So I just dropped my kid off at school and I was biking west on 44th Street between 9th Avenue and 10th Avenue in the inadequate painted bike lane that exists there, but I was whizzing by car after car until the traffic got so bad mid-block, the

one lane of cars moved to two lanes of cars, and I found myself directly behind a car.

And I groaned to myself, as I usually do in that situation and then I

realized that the car in question was a convertible and I could just speak to the

people and it was two guys sitting in the front seat so I just said excuse you're blocking the bike lane, would you mind moving just a little bit? They turned around, they apologized and said, oh, sorry, yeah, no problem. When they moved two feet, and I went by and I said thank you in the way.

And it made me realize that the biggest problem with cars

is that their isolation chambers,

where everybody's locked off in their climate controlled environment

with their radios on, not paying any

attention to anyone else. And if every car in Manhattan was required to be a

convertible, I think we'd have a lot more empathy from drivers and a lot better

communication.

I also think a better solution would be to ban all cars in Manhattan.

That would be easier.

That's an extreme escalation from everyone has to have a convertible to just ban all cars.

I love it.

I think to skip to plan B. Yeah, plan B. Go for it.

That is Charlie Todd, the founder of Improv Everywhere and this is the War on Cars in

this episode the lighter side of the Battle for Public Space. I'm Doug Gordon

safe streets advocate I'm joined by Sarah Goodyear,

a journalist who often writes about transportation.

And next to me is also Aaron Napresdeck,

...