The Creation of America's Car Culture
The War on Cars
The War on Cars, LLC
4.9 • 937 Ratings
🗓️ 11 November 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode is part of a special series called "Changing American Car Culture" funded with the generous support of The Helen and William Mazer Foundation.
As historian Peter Norton documents in his book, Fighting Traffic, the death and destruction caused by the introduction of automobiles into U.S. cities in the early part of the 20th century caused a lot of people to challenge the notion that such machines would ever become popular. In response, autmobile companies, car dealers, driving enthuisasts, and others went on the offense, creating the culture that gave rise to the mass adoption of cars and the phenomenon of forced car dependence.
In this special episode, producer Ilana Strauss brings us a story that begins with the pushback against automobiles, the fight for speed governors, and the unlikely partnership between a Studebaker dealer and a young academic who manufactured the rules and norms that came to shape American streets at the expense of anyone who isn't in a car.
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***Our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves From the Tyranny of the Automobile, is out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Pre-order now and find us on tour.***
This episode was sponsored by Cleverhood. Listen for the latest discount code.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Our life after cars tour has taken us to some rainy parts of North America, including |
| 0:07.0 | the Pacific Northwest. And when it comes to staying dry on the road, nothing beats my |
| 0:13.0 | Clever Hood Rover Rain Cape. What I love about it is that it packs down into its own |
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| 0:38.8 | no belt required. Plus, it comes in all kinds of colors, including the new stormy pattern, |
| 0:45.2 | which is really eye-catching. So many people stopped to ask me about it while I was walking around |
| 0:50.3 | rainy Seattle that I think I might have sold a few. This holiday season, you can save 15% |
| 0:56.5 | on the Rover 2.0 and everything in the Cleverhood store by going to cleverhood.com |
| 1:02.0 | slash war on cars and entering the code, be a giver at checkout. It's the perfect holiday gift, |
| 1:10.1 | so again, that's cleverhood.com slash war on cars |
| 1:14.7 | coupon code be a giver. This episode was produced with the generous support of the William and |
| 1:25.8 | Helen Mazur Foundation. |
| 2:03.1 | This is the War on Cars. I'm Doug Gordon. Sarah and I are on the road for our Life After Cars book tour, which kicked off in New York just a few weeks ago and has already taken us to San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Seattle, for a show with our friend Ray Delanty of City Nerd, Vancouver, British Columbia, |
| 2:06.4 | and even the small city of Nanaimo. |
| 2:11.6 | We've had a great time on tour so far, not least of all, because we've gotten to meet so many listeners and readers who are working hard to help their towns and neighborhoods |
| 2:16.9 | imagine a life after cars. |
| 2:20.2 | As I record this, we are in Portland, Oregon for two events, |
| 2:25.1 | The Bike Happy Hour with Bike Portland's Jonathan Mouse, |
| 2:28.3 | and a book reading and talk at Powell's hosted by Oregon Public Broadcasting's Lillian Carabaic. |
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