Armistice Declared, Seattle’s ‘War on Cars’ Meme Ends

Last year, you probably had the unfortunate experience of hearing or reading about this new “war on cars” raging all over the streets of Seattle. Mayor McGinn was running around slashing tires on his lunch break, Cascade was using their Big Bicycle money to push through legislation making it illegal to sell Turtle Wax, and Erica Barnett at Publicola was planting row upon row of sweet corn and heirloom tomatoes in downtown parking lots.

Well, it turns out the war never really existed. Shocking, I know. Eric de Place at Sightline went back and tried to figure out exactly where this “war on cars” meme started. Turns out, it started exactly how you might think it would: as a right wing talking point.

Basically, “war on cars” was a rarely-used phrase until last spring, when it started to get thrown around in Toronto in the early stages of the mayoral race (anti-war-on-cars candidate Rob Ford won). Then the conservative Heritage Foundation used the term to attack Ray Lahood because he thinks cars are not the only way people and goods can be moved (clearly a declaration of war). After that, Toronto and Seattle were really the main cities where the phrase has been heavily used, de Place writes.




The concept of Seattle’s war on cars is clearly ridiculous, particularly in a city where there is strong political backing for two massive, multibillion-dollar car-centric projects (the deep bore tunnel and the 520 bridge) as well as other very large car-centric projects like the Mercer changes.

But this war on cars meme is, of course, not about reason or research or good policy. As de Place points out, it’s almost about anything but:



5 Responses to Armistice Declared, Seattle’s ‘War on Cars’ Meme Ends

  1. Julian says:

    War on Cars = War on Christmas

    Puffed-up whining by a majority, protected class with their underwear in a bunch about minor, water-down attempts to curb extraordinary societal bias in their direction.

    And if there was such a thing as a war on cars … guess what, the cars are winning. 40,000 dead each year.

  2. rich says:

    Glad to see some push back on this stupid meme. I think it’s also worth remembering that despite its problems, Seattle is actually a pretty good place to ride a bike. It’s astounding to me how many times people will stop and wave me through when they don’t really have to. A few days ago I was waiting to cross Union at 17th. A number 2 bus was pulling out of the stop at 18th and Union. When the driver saw me, he stopped and waved me through. In spite of the many travails of riding in the city, this sort of thing happens all the time, and it doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

  3. Kevin says:

    The undeclared war on cars is working about as well as the war on drugs.

  4. NickBob says:

    The reason the meme is used is because it’s effective. Even in this liberal city, cars command the same sort of affection that guns do away from the cities. The corollary to the 2nd amendment, ‘the right to drive and park shall not be infringed’ makes sense when you consider cars, like guns are deadly weapons (arms) when used either with intent or carelessness. The downtown business interests that want the DBT built despite civic opposition and a new mayor that won a primary victory based pretty much on his being the sole candidate to oppose it, needed a way to undercut him- and their megaphone the Times found that way by using his cycling and the war on cars bs as a way to inflame distrust for him. Seems effective, people I talk to regularly get riled that ‘his’ road diets will put them into increased congestion and therefore he’s a complete idiot.

    Rich, I agree. The nasty anti-bike attitude I see online worries me but I see far more goodwill on the road that outright hostility. Hope abides.

  5. Bob says:

    I have no problem with bikers at all accept the courier’s. They are the ones giving bikers a bad name throughout Seattle. They race in-between cars. Play chicken with cars by blasting through stop lights. When cars are waiting at a stop light they ride along the waiting cars and slap the mirrors and slap cars as they go racing by illegally through the stop lights. I’m a TNC driver and see this sort of cavalier activity by courier bikers all the time. Wish you all could somehow police your own biker community. They need to require biking couriers to have a bike license plate so they can get reported for such activity. They make you all look bad.

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