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The War on Cars

John Bauters, America's Bike Mayor

The War on Cars

The War on Cars, LLC

Cars, Society & Culture, Culture, Bicycling, Politics, Urbanism, Walking, Transportation, Cities, Transit, News Commentary, News

4.9937 Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Since he was elected mayor in 2020, John Bauters has gained an international reputation for his work to transform transportation and housing in the tiny city of Emeryville, which is wedged between Oakland and Berkeley on the shores of San Francisco Bay. Emeryville, population 13,000, is only one square mile in area. But it’s home to some big employers, including Pixar, and several big box stores. It also has I-80 blasting through it, and it is a major hub for Amtrak, regional rail, and freight rail. It’s a challenging environment in which to create a green city with a great active transportation network. But that’s exactly what Bauters has been working toward for his whole term. We visited with him, rode some of the great bike and park network that Emeryville has been building, and talked about the kind of political will that’s necessary to make real change.

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LINKS:

Follow John Bauters on X, if you’re still there. Really. It’s worth it.

Ride along with Mayor Bauters and Streetfilms through the streets of Emeryville. (YouTube)

‘Why the mayor of tiny Emeryville matters’ (The Real Deal)

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Anytime it rains and I need to run errands or pick up a kid from school,

0:07.0

I wear my cleverhood urbanot trench.

0:10.0

And the funny thing is that despite the bad weather, I am constantly stopped by

0:15.1

complete strangers who want to know all about it. The Urbanaut is stylish, comfortable,

0:21.1

and woven with 3M Scotch light reflective threading that is

0:25.0

childish, comfortable and woven with 3M Scotch light reflective threading that practically lights up and keeps you visible.

0:28.0

It's perfect, especially now that it gets dark early out there.

0:32.0

I'm also stopped whenever I wear my rover

0:34.4

rain cape with people wanting to know where I got it. And because my rover is a

0:38.6

striking shade of red, it attracts a lot of attention and brightens up those gloomy fall days when it feels like the sun is on a permanent vacation.

0:49.0

Now through the end of November, listeners of the war on cars can receive 15% off everything in the

0:55.1

Cleverhood store with the code Clever City. Just go to Cleverhood.com

1:00.3

slash War on Cars and enter that Code Clever City when you check out.

1:06.0

Stay dry and strike up conversations with people in your neighborhood with

1:10.8

Clever Hood. with cleverhood. I think political will is probably the biggest barrier.

1:19.4

So when mayors reach out to me, I ask them what degree of political will do they have and they're kind of surprised

1:23.8

they say well I really want to do it and I said are you willing to lose re-election over it and that gives

1:28.4

them a lot of pause I said when you've decided the answer to that question is yes

1:31.6

you will be able to do whatever you want.

1:36.0

Hello I'm Sarah Goodyear and this is the war on cars.

1:48.0

When I met Mayor John Bauters outside the City Hall of Emeryville, California, he was wearing a t-shirt and shorts and a backward trucker cap that said Emryville on it.

1:54.0

He had his cargo bike with him and sitting in the bucket was his dog,

...

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