The war on cars continues, but the automobile has already won

The Complete Colorado ^ | May 20, 2022 | Randal O'Toole

[re_tail20]

Last month, anti-automobile activists led by the Congress for the New Urbanism announced the formation of a national Freeway Fighters Network. The network opposes new freeways and freeway expansions and wants to shift freeway money to other forms of transportation. Among other things, they object to new freeway capacity because it induces more highway travel. Also, in late 2021 the Colorado Transportation Commission adopted a rule change intended to divert billions of future transportation dollars away from building and maintaining roads, essentially turning the Colorado Department of Transportation into a statewide urban planning agency focused on public transit, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and even housing density.

I have a message for these anti-auto activists: The war on the automobile is over. The automobile won. More accurately, auto drivers and users won. It is time for those engaged in this war to stop wasting their time, and everyone else’s, and start doing something productive. People concerned about the impacts of the automobile should give up trying to reduce driving, which has never worked, and instead encourage new automobiles and highways that are safer, cleaner, and more energy efficient.

The war on the automobile and freeways began in the 1960s. As has previously been pointed out, auto opponents’ hatred of cars may have been more justified then than it is today. Cars were gas guzzlers, getting just 13.5 miles per gallon. From 1966 to 1973, traffic accidents killed 50,000 to 56,000 people a year. Toxic air pollution darkened urban skies and created health problems for many people.

The federal government attacked these problems using two strategies. First, the Environmental Protection Agency, which was created in 1970, encouraged cities to declare war on driving. Instead of building more roads, the cities spent billions of dollars on urban transit. This allowed urban freeways to...

[C210N]

but the automobile has already won...

I wish I had an automobile. Sadly, I only have a motor-vehicle.

[MercyFlush]

I like this kind of thinking! In California such dynamic thinking on the part of the California High Speed Rail Authority is leading to the construction of the world’s most expensive bike trail!

(-:

[beef]

When I was in college in the 70’s I knew a guy who was in pre-law. His goal was to be an environmental lawyer. He seriously believed that nobody should be able to go anywhere they could not walk to. In his mind, the vast majority of people would live their lives within 30 miles of where they were born. He also believed it was immoral for people in snow country to have fresh vegetables and fruit in the winter. If you couldn’t grow it yourself, you could not have it. IMHO it seems that everything that has happened since is part of a slow march toward this kind of world.

[Yo-Yo]

The war on cars continues, but the automobile has already won

♬ I fought the car, and the car won...♬

[TiGuy22]

I heard conservative Shaun Thompson on his radio show go on about how oil is NOT a fossil fuel, but rather a renewable by the earth itself. I’d heard this before but not for a long time.

[Dr. Sivana]

Nearly 100 cities also closed downtown areas to automobiles and even more reduced the capacities of many streets to move traffic.

Chicago tried closing State Street to all traffic except buses. It failed miserasbly.

Rockford, Illinois tried closing downtown Main Street to all traffic, turning it into a pedestrian promenade. That failed worse as downtown Rockford doesn't HAVE downtown pedestrians, only people who work in the courthouse, the jails, and the office buildings for lawyers and bail bondsmen that support the court house and the jail. It did make the folks driving north-south to take a serious detour.

The roadway has since been restored, but the construction and deconstruction of the promenade was a waste of money that neither Rockford nor Illinois has.

[Don Corleone]

Colorado is long past salvation and redemption IMHO.

[JonPreston]

Funny, I don’t see car or oil companies complaining about the “transition” from fossil fuels to windmills. I suppose they know something and are tossing the gas/oil dependent middle class under the bus (pun intended)

[Mr. Jeeves]

It's as violent an argument as "climate change" - with the True Believers in dinosaur bones absolutely unshakable in their faith.

For if it is true that oil is abiotic in origin, a huge plank of the Socialist Agenda crumbles into dust.

[TiGuy22]

It’s as violent an argument as “climate change” - with the True Believers in dinosaur bones absolutely unshakable in their faith.
For if it is true that oil is abiotic in origin, a huge plank of the Socialist Agenda crumbles into dust.

Wouldn’t that just be a shame?

[C210N]

I’ve heard that variously over the past 6 mos or so.

There is enough there to dig into it... I’ve bookmarked it for just that.

There is a LOT of carbon in the world, and decayed dinosaurs cannot account for oil/gas found and to be found in the ground.

[Dr. Sivana]

The second strategy was based on making better automobiles.

The second strategy relies on what a "better" automobile is.

To the EPA, a "better" car is lighter, less powerful (smaller engines, more restrictions on exhaust), smaller.

To the NHTSA, a "better" car is safer: larger, adequate power, heavier, more airbags, belts and headrests for all, lots more gizmos (abs, traction control, cameras/screens, and soon drunk driving detection).

Except for the part about more gizmos, these goals are at odds with each other. The car companies attempts to sell vehicles that people want require circumvention, loopholes (CAFE obliterated large luxury cars and station wagons and created the luxury pickup/SUV market), or mutual capitulation (they all pretend to love EVs now, because they have to).

All of this is at the expense of long-term reliability, which is not covered by EPA or NHTSA, as expensive and fragile gizmos combine with CAFE

There is a reason why the values of the late '60s sports and muscles cars are skyhigh. That's where you have the intersection of high value safety features (dual chamber master cylinders, lap belts) but few restrictions on power.

Every time technology manages to catch up on power WITH the restrictions, the regulators view it as an opportunity to ratchet things up more. So now we have gimpy CVTs and high-compression turbo 4s in vehicles that need six or eight cylinders for long term life. Despite these desparate moves, the CAFE standards ratchet up more to force EVs and smaller vehicles that people DON'T want.

[Dr. Sivana]

There is a LOT of carbon in the world, and decayed dinosaurs cannot account for oil/gas found and to be found in the ground.

Despite the Sinclair gas station signs, decayed trees may also account for much of the carbon.

[Seruzawa]

There is one problem I have had with the oil from dinosaurs theory. The theory requires that dinosaurs travel to mass graves before they die. Why would they do that? It would seem logical that dinosaurs would just die where they live and their bodies would be spread all over the land, not all gathered in large depositories.

[JudgemAll]

Just read a book on Africa. The ethnographer bemaoned at collonialists who spent billions in rail projects while letting poor people walk on mud pathways to make do.

This war on the roads, oil and automobile is a post colonial attitude now turned on its own citizens and the world overall. An internationalist kabal.

[steve8714]

Don’t ignore “cash-for-clunkers”. War on the working poor.

[Sequoyah101]

My neighbor’s new chevy gasoline pick-up gets 10 mpg. The only change from the 70s is worse in that regard.

[dragnet2]

With the government sponsored deterioration of our roads and highways, do not buy a vehicle that sits low.

[Hatteras]

"...hatred of cars may have been more justified then than it is today. Cars were gas guzzlers, getting just 13.5 miles per gallon."

Justified? At least back then, you could tell the difference between makes, models and years. Used to be able to tell what kind of car pulled up behind you in the rearview mirror at night. Today, just belly-button cars. Everyone looks the same. Even saw a commercial for one of the SUVs. A line of silver SUVs parked in the pick-up line at an elementary school. One of the SUVs in the middle of the line was black. The voice over said their SUV stands out in a crowd. Haha, they had to change the color so the viewer would notice which one they were talking about.

Car designers suck. After they line all the leftist political leaders and social media oligarchs against the wall to be shot, car designers should be next....