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Tag Archives: car culture

Crossing The Line

Thanks to a heads-up from James Baumgartner, author of Car-free in PVD, check out this Blueprint America Special Report called Crossing the Line: Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know. This is what happens when you design roads for cars instead of people. Also see the discussion at Commute Orlando. Technorati Tags: car culture, pedestrian [...]

Posted 29 July 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology § policy ‡ Comments (8) ° Also tagged: ,

Right-of-Way

The final chapter of David Owens’ Green Metropolis describes some aspects of urban life in China today. One thing I found particularly interesting: According to his observations, the Chinese have an interesting sense of right-of-way. Or, rather, not much sense of it at all (that is in the American sense of it). Owens says traffic [...]

Posted 01 April 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology ‡ Comments (3) ° Also tagged: ,

Culture and Rational Choices

Transportation planner Jarrett Walker says this post by Michael Druker is the most important you will read this year. It’s about the fundamental attribution error in transportation choice. This error: …refers to the tendency for people to over-attribute the behavior of others to personality or disposition and to neglect substantial contributions of environmental or situational [...]

Posted 17 March 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § policy ‡ Comments (4) ° Also tagged: , , , ,

Walking in the Cold

Jason Peters continues to meditate on the virtues of walking at Front Porch Republic (re: Walk, Damn It!). This week he writes about what it means to walk in the cold. And by now this walking has become habitual enough that, if for pressing reasons I do not or cannot walk, I feel that an [...]

Posted 06 February 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology ‡ Comments (10) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , , ,

The Worst Commutes

Why do I have a 3/4-mile commute? I have a 3/4-mile commute because that’s the kind of commute I want — one that makes driving a car a silly choice. I’m lucky. I had the opportunity to make this choice based on my profession and my socio-economic status. Others are not so lucky. Sadly, most [...]

Posted 21 January 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology ‡ Comments (3) ° Also tagged: ,

Objects In The Road

Today is the middle of the second week of classes. In my media ethics class we spend much of this week discussing students’ personal reactions to the “overview” to the textbook — a crash course in the philosophy of ethics prior to studying the applied ethics of the media professions. I ask them to identify [...]

Posted 20 January 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology ‡ Comments (6) ° Also tagged:

Slow(ing) Traffic

Slow ain’t in the American vocabulary, baby! And that plays a role in why about 35,ooo to 40,000 Americans die in traffic every year. This figure shocks no one because, frankly, we 1) don’t give a shit, and 2) think that it won’t happen to us because “I’m a better driver than others” (read this [...]

Posted 09 December 2009 † Andy Cline § ecology § policy ‡ Comments (6) ° Also tagged: , , , ,

Cell Phones and Driver Distraction

The New York Times today published a major article on the socio-political history of the marketing of cell phones for use by car drivers. I found this part particularly interesting: Long before cellphones became common, industry pioneers were aware of the risks of multitasking behind the wheel. Their hunches have been validated by many scientific [...]

Posted 07 December 2009 † Andy Cline § bicycle safety § ecology § news ‡ Comments (3) ° Also tagged: , ,

Mindlessness Behind the Wheel

I recently mentioned the Dangerous By Design report and our own crash stats here in Springfield. While were not suffering to the same extent as Florida, we are suffering (here, here, here). Keri Caffrey, of Commute Orlando, updated her Facebook page today with a link to the Time article above and this message: I think [...]

Posted 01 December 2009 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § news ‡ Comments (3) ° Also tagged: , ,

Cultural Change

The New York Times today has a special section on cars today. The lead story asks the question: Is happiness still that new car smell? What I find fascinating about this article is that, despite the reported evidence, the tone and point of view are decidedly sympathetic to the car culture (well, duh, it is [...]

Posted 22 October 2009 † Andy Cline § business § ecology § news § policy ‡ Comments (11) ° Also tagged: , , ,