Jamelle Bouie Has Seen the Future of Transportation
The War on Cars
The War on Cars, LLC
4.9 • 937 Ratings
🗓️ 15 March 2021
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie has been riding an electric-assist bicycle around Charlottesville, Virginia for almost a year now, and he is convinced: E-bikes are the future of transportation. Not only has the e-bike transformed his own personal mobility, it has changed the way he looks at his city and gotten him more deeply involved in local planning and policy-making. In this one-on-one conversation, Jamelle and Aaron start off discussing e-bikes and end up talking about what it's going to take to push America's sclerotic political system to solve increasingly urgent housing and transportation crises in U.S. cities. Plus, Jamelle offers some helpful advice to anyone accused of waging a war on cars or fanning the flames of America's culture wars.
This episode was sponsored in part by Cleverhood. To celebrate the arrival of spring, War on Cars listers can now receive 25% off of stylish, functional rain gear designed specifically for walking and biking. Enter coupon code WARONCARS at checkout.
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SHOW NOTES:
Find Jamelle Bouie's New York Times column here, a lot of his photography is here, his Twitter account is here, and his personal web site is here.
Feb. 17, 2020: "Our next major household purchase is going to be an e-bike!"
Feb. 26, 2021: "seriously i'm convinced that e-bikes are the future of transportation"
Why housing in Charlottesville is so expensive.
"Ted Cruz's Excellent Adventure" (New York Times)
"2020 Shows Why the Electoral College Is Stupid and Immoral" (New York Times)
Slate's Jamelle Bouie is also a pretty good street photographer (Washingtonian)
Pillsbury Funfetti Cereal, Reviewed (Serious Eats)
The Tern GSD e-bike.
Get the official War on Cars coffee mug, t-shirts and more at our new store and check out The War on Cars library at Bookshop.org.
This episode was produced by Aaron Naparstek and edited by Ali Lemer. Our music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Our logo is by Dani Finkel of Crucial D.
Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek.
Questions, comments or suggestions? Email us: thewaroncars@gmail.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Yeah, for me it's like I just became super tuned to how much space cars take up in a way that I just don't think people appreciate. |
| 0:08.0 | It's very easy to say we need more parking in a place, but there's not that much conversation of like what you're giving up when you do that. |
| 0:17.0 | And I think I think being a bike or a pedestrian helps you see what actually you're giving up by prioritizing car infrastructure. |
| 0:30.0 | Hey, it's Aaron Napersack here. |
| 0:32.0 | Welcome to the War on Cars. |
| 0:35.0 | We have a special guest for you here today. |
| 0:36.9 | His name is Jamel Bowie. |
| 0:39.3 | Jamel is a columnist for the New York Times |
| 0:41.4 | and a political analyst for CBS News. He covers |
| 0:44.3 | campaigns, elections, national affairs, and culture. But that's just his day job. |
| 0:50.3 | If you follow him on social media then you know that in between producing two columns a week for the New York Times, |
| 0:56.0 | Jamel is an incredible street photographer, studies American history, plays Nintendo, |
| 1:02.0 | writes reviews of movies, and breakfast cereals, gets involved |
| 1:06.7 | in local land use politics, is raising a two-year-old son, and the list goes on. And so it was with great interest to us here at the war on cars when last spring |
| 1:16.9 | we noticed Jamel tweeting enthusiastically about a new topic, his electric assist bicycle. |
| 1:25.0 | Clearly, it was time for the war on cars to sit down with Jamel Bowie. |
| 1:31.0 | And so I did. |
| 1:32.0 | I had a great conversation with Jamel that somehow moved from e-bikes to parking policy to voting rights and touched on a lot of other stuff too. |
| 1:41.0 | And that's coming right up. But before we get to that, a quick |
| 1:45.2 | word from our sponsor. |
| 1:49.0 | You've all heard the saying April showers, bring May flowers. Well, you don't want to be caught off guard when it starts coming down while you're out on a bike ride or a walk this spring. |
| 1:58.0 | So get yourself some stylish, cleverhood rain here and you'll be prepared for whatever Mother Nature throws your way. |
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