Doug Gordon on the Past, Present, and Future of Transportation

"The War On Cars" host talks about the terrible system we've built, better public engagement, and a future where our streets look and feel safe.

As one-third of “The War On Cars” Doug Gordon and his co-hosts use the power of story to detail the parasitic relationship Americans (not just Americans) have with their personal automobiles. As a society—at all levels—the auto uber alles mentality, baked at 500 into the American quotidian, warps public behaviors of drivers and driving enthusiasts from “passive owners of an object” into “verdant defenders of metal death box.” These behaviors are on display on local roads and highways, to community meetings, to boardrooms and they all have one thing in common: anger.

Drivers rage at traffic patterns out of their control, community meeting attendees rail against precious parking reform, and executives from private auto companies to local and state commissions on transportation fight any changes that don’t add to their bottom lines or widened lanes. The automotive-industrial complex brings together strange bedfellows, as it were. And they’re at war with progress for the rest of us.