There really is a War on Cars

Brier Dudley, opinion columnist for The Seattle Times, wrote a great piece yesterday on how the “City’s vision for a carless Seattle doesn’t match reality.”

We had him on the show to discuss the issue further and Dudley said that “the Mayor is proposing to change the way that Seattle measures traffic on its street.  Right now they measure the volume so they can figure out which streets are overloaded.  They have a new idea that they instead would just like to count the percentage of single occupant vehicles (in order) to reduce the number of cars on the street.  The city believes that cars are an inefficient use of streets.”

 I laughed.  A lot!  This is an admission of the city’s war on cars.

Dudley continued – “they want to see more non-car use of the streets.  Your car going slow isn’t a big deal.”

And there are economic costs of this mass slow down around the region.  The Federal Department of Transportation estimates that every hour of congestion costs upwards of $17 per person.

Dudley also says this isn’t in alignment with the “Growth Management Act” of 1990.  And many people think the city has not done a good job with the city’s growth.  “Worst of all, city hall is assuming that driving is optional, a lifestyle choice, and that it can force people to change how they live” says Dudley in his piece.

And Dudley told me that “even people that consider themselves very progressive are starting to think it is really getting difficult to get around.  I think people are starting to get pushed to the edge and starting to think about this a little bit differently.”