The War on Cars

Since 2025, Nora Leerhsen has served as the acting president of the Chicago Transit Authority, the second-largest transit system in the United States and an indelible icon of the city. She is the first woman to fill the leadership role at CTA since the agency was established in 1947. We talked with her about the joys and challenges of running a system with ridership of more than 330 million a year, the way that children can help us appreciate transit, and the role of public transportation in fostering a healthy democracy.

SHOW NOTES:

CTA introduces child-sized benches at 10 'L' stops

Red Line extension groundbreaking after judge makes Trump administration release funding

Reddit thread, "What would you say to the CTA president Nora Leerhsen?"

2019 study on women in the transportation profession

Support The War on Cars on Patreon.

Get tickets to our live show at Hunter College on Friday, November 6th featuring special guest Janette Sadik-Khan.

Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Get official podcast merch in our new store!

Save 15% on the best rain gear for walking and cycling from Cleverhood. Listen to this episode and visit cleverhood.com/waroncars for your discount.

Learn more how a Bunch Bike can help you go far-free and change the way you get around. Buy a bike and get a free set of party lights. Go to bunchbike.com/waroncars for more information.

TheWarOnCars.org

***This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, presale tickets to live shows, and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.***

Ashik Jain is an architect, planner and the Bicycle Mayor of Pimpri-Chinchwad, the fastest growing industrial city in India and one of the fastest growing cities in the country overall. With that growth has come a host of problems which are common to any rapidly developing region, including pollution and automobile congestion. Thankfully, the city is working on number of initiatives to help make life a little healthier and safer for the people who live there. One of those programs, named Harit Setu ("Green Bridge"), aims to deliver India's first 15-minute neighborhoods, with a complete network of bicycle lanes, continuous sidewalks, public seating, and—rather importantly in a part of the world feeling the effects of climate change quite acutely—green infrastructure and shade. Ashik's story offers lots of valuable lessons to all of us who do this work. Plus, as we discuss, bikelash may be the international language.

Buy our bestselling new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, published by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

And don't miss our upcoming live shows, including our return to Hunter College on November 6th with special guest Janette Sadik-Khan. Check out the full schedule at LifeAfterCars.com.

www.thewaroncars.org

How will the United States spend $580 billion in federal funds for transportation over the next five years? That's the question facing Congress right now, as it's time once again for the transportation reauthorization bill. Our spending priorities have always been wildly lopsided in favor of highways, but under the Trump Administration, the attacks on projects that prioritize transit, biking, and walking are more virulent than ever—and as a result, this bill (which they're calling the BUILD America 250 Act) could be worse than ever for advocates of active transportation. We talked with Mike McGinn, executive director of America Walks and former mayor of Seattle, about the corporate capture of politicians on both sides of the aisle, how better transportation spending can be part of defending democracy, and what actions you can take to help America chart a better course for the future this time around.

Support The War on Cars on Patreon.

Get tickets to our live show at Hunter College on Friday, November 6th featuring special guest Janette Sadik-Khan.

Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

SHOW NOTES:

Find America Walks action alerts here.

Transportation for America's proposals for a better reauthorization bill are here.

Find the official summary of the BUILD America 250 Act here.

Get official podcast merch in our new store!

Save 15% on the best rain gear for walking and cycling from Cleverhood. Listen to this episode and visit cleverhood.com/warcars for your discount.

Learn more how a Bunch Bike can help you go far-free and change the way you get around. Buy a bike and get a free set of party lights. Go to bunchbike.com/waroncars for more information.

TheWarOnCars.org

After New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a social media video showing him listening to concerned citizens and deciding to wear a bicycle helmet, social media exploded. Some people praised the mayor for modeling good behavior while others wished he had kept the focus on larger safety solutions, like protected bike lanes. Needless to say, the conversation was not all that nuanced. So what's the truth about bicycle helmets? What are they designed to do in the event of a crash and what kind of crash are they designed to help you survive? Who sets the standards that ensure that bike helmets meet a minimum level of safety? What does science say about mandatory helmet laws? And, to ask a much larger and more philosophical question, what is it about the mere mention of bicycle helmets that causes the conversation about bike safety to go off the rails, even among people who are normally rather informed about other issues related to public health? What are we talking about—or not talking about—when we're talking about helmets?

Support The War on Cars on Patreon.

Get tickets to our live show at Hunter College on Friday, November 6th featuring special guest Janette Sadik-Khan.

Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

SHOW NOTES:

Watch Mayor Mamdani's helmet video.

Streetsblog: "A Helmet Won't Save Mayor Mamdani from a Crash."

New York Times: "Mayor Mamdani Wears a Bike Helmet. Finally."

Read "There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster—Who Profits and Who Pays the Price" by Jessie Singer.

Popular Mechanics: "How a Bike Helmet Protects Your Head."

Injury Prevention: Systematic reviews of bicycle helmet research

Safety Science: "Cycling fatalities: When a helmet is useless and when it might save your life."

Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute: "Bicycle Helmet Standards Summary."

Cycling Industry News: "Are helmet standards overdue a revision?"

Consumer Reports: "When You Really Need to Replace Your Bike Helmet."

Journal of Safety Research: "The unintended impact of helmet use on bicyclists' risk-taking behaviors."

Injury Prevention: "A systematic review of correct bicycle helmet use: how varying definitions and study quality influence the results."

Canadian Journal of Public Health: "Factors associated with bicycle helmet use and proper fit: a cross-sectional survey of Montreal cyclists during the COVID-19 pandemic."

Dr. Ian Walker: Bicycle overtaking studies

British Medical Journal: "No clear evidence from countries that have enforced the wearing of helmets"

Urban Cycling Institute: "How Do Helmet Laws Impact Cycling Ridership?"

The Conversation: "Have helmet laws put the skids on Australia's bike share scheme?"

Cascade PBS: "Nearly half of Seattle's helmet citations go to homeless people"

Seattle Times: "Racial disparities prompt calls to repeal King County's bicycle helmet law."

Get official podcast merch in our new store!

Save 15% on the best rain gear for walking and cycling from Cleverhood. Listen to this episode and visit cleverhood.com/warcars for your discount.

Learn more how a Bunch Bike can help you go far-free and change the way you get around. Buy a bike and get a free set of party lights. Go to bunchbike.com/thewaroncars for more information.

TheWarOnCars.org

***This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, presale tickets to live shows, and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.***

What can bicycles do for cities? That's the question we asked attendees at this year's Velo-city Conference, organized by the European Cyclists' Federation and held in the Italian city of Rimini. Lots of mayors and elected officials and even advocates talk a lot of what cities should do for cycling, but making it easier for people to cycle in a city unlocks a host of benefits, even for people who will never get on a bike. Hear what people from places around the world—including Mozambique, India, Switzerland, France, and the U.S.—think about the power of the humble bicycle to transform streets, society, and our planet.

Our bestselling new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, published by Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House, is available wherever books are sold.

And don't miss our upcoming live shows, including our return to Hunter College on November 6th. Check out the full schedule at LifeAfterCars.com.

www.thewaroncars.org

***We're taking a quick summer break this week so we're releasing this recent Patreon bonus episode into the general feed. We hope you enjoy it as a taste of what you can get if you sign up to support The War on Cars. We'll be back soon with another regular episode.***

How can people who care about safe streets, transit, and other issues related to our movement take their advocacy to the next level to not just win hearts and minds, but influence elections and enact good policy? There are now a growing number of small political action committees and lobbying groups that have sprung up to explicitly influence and endorse candidates that they see as friendly to the cause. How did they get started? How have they wielded their influence to elect good people who will enact good policies? Does it take a lot of money to make a difference? If ordinary people want to start their own PAC or lobbying group, where do they begin? Doug talked with Eric McClure, the co-founder and executive director of StreetsPAC, which works to elect candidates in New York City and New York State; Kevin Bing, the co-founder of Streets PAC NJ, which focuses on New Jersey; Alex Nelson, a strategic advisor to Better Streets Chicago Action Fund; and Kyle Lucas, the co-founder and executive director of Better Streets Chicago.

Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Save 20% on everything in our official merch store with code HOTBIKESUMMER.

Get 20% off a Fend foldable bike helmet by using this link.

Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway or sell your own bike! Visit Upway.co to get rolling.

Thanks also to Cleverhood. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling.

TheWarOnCars.org

Jarrett Walker's career has been dedicated to improving the quality of public transit in the United States and beyond. A specialist in bus network design, he has led transit planning projects around North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand for decades. He is also the author of the book Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives. It's a classic in the field, and a revised edition came out from Island Press last year. We talked with him about why buses should get more love and how transit advocates can fight for their systems in a hostile funding environment. Plus, should we even be thinking about making buses free? Or is making them fast and frequent more important?

Find out more about Jarrett Walker and his work.

Buy his book, Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives, at our official Bookshop.org page.

Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Save 20% on everything in our official merch store with code HOTBIKESUMMER.

Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway or sell your own bike! Visit Upway.co to get rolling.

Thanks also to Cleverhood. Use code DOGDAYS now through the end of August to get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling.

Get 20% off a FEND foldable bike helmet by using this link.

TheWarOnCars.org

***This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, presale tickets to live shows and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.***

For our July bonus, we speak with Adam Tranter, the former cycling and walking commissioner for the city of West Midlands in the UK and the founder and CEO of Fusion Media about effective messaging for better and safer cycling. Some of you may know Adam as one of the co-hosts of the Streets Ahead podcast. At Fusion Media, Adam created the #BikeIsBest campaign, which included a brilliant video that showed people using far more powerful tools than they needed to do ordinary household tasks. It cuts right to the absurdity of building a system where people default to using pickups, SUVs, and other large automobiles just to do simple tasks like getting milk at a nearby store.

In this conversation, Adam explains that a concept called "pluralistic ignorance" can make it difficult to build the kinds of streets we all want, but there is hope.

Sign up on Patreon to hear the entire episode.

Buy our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, wherever you get your books.

Our final Life After Cars book tour roundup episode is here, with our reports from Atlanta, Memphis, Chicago, Montréal, Orlando, Portland, Maine, and many, many more great North American cities! We get into the good, the bad, and the ugly of everything we saw out there on the road. Plus a discussion of…Reverse Copenhagen Syndrome?

Become a Patreon supporter for access to ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content.

Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Save 20% on everything in our official merch store with code HOTBIKESUMMER.

Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway or sell your own bike! Visit Upway.co to get rolling.

Thanks also to Cleverhood. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling.

TheWarOnCars.org

In most parts of the United States and elsewhere, sidewalks exist in a legal grey area. They are public spaces that, at least when it comes to things such as maintenance and snow removal, are largely the responsibility of private property owners. They are subject to all manner of laws that govern what kinds of activities can take place on them, laws that change not just from city to city, but sometimes from neighborhood to neighborhood, block to block, and address to address. They are also an important part of the transportation network and a key component in the effort to keep pedestrians safe, although certainly not a panacea, even in rural areas.

Michael Pollack, the author of an excellent new book, Sidewalk Nation: The Life and Law of America's Most Overlooked Resource, thinks that sidewalks need a whole lot more consideration in legal and governing circles, and even goes so far as to advocate for the creation of a Department of Sidewalks that can cut through the rather opaque rules that govern these narrow strips of concrete. (Or other materials, given that many sidewalks are often governed by historic preservation laws.)

***For an extended, ad-free version of this episode featuring a bonus conversation about sidewalk delivery robots, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.***

SHOW NOTES:

Buy Sidewalk Nation: The Life and Law of America's Most Overlooked Resourc and support independent booksellers at our official Bookshop.org page.

Order our book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Save 20% on everything in our official merch store with code HOTBIKESUMMER.

Buy a certified, pre-owned e-bike from Upway or sell your own bike! Visit Upway.co to get rolling.

Thanks also to Cleverhood. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get 15% off the best rain gear for walking and cycling.

TheWarOnCars.org