The Cool Down
When fleeing the wildfires in Southern California, many people stuck on the road were ordered to abandon their vehicles in order to get to safety. But this meant that a barricade of cars blocked fire trucks from reaching the front lines of the blazes.
That's when the bulldozers came in.
While cars feel like an inextricable part of modern life, more and more people are arguing that they pose too great a risk to health, pedestrian safety, and the climate.
And though Americans yearn for walkable cities — 78% would be willing to pay more for them, according to a survey by the National Association of REALTORS® — that reality is still many years away for most of us after decades of car-centered development policy.