.

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 5d

My #1 reason for not driving kids to school is I don't want to deal with drop-off.

My #2 reason is that I know what happens and I'd probably have some words or initiate contact between objects and vehicles, and people who think this driving is normal would think I was the problem.

politicsofcars.bsky.social @politicsofcars.bsky.social · 6d

I didn't find all of his works but I appreciated them, as far as they went. Thanks for sharing that one.

Hot take TMIAHM's subplot of the futility of earth sending money to the moon without capacity to send goods was more innovative than Modern Monetary Theory (remember when that was big)

Reposted

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 7d

work trips this week from c’ville to DC to Baltimore to Providence back to DC and then home. the bike is how i am getting from station to hotel to wherever i need to be

43 18 1.4K