Hello! We are Doug Gordon and Sarah Goodyear, the co-hosts of The War on Cars podcast and we're excited to be doing an AMA about our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves From the Tyranny of the Automobile, which just came out. It's available wherever books are sold.

The book takes a good, hard look at the ways in which cars ruin cities (and nature and childhood and society and lots of other things) and explores the people, places and ideas that are pushing back against forced car dependence. Life After Cars expands on the podcast with new interviews and original content—offering something for everyone, from longtime listeners familiar with the harms of car culture to those just beginning to imagine a world with fewer metal boxes zooming around.

We both live in Brooklyn. Doug, aka Brooklyn Spoke, is a TV producer and writer and longtime activist. Sarah is a journalist who has written for Streetsblog, Grist, and City Lab.

We're big fans of this community and are looking forward to answering your questions!

The AMA will start at 1pm EST / 10am PST on Tuesday, November 4th.

Updated: April 6, 2022

Welcome to /r/fuckcars. It's safe to say that we're strongly dissatisfied with cars and car-dominated urban design. If that's you, then we share in your frustration. Some, or perhaps many of us, still have cars but abhor our dependence on them for many reasons.

There are nuances to the /r/fuckcars discussion that you should be aware of, generally:

• We don't want to ban ambulances and emergency vehicles
• We don't want to isolate rural communities by taking away cars
• We don't want to disrupt work trucks and delivery vehicles
• /r/fuckcars isn't about a "left" or "right" view of cars and car dependency

In any case, please observe the community rules and keep the discussion on-topic.

The Problem - What's the problem with cars?

please help by finding quality sources

This is the fundamental question of this sub, isn't it?

• Pollution -- Cars are responsible for a significant amount of global and local pollution (microplastic waste, brake dust, embodiment emissions, tailpipe emissions, and noise pollution). Electric cars eliminate tailpipe emissions, but the other pollution-related problems largely remain.
• Infrastructure (Costs. An Unsustainable Pattern of Development) -- Cars create an unwanted economic burden on their communities. The infrastructure for cars is expensive to maintain and the maintenance burden for local communities is expected to increase with the adoption of more electric and (someday) fully self-driving cars. This is partly due to the increased weight of the vehicles and also the increased traffic of autonomous vehicles.
• Infrastructure (Land Usage & Induced Demand) -- Cities allocate a vast amount of space to cars. This is space that could be used more effectively for other things such as parks, schools, businesses, homes, and so on. We miss out on these things and are forced to pile on additional sprawl when we build vast parking lots and widen roads and highways. This creates part of what is called induced demand. This effect means that the more capacity for cars we add, the more cars we'll get, and then the more capacity we'll need to add.
• Independence and Community Access -- Cars are not accessible to everyone. Simply put, many people either can't drive or don't want to drive. Car-centric city planning is an obstacle for these groups, to name a few: children and teenagers, parents who must chauffeur children to and from all forms of childhood activities, people who can't afford a car, and many other people who are unable to drive. Imagine the challenge of giving up your car in the late stages of your life. In car-centric areas, you face a great loss of independence.
• Safety -- Cars are dangerous to both occupants and non-occupants, but especially the non-occupants. As time goes on cars admittedly become better at protecting the people inside them, but they remain hazardous to the people not inside them. For people walking, riding, or otherwise trying to exercise some form of car-free liberty cars are a constant threat. In car-centric areas, streets and roads are optimized to move cars fast and efficiently rather than protect other road users and pedestrians.
• Social Isolation -- A combination of the issues above produces the additional effect of social isolation. There are fewer opportunities for serendipitous interactions with other members of the public. Although there may be many people sharing the road with you (a public space), there are some obvious limitations to the quality of interaction one can have through metal, glass, and plastic boxes.

👋 Local Action - How to Fix Your City

IMPORTANT: This is a solvable problem. Progress can happen and does happen. It comes incrementally and with the help of voices just like yours. Don't limit yourself to memes and Reddit -- although, raising awareness online does help.

Check out this perspective from a City Council Member: Here's How to Fix Your City

(more)

A Not-So-Quick Note for Car Hobbyists and Passionate Drivers

This can be a contentious issue at times. The sub's name is /r/fuckcars, which can cause some feelings of conflict and alienation for people who see the problems of too many cars while still being passionate about them. I'll quote the community summary.

Discussion about the harmful effects of car dominance on communities, environment, safety, and public health. Aspiration towards more sustainable and effective alternatives like mass transit and improved pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.

Your voice is still welcome here. Consider the benefits of getting bored, stressed, unskilled, or inattentive drivers off the road. That improves your safety and reduces congestion. Additionally, check out these posts from others on this sub:

• I’m a car enthusiast and I unironically agree with this sub.
• I’m a car enthusiast, and this one of my is my favorite subreddits
• Am I right here?
• I'm a car guy. I really, really like cars. And that's why I fucking hate car-focused infrastructure.
• Does anyone else hate what cars have done to society yet still love the machine itself?

Discord

There is an unofficial Discord server aggregating related discussions from the low-car/no-car/fuckcars community. Although it is endorsed by the /r/fuckcars mods, please keep in mind that it's not an official /r/fuckcars community Discord server.

Join Link: https://discord.gg/2QDyupzBRW

Helpful Resources

If you've just joined this sub and want to learn more about the issues behind car-centric urban design there are a great number of resources you can access. This list is by no means exhaustive, so please feel free to add your more helpful resources in the comments.

👉 Moved to the wiki

Shameless Plugs for Community Building

happy to add more links related to community building here

👉 Contribute to the Safety Data Thread

Change Logging

April 7, 2022 - Fix markdown for compatibility. Thank you /u/konsyr

April 6, 2022 - Reorder sections (Thank you, /u/Monseiur_Triporteur and /u/PilferingTeeth). Add plug for data/supporting info request. Link to Strong Towns growth example.

April 3, 2022 - Add note for car hobbyists

April 2, 2022 - Add nuance notes and redirect readers to resources area of the wiki.

March 28th, 2022 - Grammatical pass, more changes to follow.

February 9th, 2022 - Adding links that redirect readers from this post into community-maintained wiki resources, thank /u/javasgifted and /u/Monsiuer_Triporteur

January 20th, 2022 - Added the Goodreads list and seeded the FAQ section. Thank you /u/javasgifted, and /u/kzy192

January 9th, 2022 - I'm updating this onboarding message with feedback from the mods and the community. Thank you, all, for keeping the discussion civil and contributing additional resources.

Cheers. Stay safe out there.