Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Car Culture

Car Ownership May Be Down in the U.S., But It’s Soaring Globally

By Tanya Snyder | Jul 5, 2013 | No Comments

Two weeks ago, transportation researcher Michael Sivak brought us the news that there are fewer cars per person in the U.S. now than there were a few years ago – and that the number isn’t expected to rise again. But globally, the trend is in the opposite direction, and it’s alarming. The world is producing more […]

Do We Treat Our Cars Better Than We Treat Ourselves?

By Anne Lutz Fernandez | Sep 30, 2011 | No Comments

Running Saturday morning errands, you may have found yourself in traffic, only to realize you’re stuck behind a line of vehicles inching into a car wash. Each month, nearly half of all American car owners head into one of the nation’s estimated 100,000 car washes to bathe their vehicles in some loving suds. “Then there […]

Dealbreaker: Senate Rejects House Budget Due to Lack of Car Subsidies

By Tanya Snyder | Sep 23, 2011 | No Comments

What’s keeping Congress from passing an extension to the federal budget? Democratic protection of automobile subsidies. After midnight last night, the House finally managed to narrowly pass a budget extension bill, but Senate leaders have already rejected it out of hand, since it includes about half the disaster relief they’d like and cuts $1.5 billion […]

The Stranger: If Safer Streets Mean War, We’re Ready for Combat

By Tanya Snyder | Sep 16, 2011 | No Comments

Under the headline, “Okay, Fine, It’s War,” Seattle’s The Stranger blog this week published a manifesto “of and by the nondrivers themselves.” They’re sick of being called “militants” for caring about pedestrian safety, and they’re tired of the specter of a “war on cars.” We heartily recommend that you read the whole thing, but here […]

Whose Streets?

By Chris Carlsson | Aug 9, 2011 | 12 Comments

“Whose Streets? OUR Streets!” yell rowdy demonstrators when they surge off the sidewalk and into thoroughfares. True enough, the streets are our public commons, what’s left of it (along with libraries and our diminishing public schools), but most of the time these public avenues are dedicated to the movement of vehicles, mostly privately owned autos. […]

Dangerous Rincon Hill Intersection Finally Getting the City’s Attention

By Bryan Goebel | Jun 13, 2011 | 23 Comments

On December 10, 2004, Katy Liddell had just stepped off the N-Judah with a sack of cleaning supplies and was walking to her Portside apartment at Harrison and Main in Rincon Hill, when she noticed a cadre of emergency vehicles surrounding the intersection. As Liddell drew closer, she saw something that horrified her. “I saw […]

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