Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Car Culture

Five Media Myths That Perpetuate Car Culture

By Catherine Lutz and Anne Lutz Fernandez | May 23, 2011 | No Comments

Another day, another news story, another media outlet wielding an old saw like this one: High gas prices are a political problem for the president because Americans “love their cars.” American car culture, fed by everything from our sprawled-out landscape to a daily bombardment of car ads, is also kept alive by journalists’ use of […]

Kia Car Ad Touts Bike-Friendly Attitude

By Aaron Bialick | Feb 3, 2011 | 2 Comments

A new Canadian television ad for the Kia Sportage, filmed in San Francisco’s Financial District, markets an attitude of acceptance about the responsibility of sharing the road with bicycles. It’s quite a contrast from the conventional image of cars as an embodiment of power and dominance. While the ad encourages drivers to share the road, […]

California’s Pay as You Drive Insurance Program Could Reduce Driving

By Matthew Roth | Dec 17, 2010 | 12 Comments

The California Department of Insurance has approved a pay-as-you-drive insurance program encouraged by environmental advocates and transportation planners because it provides an incentive to drive less by reducing premiums for low-mileage drivers. Widespread adoption of similar insurance policies could reduce driving in the U.S. by as much as eight percent, according to a Brookings Institution […]

Ad Nauseam 2010: The Year in Car Commercials

By Catherine Lutz and Anne Lutz Fernandez | Dec 13, 2010 | No Comments

Car sales are up, auto shows are packing them in, and the GM IPO was oversubscribed, but there may be no surer indicator of the auto industry’s recovery than the renewed avalanche of car ads rumbling across every medium. And there’s no better way to get a glimpse of what a born-again car culture might […]

Fred Barnes: Americans Mainly Want to Stay in Their Cars

By Ben Fried | Nov 3, 2010 | No Comments

After yesterday’s electoral drubbing, the Obama administration will have to deal with a starkly different Congress when they make their expected push for a multi-year transportation bill early next year. We know that some influential House Republicans, like John Mica, don’t necessarily believe that bigger highways will solve America’s transportation problems. And we know that […]

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