Some More News - SMN: Do Cities Really Need All These Cars?

Episode Date: March 22, 2023

Hi. On today's episode, we look at how the U.S. became so car-centric, why more walkable cities are probably the way to go, and what we can do to loosen the car industry's mechanical grip on our urban planning. Plus, the cars in Pixar's "Cars" have to eat and go to the bathroom. How does that work? SOURCES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cmOrze75T5B0cuGzXnweZYF9wbv9RFGr9MRza21PZpw/edit?usp=sharing  Support us on our PATREON: http://patreon.com/somemorenews  Check out our MERCH STORE: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/somemorenews?ref_id=9949  SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh    Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA?si=5keGjCe5SxejFN1XkQlZ3w&dl_branch=1  Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/even-more-news   Follow us on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SomeMoreNews/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomeMoreNews/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@somemorenews  Secure your online data TODAY by visiting https://ExpressVPN.com/morenews and you can get an extra three months FREE.   Make CBD a part of reaching your full potential with NextEvo Naturals. Go to https://NextEvo.com/podcast and use promo code MORENEWS to get 20% off your first order of $40 or more.    

Ring, ring, ring. That's my hand. Hello, and welcome to some more news. I'm Cody Johnston, your pool boy. But where there would normally be water, there's news. You get it. And here's some news water, some H-news-O, cars. What are they?

Where do they come from? And where are they going? Also, most importantly, why are cars? Here in these United States of America, we sure have a lot of cars. Why wouldn't we? Just look at these little studs. Yeah, look at that car go. That car go fast. Don't you want to go fast like car in a car? Oh yeah, now it's turning. Man, I love it when I'm driving my car and I turn in my car. Feels so nice to turn in a car

while the car is going fast. Mm-hmm, yeah. Did you feel that? That was so real. But it turns out that some people have a somewhat cynical view of cars. The subreddit fuckcars is full of complainers such as Reddit user fuckcars69weed6969,

who writes, lightning dick queen flashed his headlights as the strong erect cargo hook started to pound him right in a tailpipe. That's okay. First of all, extremely hot and well-written. But secondly, it's definitely the wrong fuck cars subreddit. This, oh, ah, this is my pleasure phone. Ah, science phone.

It's my science phone for figuring out how the characters in the movie Cars have sex. After all, there are man cars and woman cars, and they're shown having different bathrooms to reflect that. So do the cars have different genitals that would cause them to require different toilets? Is it more of a cultural gender thing? Do they reproduce at all?

Or is somebody building them? And if they drink gasoline, it flows V8 Cafe. Is their exhaust all farts? Just one long fart? So are farts like their version of pissing? They also eat food. So are they pooping in those toilets? Where's the poop coming from?

What is the poop like? I need to see their genitals up close. But I digress. In the other subreddit, fuck cars, users complain about the ways in which they feel fucked by cars in a less fun way than the first subreddit I mentioned. Most of the posts are focused about the ways in which they feel fucked by cars in a less fun way than the first subreddit I mentioned.

Most of the posts are focused on the ways in which car focused infrastructure is unfriendly to people like this beach being replaced by a freeway or the lack of town centers in many US cities or before and after shots of streets being converted from being more car focused to more pedestrian focused. Some of their posts point out the dangers that cars and specifically large cars pose to pedestrians.

A repeated theme is a small child next to an extremely huge car, which would be unlikely to see that small child. And you know, do the math. See, you thought math was useless in school, but really you can use it to think about children getting hit by cars. And the car skeptic sentiment isn't only found

on the Fuck Cars subreddit. It's also all over the internet as of late. You've probably seen something on Twitter or Instagram reflecting the same lament over America's overemphasis on cars or how American cities were ruined by car-focused infrastructure. Sometimes there are examples of the inverse, often non-American cities that replace roads

with more pedestrian-centric infrastructure like this area in the Netherlands. There's a lot of talk about stroads, which is a poor man tow combining the word street with road. If you've been in America, you've absolutely seen this, a demonic combination where a major high-speed road has a bunch of pedestrian areas shoehorned in, the result being a place no one actually should be walking.

Stroads aren't the only problem with car-centered infrastructure, although they are perhaps the most iconic. But I do want to stop saying the word strode because I do not like the word. Sounds like something Lightning Dick Queen would fit in his mouth. Anyway, this is an episode about cars, the vehicles,

not the sexy, sexy movie. Hey again, remember me from before? Good. So you may have realized that everything I was talking about in that fuck cars segment, I mean, besides car genitals, was circling the concept of a walkable city. That's exactly what it sounds like, as in a city designed to accommodate pedestrians over cars, which is something that America very much lacks

compared to other countries. So I guess the first question is, what's so important about walkable cities? I mean, if you really like walking, you could always pay $50 a month for a gym membership where you walk on a treadmill while you're surrounded by hotter people who are all shooting workout videos for Instagram

and not wiping down the equipment so you get a fungal infection that makes you break out in hives all over your body so you have to go to the dermatologist and then you get prescribed a steroid, which makes you feel worse than before you started going to the gym. But aside from that alternative,

the fact remains that there's a lot of evidence that walkable cities are just, they're just better. And perhaps something we should have here in this country, full of sweaty and terrible gym hogs and regular hogs. For starters, they actually just make people happier. Walkable cities, not hogs. Maybe it seems obvious that having a city where you can walk around to small shops

and run into friends and see people living their lives would be better for your mental health. But this is also backed up with facts and science and also junk and feelings. In a study on Latin American cities, mental wellbeing and the influence of place, a meta analysis of over 300 research articles uncovered several themes apparent in the many studies

on emotional wellness and city design. Green spaces such as parks, gardens, bird discos, et cetera, offered a clear benefit to mental wellbeing. Walkability in shorter distances to nodes of activity also offered mental health benefits. Walking specifically created, quote, "'raised levels of hedonic happiness, satisfaction, "'relaxation, and reduced anxiety stress.

"'From planning perspective, "'various authors maintain that "'in highly walkable communities, "'residents can interact with their environment "'with more regularity and, therefore, "'feel more connected to and responsible "'for their community, increasing individual calm, "'community trust, and decreasing perceived danger

in public space. Density was another factor noted in the meta analysis. However, it's a bit more complex in that it seems that there's a Goldilocks zone when it comes to density. Too low and you lack the easily accessible services and socializing you get with higher density. Too high and it seems to negatively impact people's stress levels.

Basically, we like having access to high density locations that increase the possibility of human interaction and general convenience, but at a certain point, it can get overcrowded and stressful, which all checks out. I may like seeing a herd of deer in the woods, but that doesn't mean I would also appreciate a thousand deer all coming at me in the middle of a Walmart. And frankly, I don't know why I keep having that dream.

Researchers have also found that spatial design has an impact on mental wellbeing. Smaller city blocks, visible building facades with windows and ornamentation, a variety of buildings with plenty of accessible doors, all of that is preferred. And of course, that's also exactly the opposite of the stuff you often see in cities sprawled with corporate parks or shopping centers.

Researchers also noted that allowing for mixed use zoning, as in combining both residential and commercial areas, allows for greater social interaction and better mental health outcomes. That makes a whole lick of sense. Most people enjoy the idea of having a private space, but also like being a walk away from social activity. Lord knows I've always dreamed of living above an arcade

slash bar slash bowling alley slash dispensary slash restaurant slash accountant, because frankly I need a good tax person right now. And speaking of money, having a walkable design is just better for the economy of that city. People tend to spend more money in a city they can casually walk through. Researchers also noted that ambient sounds

have an impact on stress levels and wellbeing. Traffic noises negatively impact emotional health, whereas birdsong, water, and low level human group sounds have a positive impact. Isn't that nice? We like hearing each other talk. That's so nice. Essentially, it seems like current research

has led to the shocking revelation that human beings like to live in cities made for human beings, which we are, instead of cities made for cars, which we are not. After all, this isn't an erotic world where cars are the dominant species. Being able to walk from your home to shops, run into friends and grab something to drink,

or going to a park without having to literally park, these are all things that may, in fact, make people kind of happier. But, counterpoint. Oh yeah, look at that car, it's going so fast. Oof, yeah, I wanna be in that car going fast! Turning on roads and mountains and stuff, whew! Ooh yeah, bumper to bumper, that's right, ride my tail, man.

Get right up on my ass and tap my bumper if I stop too fast. Ooh, yeah, waiting at the turn signal, yeah. Ooh, turning into a parking lot and looking for parking. God, I feel so alive. Okay, sarcastic use of stock footage aside, hot. Also, to be fair and balanced and fairly balanced, Cody isn't saying ban all cars. Cody likes cars. Cody likes cars.

Cody likes going fast in cars. But there are obviously some major problems with designing our cities to prioritize cars. The benefits to having fewer car-centric cities underlined by the research we talked about earlier makes some intuitive sense. But on top of that, there are also downfalls to having more car-centric cities.

When you're driving, you're not interacting with people, you're interacting with other cars. Big swole hunks of metal that can kill you. And so we naturally get more upset at other people while driving cars. It's scary and depersonalizing when another car enters your space. You see this big metal threat, not a human being. In an extreme example of American car culture and gun culture colliding,

there's the phenomenon of road rage shootings, seen here to my right, and seen here in front of you in video form. It's so American, like ice cream and apple pie getting into a gunfight. Compare that to using public transit, which means you get more interaction with actual people. If you bump into a person,

generally that person doesn't fly into a rage because they're seeing someone as a human and not a faceless enemy car. Also, road rage has been found to be linked to perception of class and status. In a 1968 study by Doob and Gross, the famed buddy scientist comedy duo of the 60s, researchers intentionally blocked an intersection

either with a low status old car or high status new car. The researchers found that in the low status case, 84% of blocked cars honked their horns, but in the high status condition, only 50% honked their horns. So in a way, cars can bring out the worst impulses of our society. When we see other cars, we don't see other people.

We see symbols of status, threats, or objects of rage. Meanwhile, when you are a pedestrian in a walkable city, you share pedestrian areas with people from all walks of life. You have to see their faces, view them as people, and you're not insulated in a carapace of expensive metal and rubber, which seems more healthy, maybe?

Unless you're racist. Damn, I forgot about the racists. I always forget about the racists, except for all the episodes we've done on racists. Well, there's at least some evidence that being exposed to more diverse groups will reduce racism. I don't know how provable it is,

but I think it's also a little intuitive to say that empathy is best formed when exposed to other walks of life. The key word there is walks, as in walking around a city and using public transportation with people from different backgrounds. It's like in that movie Crash, where cars cause racism.

So when you crash the cars, that solves racism. I haven't seen Crash in almost 10 years, but I'm almost certain that's the plot. Do not correct me. Point is that subways and buses create a system where everyone is in the same boat regardless of race or class, especially if it's literally a boat.

Which is why if you were, let's say, like a really rich guy who grew up during apartheid and took private planes to his dad's emerald mine, you might find public transportation icky, which is probably why we should never allow someone like that to try and design city transit in any way, shape, or form or like run a company, but more on that later. So to recap, walkable cities are good for mental health,

social interaction, empathy, and the economy. While car-centric cities create unwalkable hellscapes, divide people, and oh right, are really goddamn polluted. Getting Dutch ovened by car farts is actually pretty bad for your health. It makes your brain not work so good in a matter of hours after exposure. Also, pollution causes lung cancer and other terrible stuff.

Also, tire dust, the stuff that gets shaved off your tires as they wear down is killing salmon by contaminating the rain. So that's fun if you hate fish. Honestly, I could use the rest of the episode just listing studies about how bad car pollution is for human bodies and animal bodies and the planet and so on.

But we're on a whole adventure here about the wonder of cars. And in fact, we need to talk about how it got this way after these ads. Oh, maybe, maybe it's an ad for some kind of like sexy car porn site that would be silly and ironic and not something I'd personally be into. Hey fam, it's me, the version of Cody

that was cloned specifically to do ads. And as an ad clone, I'm constantly looking online for ways to break free from my captors. You know, books on fighting techniques, nail guns and so on. That's why I use ExpressVPN. You know, it doesn't techniques, nail guns, and so on. That's why I use ExpressVPN. You know, it doesn't take much knowledge to hack someone. Even the non-clone Cody could do it.

And if he does, then he's gonna put me in the shame hole. But ExpressVPN creates an encrypted tunnel between all of your devices and the internet. That way, no one can get your information. Just look. Oh, and this goes without saying, but it's so easy to use that even a clone born six years ago can use it. You just turn on the app and click one button

and you're protected. So secure your online data today by visiting expressvpn.com slash more news. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N.com slash more news. And you can get an extra three months free. Expressvpn.com slash more news. And remember, I don't have a soul. Hello again, watchers of me.

Thank you for your eyes. And as your eyes saw earlier, I was talking about how walkable cities are generally considered better for humans than cities that are balls deep in cars, which definitely isn't the name of a video I watched during the break. But how did we get to this point

of having such a car-centric society? Why are our cities built almost entirely around cars? And why did we turn away from other options like pedestrianism, bicycles, and trains? And why does the Pixar movie Cars still have trains? Are trains like the horses of their civilization, but instead of riding on them, they ride inside their stomachs?

Is it like the sandworms in Dune, but more consensual? Or do the trains lament having to exist on tracks? Is that a waking hell for them, to never leave the same route for their entire lives? So to answer all of those questions, we have to go back in time to the 1920s, a magical time where instead of iPhones, people had rickets. In the 1920s, there was a paradigm shift

in terms of what streets and public space were meant for. In an interview with Bloomberg, historian UVA professor Peter Norton talks about how our concept of streets was changed radically by the car industry. If you ask people today what a street is for, they will say cars. That's practically the opposite of what they would have said

100 years ago. There was a lot of anger in the early years, a lot of resentment against cars for endangering streets. Back then, cars were seen as an incursion on the natural flow of public life, and often a lethal menace. Papers and political art would depict cars as killing machines, such as this 1924 New York Times

article showing a grim reaper figure driving over panicked people. Additionally, back then the victims of car deaths were disproportionately children aged five to 14, which caused a lot of public outrage. People generally don't like it when you run over a child, which is why I'm banned for most go-kart tracks and roads. To overcome this bad public image,

the car industry improved the safety of their vehicles and roads, made sure that pedestrians were safe, and agreed with legislation limiting the activity of cars in public spaces. Ah, sorry, I have this weird brain thing where I say the thing I wish was true, but it's in fact the exact opposite of reality.

I think it's some sort of coping mechanism and or parasite. What the car industry actually did was go on a public messaging campaign to get people to see streets as unsafe areas for pedestrians so they could cede ownership of the streets from pedestrians to cars. In other words, they put the blame for fatal incidents on the victims.

Don't take foolish chances. Don't jaywalk. Don't cross against a don't walk sign. You could be killed that way. Don't cross against a red light. That caused nearly 3,000 casualties last year. Don't cross between parked cars in the middle of the block. That killed more pedestrians last year

than any other type of traffic accident. Don't jaywalk. Don't get me wrong, it's good to look both ways before crossing the street and not run out into traffic. We here at the Showdy are firmly pro not running out into traffic. Traffic that is now forcing itself on the public and blaming them for it.

Indeed, what we might see as a safety campaign was actually a really sneaky way to punt the problem with cars onto the pedestrians. This attitude started in 1923 when residents of Cincinnati gathered over 7,000 signatures to support a requirement to build cars with a speed limiter of 25 miles per hour.

The car companies panicked knowing that slow cars would be harder to sell. And so they did what any racist at the time would do and used anti-Chinese xenophobia to turn people against the idea. They warned that speed governors, the devices on cars that would limit speed, would create a Chinese wall around the city

and deter motorists from driving there. The referendum failed and the car industry continued to fight to dominate our streets. Auto industry groups flocked to government meetings held by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover and ushered in the 1928 Model Municipal Traffic Ordinance that controlled the movement of pedestrians, reducing their rights so that they were only able to cross

at crosswalks and at right angles, the worst kind of angles. To win over the public, both the government and the auto industry started a propaganda campaign to blame jaywalkers for fatal car accidents. As detailed in this Vox article, PR started targeting jaywalkers for fatal car accidents. As detailed in this Vox article, PR started targeting jaywalkers as the source of the problem,

depicting them as idiots and asking for it. In 1924, there was a safety parade in New York that depicted a jaywalking clown who got repeatedly rammed by a slow moving car. In fact, the entire etymology of the crime jaywalking was based on the insult jay, which meant hick, or a low class non-city dweller. The concept of jaywalking and road danger

was something taught to children, and auto clubs like AAA funded school safety programs. And again, this was all framed as a way to protect people, but cleverly got children used to the idea that streets were meant for cars, not humans. After all, if you're a human watching this, that seems like common sense. You were raised on endless PSAs telling you not to jaywalk and to look both ways and to fear roads. And we still do this today all over the world, as evidenced by this video from Russia.

Wait, why would the cars need crosswalks if the streets are also for cars? In the Cars universe version of Russia, do only some cars have the right to drive in streets? Is there an underclass of car serfs who are only allowed to use crosswalks? Why would there even be a fucking sidewalk to begin with or traffic lights? We don't have traffic lights dictating

when to walk at the mall. Also, are their tires their shoes? Because tires can pop and be replaced. So what other parts of them are considered their bodies and what parts are clothes? Oh God, what if the tires are their fingernails? Anyway, you get the point. The car industry managed to make roads

something that pedestrians were supposed to fear and were personally responsible for keeping off of. And by the 1930s, car dependence firmly had a foothold, tire hold, tire hold on the nation. Assembly lines perfected during World War II allowed for the mass production of cars and an increase of wealth in the US allowed for more individuals to buy cars.

Europe struggled more financially during this period and so their ability to buy cars was limited, both in quantity and in the size of cars. That meant the US had a headstart on mass car adoption. The way for this had quite literally been paved by the auto industry, including General Motors and AAA, who in the 1930s established the National Highway Users Conference

to affect federal policy regulating roadways. Their aim was for roads to be publicly funded, which would make them free to drivers and make cars become an integral part of US infrastructure. In 1939, the congressional planning document, Toll Roads and Free Roads, laid out this plan for the publicly funded interstate. That same year, GM would present an impressive image

of the next 20 years with a World's Fair exhibit titled Futurama. Over a spectacular suspension bridge, the motorway enters a large city, spanning the navigable river on which it is situated and forming a gateway to the city. 20 years ago, the population of this city was approximately a million persons. It is much larger, rebuilt and remanned. Residential, commercial and industrial areas all have been separated for greater efficiency and greater convenience.

Terrible episode, almost as bad as the dead dog one. Anyway, did you notice how they boasted zoned off areas as a good thing? Residential and commercial kept far apart for maximum efficiency. But little did we know that kind of thinking would absolutely get us into the pickle we are in today. Because of course, none of this was inherently bad.

Public roads are a good thing. We kind of need them provided that they are designed to put the wellbeing and interests of the public first. But the obvious flaw here was that the auto industry was the same entity pushing for these roads, an industry that had inserted itself into our government. And in 1947, a group of these auto industry bigwigs teamed up with engineers to create a map

of a future interstate system. Less than a decade later, another document called the Yellow Book would specify how this system of highways would intersect with city centers. In both of these cases, no one even bothered to include any urban planners to help with the design.

Instead, it was people like Charles Wilson, the former CEO of General Motors, who would go on to be nominated by President Eisenhower as Secretary of Defense in 1953. When questioned about the conflict of interest, Chuck said, quote, "'I cannot conceive of one, because for years, "'I thought what was good for our country

was good for General Motors and vice versa. Convenient. And wouldn't you know, the yellow book would go on to become the groundwork for the 1956 Federal Aid Highway Act, which created the interstates we use today. After it was passed, Engine Charlie would return to the board of GM in 1957 because I guess,

I guess government work wasn't his passion after all. Weird how the thing he claims is good for both GM and the country was mostly way more good for GM. And in fact, not actually good for the country because did I mention that this interstate highway system ultimately turned out to be bad? It plowed right through cities and communities, flattening neighborhoods, creating divisions

where there were none and destroying local businesses. Highways were used as tools of segregation, facilitating white flight from cities into the suburbs. According to NYU law professor, Deborah Archer, the path of highways also sometimes coincided with former racial zoning boundaries from the era of segregation. And white communities would sometimes intentionally ask for highway planners to build highways

to separate them from their black neighbors. So it was particularly bad for poor communities and black communities, something they knew was the case at the time. To quote Robert Moses, New York City's construction coordinator post-World War II, "'Our categorical imperative is action to clear the slums. "'We can't let minorities dictate

"'that this century-old chore "'will be put off another generation or finally abandoned.'" Moses, a racist guy, was one of the most influential city planners of his time and also happened to be an adamant supporter of putting the highway system directly through cities as opposed to going around them. So yeah, I'm not saying

that a national interstate highway system would be categorically bad under any circumstance. It's just that the one created in the US was done without regard to how it would carve up cities and damage communities, as well as was crafted to prioritize the needs of the auto industry and intentionally used to pave over poor areas and poor black neighborhoods.

All that seems really bad for the fabric of American society, but counterpoint. Yeah! Fast cars! Yes! Vroom vroom! Look how fast that car is going to find loopholes in integration laws and perpetuate a class and racial divide that still haunts us today!

Beep beep! Vroom vroom! And so, as public infrastructure continued to become more and more car-focused, we naturally moved away from other modes of transportation. Street cars, very notably, struggled to operate. That is, if they weren't bought by GM and then subsequently shut down, which is absolutely what happened in Los Angeles. If you recall, this was right around the time

that entire toon towns were getting paved over to make way for these highways. Wait a second. Is who framed Roger Rabbit about how highways created city design segregation through the transit system? That would mean that the tunes were metaphors for minority populations. It's a lot to take in.

Much like a car's penis. By the way, despite what that very historical film would have you believe, there's actually no evidence that GM shutting down the streetcars in LA was a big conspiracy. Not because it wasn't insidious, but rather because they didn't need to do it in secret or conspire about it.

It was just what was happening at the time. Cars were allowed to drive along the trolley tracks, causing gridlock, and the disproportionate government subsidy given to cars meant that street cars no longer had the money or infrastructure to function and were typically torn up and discarded to make way for city buses. And so that pretty much brings us to where we are now.

The promise of a futuristic transit system completely dictated by a car industry whose main goal was to make as much money as possible. And as a result, decided to choke our nation with as many roads as possible. It as a result, decided to choke our nation with as many roads as possible. It's pretty amazing that we just outsourced one of the most vital and fundamental parts of our country to a bunch of rich business owners.

You know, I mean, it would be amazing if that wasn't the thing we did constantly throughout the history of America, but still. Hey, speaking of that, we should probably cut to an ad or two while I sit here and close my eyes. So let's do that. Yeah, I'll just be here resting for you when you get back. Hello, friends.

As people often say, the human heart is a lot like a horse. I'm not going to expand on that metaphor because you know exactly what I'm talking about. And you want to make sure that your horse stays happy as well as your horse's horse, which is, of course, your brain. And to calm my horses, I've tried the stress CBD complex from Next Evo Naturals. And if CBD is the kind of thing that soothes your horses, you might want to give them a try too. Because Next Evo uses Smart Sorb CBD,

which they claim has 30 times better absorption in the first 30 minutes. A healthy horse is a calm horse. A horse that gets plenty of sleep. So you can get up early and ride that horse. In this situation, I'm actually, I'm talking about like a literal horse. But it also applies to your brain and to your heart. So make CBD a part of reaching your full potential with NextEvo Naturals. Go to NextEvo.com slash podcast and use promo code more news to get 20% off your first order of $40 or more.

That's 20% off $40 or more at Next-O dot com slash podcast with code MORENEWS. Do it for your delicious horse. Hey, Doc Hudson. What are you doing with that air pump? Tit lights. I was awake that whole time. And we were talking about when I was awake the whole time. And we were talking about when I was awake, the whole time, cars!

Cars and the auto industry and how it pretty much built our highway system, which just so happened to be bad. And from the 50s to today, we've pretty much prioritized cars over people. We invested so heavily in cars that even our solutions to car-cause problems are to throw more cars at them. Problems with traffic?

Well, why not expand highways? Even though that just prompts more people to drive and adds more cars to the equation and causes the same amount of congestion, but with more cars this time. Hey, traffic safety conditions? Build more technologically advanced cars with better airbags and safety features.

Even though in the last few years, we've been experiencing the highest pedestrian death rate in 30 years. And the US has the greatest number of pedestrian deaths compared to Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the UK. Yay, go us, we're number so bad at this. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's good to make cars that are safer for the driver,

but it's yet again prioritizing drivers and cars above all others. There are other ways to improve safety, like creating pedestrian-only zones, limiting traffic in busy areas, getting rid of stroads, and creating more bike-safe streets. But of course, those solutions don't offer car companies

a way to make a profit you see. Can't have that. Technological improvements in cars can be good and necessary like electric vehicles. And some can be bad, like how apparently gear shifts are dials now and everything you want to do is through a menu screen. Electric vehicles, by the way,

were prevented from being developed much earlier because they weren't seen as profitable. General Motors developed an electric vehicle, the EV1, in the late 90s. But even though customer reviews were positive, GM determined that the car wouldn't be profitable and destroyed their remaining stock. But the prioritization of profit doesn't end

with just killing your own projects. There's also been an organized effort by the auto industry to kill public transportation and divert public funds towards car infrastructure. Sometimes it's through propaganda, especially in car advertisements. Like this ad in a college newspaper from 2011 telling students to stop pedaling and start driving

while depicting a hot woman laughing at a guy on a bike. Look at how emasculated he is by biking. No woman would find a guy on a bike with his tight biker's shorts and sweaty, taut biker's calves to be attractive in the slightest. Spandex bulges, no thank you. And here's a GM ad campaign from the early 2000s

that depicts bus riders as creeps and weirdos, propagating the idea that buses are dangerous and full of scary people, which as we briefly mentioned, just so happens to be how Elon Musk also describes public transportation. Quote, why do you want to get on something with a lot of other people that doesn't leave where you want it to leave, doesn't start where you want to get on something with a lot of other people that doesn't leave where you want it to leave, doesn't start where you want it to start, doesn't end where you

want it to end, and it doesn't go all the time? He then added, it's a pain in the ass. That's why everyone doesn't like it. And there's like a bunch of random strangers, one of who might be a serial killer. Okay, great. And so that's why people like individualized transport that goes where you want, when you want. Besides the obvious fact that he thinks a system that makes you interact with other people is somehow bad, the really shitty part is how he laments that public transportation doesn't always work.

What makes that so angering is that the reason why public transportation is underfunded or inefficient is specifically because of people like Elon Musk. Take a look at his boring company and the infamously not very functional Hyperloop that exclusively features Tesla cars driving at a slow speed while surrounded by party lights designed to make the inevitable autopilot accidents

look like a discotheque fire. We've talked about them a lot in this show and how these vague and unrealized promises of a high-speed car tunnel have been constantly used by Musk to seemingly undermine rail projects. In San Bernardino, California, the Transportation Authority had planned to integrate a rail line from the airport,

but Elon Musk swooped in and promised to build a hyperloop tunnel using autonomous vehicles instead. The San Bernardino Transportation Authority bought Musk's sales pitch and actually halted the rail project. Musk then ghosted San Bernardino, missing the 2022 deadline for a bid on the project.

Musk did the same thing to Chicago when they wanted to build a rail line to the O'Hare airport and probably in California to try to lure lawmakers away from the high-speed rail project. I know Musk is pretty much the villain in all of this, but also like shout out, you know, to the lawmakers out there who really should have done some sliver of work to assess

if the guy promising Jetsons tunnels actually had a viable plan. But Musk isn't even innovative when it comes to halting progress on public transportation. The auto industry has been lobbying and sabotaging rail projects and other infrastructure for years. The Koch brothers, God rest one of their souls,

you know, if you had one. Well, they funded AstroTurf movements to stop rail projects all over the United States for years now. In 2018, Koch-backed groups tried to push through a ballot measure to stop all funding for all rail projects in Phoenix, Arizona. It didn't pass, but often these efforts

to stop public transit projects absolutely do work. Like in 2016, when they helped kill a transit project in Michigan, which would have expanded bus routes. Or in 2018 2016 when they helped kill a transit project in Michigan, which would have expanded bus routes, or in 2018 when they turned voters against a mass transit proposal in Nashville. Why do the Kochs hate public transportation so much? Maybe it just rubs them the wrong way,

or maybe it could be because they own Flint Hills Resources, a diesel, gasoline, and petroleum company, or because they own Molex, which produces electric parts for cars, or maybe it's because they want to both be invested in oil and electric car batteries, or maybe it's because they have some kind of car fetish and promised their life-sized replica of Lightning McQueen,

which they engage in sexual poise with via the tailpipe, that they will do whatever it takes to keep as many cars on the road as possible. Do we have an image of that? No. Well, someone get an image of that to me at some point. No rush, but hurry up. My point is that the auto industry has a death grip,

not only on their junk while they look at photos of sexy cars, but also on our country and our government. The auto industry spent around $80 million lobbying Congress in 2022 alone. Maybe this is part of why so much of our tax dollars go to funding car infrastructure at the cost of any other kind of transit or pedestrian infrastructure.

Like Biden's compromise infrastructure deal that gives states $273 billion for highways over five years with very little in terms of restrictions or limitations. We as a nation are so fixated on cars that it doesn't feel at all weird when a US president does free PR for GM's electric Hummer. Anybody wanna jump on the back? On the roof?

You look good. I mean, fine, okay, whatever, good. Get people excited about the big, dumb electric car. We're not getting rid of cars in the next five years or 50 years or 100 years. And so we need them to at least be electric because it's critical to meet CO2 reduction goals. So if we have to make electric cars sexy and cool and hip,

you know, by putting Joe Biden in one, then so be it. But we may want to consider, in addition to addressing our immediate climate needs, that we should perhaps eventually, slowly, maybe have a society that isn't 100% car dependent. And one way we can start is to address fucked up zoning laws which have allowed for uncontrolled suburban sprawl and prevented high density and affordable housing.

And there's actually a little bit of progress on this front. The Bay Area is set to have its restrictive zoning revoked due to their inability to adhere to a law called the Housing Accountability Act. But generally speaking, we have a long road ahead of us. You get it? Roads? Yeah, like the kind sexy animated cars drive on.

We can't just get rid of cars overnight. And even if we're able to fix our infrastructure and build amazing public transportation, people will still need and want to drive cars sometimes. And that's fine. I don't think we should fuck all cars. I mean, except for this one, or maybe this one, definitely that one.

Some car usage is necessary, especially if you don't live in a city. The problem isn't that we use cars. The problem is that in this country, we sure seem to be really, really, really into cars, and not in the healthy sexual way. Our car culture goes far beyond just liking cars for convenience, and in fact, really seems like something of a cult. For even more protection, you have explosive underbody shielding, bulletproof glass,

electrified door handles, military grade run flat tires, and a ram steel bumper. If anyone's following you, you have blinding lights in the front and the back or a smoke screen. Plus my favorite, pepper spray. If you're picking your kids up from the mall, let them know you're there with strobe lights and your intercom. Hey, Bobby, it's your mommy. Ah, sweet. What kid doesn't like being picked up in an eight foot tall military grade minivan

only to be pepper sprayed when they touch the handle because their doom prepper mom confuses them for a minority and then smoke bombs an entire class field trip? Ah, to be a child again. This car is called Vengeance because that is a normal name to give a car in a healthy and thriving culture. For only $285,000,

the car's website promises that vengeance is yours. You can add bulletproof glass if you'd like. Also it's EMP proof in case of a nuclear explosion. So your car will still run after your skin melts off from the radiation. It's a nice reminder that only the ultra rich will survive whatever apocalypse they probably caused. Like Mad Max was in all likelihood a hedge fund manager

before he became the road warrior. This is also the logical conclusion of our car culture. We want the biggest, baddest, most extreme cars to be able to win at vehicular warfare. Because a running theme you might have noticed is that cars, and by extension car culture, is all about isolating people from others. Elon Musk wants us all to travel

in our own personal pods underground. Traffic and road rage all circle around our lack of empathy when driving. And so while this specific tank car seems over the top, it's really no different than any other car ad. Now you like me, man, bring it on! Yeah, come on! Yee-haw! I'm a four truck man. We all have a choice.

We can either be sheep or shepherds. And then there's a couple of things America got right. Cars and freedom. Oh yeah, don't be a sheep, be a wolf. Tow smaller trucks around. Run over British people because you're an American, you see. That last ad is a cinematic masterpiece by the way. And look, it's easy to dismiss these as fun,

silly commercials because they are. But car commercials are also carefully crafted to get people to buy a very expensive thing. And so they know that they have to both appeal to public sentiment and also shape it to make people really want cars, not just for transport, but as an intrinsic part of their American identity. Something that makes them feel special, tough, powerful, or patriotic, or however this makes

you feel. It's fine to like cars, to enjoy driving, or like them as a hobby, or as an object of sexual desire. But when car culture becomes too dominant in our society, we miss out on the human element and it shows. Remember when I pointed out that back in the 1920s, people were outraged at cars specifically because of how often they would hit children?

Compare that to today and this story of a child getting killed by a giant SUV that somehow manages to blame the eight year old for his own death. A similar thing happened when former mayor Pete Buttigieg was still mayor, where he ostensibly blamed a kid for getting hit or, you know, raised questions. I don't know if you know this,

but that guy is the secretary of transportation right now. Point is, we lose something when we encase ourselves in cars and give in to a hyper individualized culture that's so scared of being around other people that we now have a market for pepper spray door handles. And to once again stress this, it's not like regaining more human scaled cities is out of reach or means we have to get rid

of all of our cars. This is an area in Milwaukee, which underwent a freeway tear down and reconstruction into a street. And sure, there are still cars, but there are now sidewalks and crosswalks and easy access to buildings. Boston's Big Dig project took the highway

and put it underground so that they could build city parks in its place. And that's something other cities are now considering. That didn't even require getting rid of any roads to do. This feels not only superior, but necessary to increasing our quality of life, to actually build a world that encourages empathy over paranoia,

because this isn't the movie Cars. The cities we live in should be for people interacting with other people. or in other words. Look, and they're driving right by. They don't even know what they're missing. Thank you, Lightning Dick Queen. I couldn't have said it better. When we're driving right by,

we don't know what we're missing. To spend so much of our time enclosed in our own little bubbles of steel, we're never going to actually engage with others. Or I guess because Lightning McQueen is a car, he's saying that cars should smash into each other more? Wait, that sounds like the plot of Crash, the Don Cheadle one, not the 1996 one

where people fucking car crashes. Although maybe that film also had some good moral messages. I wonder if the Pixar cars have a similar fetish where they collide into each other and then have sex. Then I guess they would have to get their bodies towed away by Larry the Cable Guy. Is Mater a hick because of his culture or was he born that way?

Like, are Pixar cars born into specific class groups because of their make and model? That's fucking dark. I'm done with the episode, by the way. You can roll the credits while I figure this stuff out. So, okay. Also, in the movie Cars, flies and other insects are depicted as tiny cars,

which would imply that the genetic code of all life on this planet is car-based. And if this is true, there would be a massive amount of genetic bottleneck, meaning that the entire population of life on the Cars planet could be wiped out with just one potential pathogen. And so also like how do cars die?

If you put a new motor in a dead car, is this some kind of reanimated corpse car? Or is it a new car? Is the engine even the brain? Or is it more like the heart? How many pieces of a car can you gradually change before it becomes a completely different soul? Also, when those fans flash their headlights at McQueen,

it implies those are their nipples then, right? So then that means everyone is going around exposing their tits to see at night. Why are the tits light up? I just think the movie Cars might not make sense, but you can still jerk off to it. Oh, let's see a bit, a bit, a bit. What am I gonna do?

What am I gonna do? What do I got? I got one of these. I got a, oh, a Star Wars. This is what it is. This is a guitar stand. I don't know. Hey, hey, thanks for watching the video.

There's no bit. I can't figure it out. So just like the video and subscribe to the channel the video's on. Check out our podcast, Even More News, and this show has a podcast. It's called Some More News. Those are all where podcasts are.

You know what those apps are like. And we got a patreon.com slash some more news and we've got merch store links with merch available to buy. And one day there'll be a bit that I'll figure out with, okay, so, okay, doctor's office. Oh, fuck. Okay, so give me, give me, give me, give me,

give me, give me, give me, give me, gimme, gimme some time, okay? Gimme a fucking break is what I want, actually. Gimme a fucking break, please? Jesus Christ.