Host: Greg Dalton

Guests:

Peter Norton, associate professor of history at the University of Virginia;

author of Fighting Traffic and Autonorama

Eric Goldwyn, assistant professor at the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management; 

co-founder of the Transit Costs Project

Amanda Eaken, director of transportation for the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge at the Natural Resources Defense Council

Unless you live in one of the few dense, urban parts of the country, you probably rely on a car to get around. That culture of car dependency feels natural, because most of our cities have been built for cars, rather than pedestrians, bikes or dedicated mass transit. But it wasn’t always that way. 

A hundred years ago, people used streets for just about anything, provided it wasn't too obnoxious or too dangerous, says Peter Norton, associate professor at the University of Virginia and an expert on transportation history.

In his book, Fighting Traffic, Norton explains that even as the “motor age” unfolded, Americans resisted car dominance for a long time. 

“The objections ranged everywhere from, ‘this is an obnoxious nuisance’ to ‘this is killing people.’ And it really was,” Norton says. “It felt not only like a danger and a nuisance, but also like an unfairness, you know, ‘a privileged class is ruining or endangering street use for everyone else.’”

Norton says the narrative of American’s so-called “love affair with cars” has been created and sold by car companies like General Motors, who originated that catchphrase. Part of their effort over decades was to redefine transportation mobility and access by cars. 

“In other words, until you have everything accessible by car, it’s not accessible. And perversely, when you make something more accessible by car, you almost inevitably make it less accessible by everything else,” Norton says.  

That way of thinking has become embedded in transportation funding and planning models that continue today. Eric Goldwyn is co-founder of the Transit Costs Project, which compares building costs for public transit in cities around the world. He says there are several reasons why projects in the United States tend to cost a lot more than elsewhere. 

“One thing that we see in the States is that there is a lack of in-house capacity at transit agencies to do the hard work of planning a project and getting public buy-in all sort of lined up in time,” he says. Regulation and labor costs also play a role, but Goldwyn says there’s less public and political appetite for projects here because transit isn’t the main transportation method for the majority of people. If we really want to make it mainstream, he says, we need to invest in regular, frequent and dependable public transit. 

“Unless you make the car less desirable or less effective at getting people where they need to go, then transit’s never really going to win that battle. Transit really needs to be that anywhere to anywhere transportation service.”  

Getting more people out of cars could do a lot to help slow climate disruption. 

Amanda Eaken is director of transportation for the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she has been working to help cities decarbonize their transportation. She says in many places, the pandemic has ushered in a rethinking about what streets are for--a place to walk, dine out and hear music, instead of strictly to move cars. In the last couple years some cities have passed new tax measures to fund transit, created bus rapid transit lanes or bike infrastructure or launched an electric vehicle car sharing program.

Eaken says both President Biden’s infrastructure legislation and the transportation reauthorization bill are “phenomenal opportunities” for the federal government to make big investments in transit infrastructure and operations. Her group is seeking parity of funding between cars and transit.

“Traditionally, the federal government, through the transportation reauthorization bill, has put about 80% of the money towards roads and highways and only a fixed 20% to transit. We’re calling for a leveling of that playing field,” Eaken says.   

Related Links:

Transit Costs Project 

Fighting Traffic

Autonorama

July 23, 2021 marks ten years since the passing of the beloved New England folk singer, songwriter, and author Bill Morrissey. This week on Folk Alley, we remember Bill Morrissey and pay tribute to his brilliance with exclusive performances by Cliff Eberhardt, John Gorka, Shawn Colvin, and Mark Erelli, recorded live in 2011 at the Bill Morrissey Tribute Concert in Somerville, MA; plus, songs from Greg Brown's 1993 'Friend of Mine' collaboration with Bill; and more from Dave Alvin, Lucy Kaplansky, Session Americana, and the man himself. 

In hour two, we remember Bread & Roses founder and folk luminary, Mimi Fariña on the 20th anniversary of her passing with a special set that was recorded live in Germany in 1988; new music by Anna Tivel, Joe Troop, Tré Burt, Tim O'Brien, Anya Hinkle, Laura Love, and Charlie Parr; plus favorites from Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards, and more.

It’s a truism that jazz has roots in Africa, but compared with other forms of Black American music, it doesn’t have a large audience there. Just the same, African musicians have long been smitten with jazz, and have always found inventive ways to incorporate jazz elements into their sounds. On this program we meet young artists forging new paths in Afro-Jazz: Etuk Ubong from Nigeria, Awale Jant Band from Senegal by way of London, Afrikan Protokol form Burkina Faso by way of Belgium. It’s a freewheeling musical joyride. Produced by Banning Eyre.

They say love means never having to say you’re sorry. But what if that popular aphorism from the 1960’s is wrong and that love precisely means having to say you’re sorry? Can an apology release the trauma, grief, rage and disfigurement arising from past abuse? But what if the perpetrator does not apologize? Can you still resolve or reconcile the trauma and hurt? How? These are some of the agonizing questions that the artist, playwright, performer and activist Eve Ensler, now known as V chose to face to resolve her own relationship with her abusive late father. She did it by writing a book, The Apology. In writing it, she tried to imagine being her father. Who was he? What allowed him to do such terrible harms? Could she free herself from this prison of the past? Could she free both of them?

Our guests this week on Art of the Song are Rosanne Cash, and her husband/collaborator John Leventhal. The eldest daughter of country music icon, Johnny Cash, Rosanne has had an illustrious career of her own, with 21 top 40 country hits including 11 number ones.  We spoke with Rosanne and John about her album, The River and the Thread, a historic landscape of the American South. The album’s unique sound, which draws from country, blues, gospel, and rock, reflects the soulful mix of music that traces its history to the region.

This month on Climate Connections: 

Air Date        Title 

Mon., 7/12 - Wildfires are especially dangerous for people with disabilities: Mobility limitations can make it hard to evacuate in an emergency, for example. 

Tue., 7/13 - Seagrass can help reduce ocean acidification at local scales: Underwater seagrass meadows absorb carbon dioxide, reducing acidification in the area, recent research shows.

Wed., 7/14 - Wildfire smoke may be even more toxic than previously thought: During a wildfire, hospital admissions for respiratory illnesses in Southern California increase, according to a recent study.

Thu., 7/15 - Underserved communities could miss out on the benefits of electric vehicles: Only a few states and utilities are working to ensure that charging infrastructure is deployed equitably.

Fri., 7/16 - Environmentalist drag queen says the outdoors belongs to everyone: Pattie Gonia is using social media to spread awareness about climate change and other environmental issues.

Mon., 7/19 - Coral reefs prevent more than $1.8 billion a year in U.S. flood damage: But climate change and habitat destruction threaten reefs and their ability to offer this protection.

Tue., 7/20 - The Grand Canyon can get dangerously hot: And the risk to hikers in the canyon’s interior is growing as the climate warms.

Wed., 7/21 - National coalition of community groups fights for flooding solutions: Anthropocene Alliance helps amplify the voices of people experiencing extreme weather.  

Thu., 7/22 - Lack of affordable housing makes wildfire recovery more difficult: Some Oregonians whose homes burned in the September 2020 Alameda fire are still living in hotels.

Fri., 7/23 - Volunteers work to protect iconic saguaro cactuses: An invasive, drought-tolerant grass is spreading across the Sonoran desert, increasing the risk of wildfires that destroy the cactuses.

Mon., 7/26 - Greek island Tilos goes renewable, gets more reliable electricity: A wind and solar system with battery storage now provides 60-70% of the island’s power.

Tue., 7/27 - Heat waves pose extra dangers to people experiencing homelessness: It’s hard to stay cool when you must spend many hours outdoors.

Wed., 7/28 - How to keep groceries and the planet cool: Many older refrigerators contain potent heat-trapping gases, so they must be recycled properly.

Thu., 7/29 - Sea-level rise rates more than double along part of East Coast: Melting glacial ice and warming oceans are the biggest causes of this change.

Fri., 7/30 - Households waste more than 500 million metric tons of food each year: That’s more than is wasted in restaurants and grocery stores combined.

Mon., 8/2 - Maritime shipping causes more carbon pollution than airlines: Fossil-fuel-burning ships transport a vast amount of cargo across the world’s oceans each year.

Tue., 8/3 - Indigenous rancher stewards the land: Kelsey Ducheneaux-Scott uses regenerative grazing to mimic the impact that bison once had on the Great Plains.

Wed., 8/4 - Deep sea trawling unleashes carbon from the ocean floor: Sediments at the bottom of the ocean store more carbon than all the soil on Earth.

Thu., 8/5 - Older adults face higher risk of heat-related illnesses: Chronic health problems like diabetes or heart disease increase their vulnerability to heat-related illnesses.

Fri., 8/6 - Allergy season is now more than a week longer, thanks to climate change: Rising carbon dioxide levels also make plants produce more pollen.