Free Republic

A fundamentally American freedom is under attack. The automobile defined the 20th century in the United States. Mass production made cars available to the nation's middle class and helped create the modern suburb, where most Americans now live. Driving became part of coming of age in America...Meanwhile, some cities have put their drivers on forced road diets. They are reducing lanes available to drivers on key arterial streets...The goal is to discourage driving by intentionally reducing capacity and creating traffic congestion by design...The bottom line is they want to force more residents to use alternative transportation by making driving as...

Local planning politics on Los Angeles’s Westside is in a sad state of affairs. There, a municipally-led push to complete city streets by adding bicycle infrastructure and other pedestrian improvements has been met with fierce opposition from local drivers. Recent efforts in L.A’s Mar Vista neighborhood, for example, grew so toxic that community members launched a now-stalled recall bid to remove Mike Bonin—the local council person who champions the so-called “road diets” as well as the city’s Vision Zero plan those diets support—from office. The embarrassing spectacle has thrown into question the commitment L.A. residents have not only toward prioritizing...