Quotes
Modern cars all look just the same
“I’ve been a ‘car nut’ for nearly 60 years and while I have always told folks that I don’t care for most cars built before WW II, I feel quite depressed that we have reached […]
Auto culture
Media Analysis
Brock Yates’ death deserves deeper thinking
Stories about the death of long-time automotive journalist Brock Yates quite rightly emphasized his most popular exploits. For example, his creation of the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash illustrated Yates’ flare for publicity stunts at […]
Satire
How to reach out and touch someone
When John Z. DeLorean was head of Chevrolet in the early-70s he got rid of the brand’s massive billboard presence because it allegedly contributed to roadway blight (Wright, 1979). Like so many liberal crusades, that was […]
Photo Essay
Moon over automotive non-place
Olympia is a small capital city located at the southern edge of the Puget Sound in Washington state. On the west side of downtown is a boardwalk and marina. This is a tranquil place, with a panoramic view of […]
Media Analysis
Is the love affair with the car really over?
American society’s relationship with the automobile is changing but the press corps hasn’t kept up. That’s the theme of a cover story in the journalism field’s leading professional magazine. The November/December edition of the Columbia Journalism […]
Readings
‘Carjacked’ book brings up issues the buff media should address
Compared to Asphalt Nation (Holtz, 1997), Carjacked focused more on critiquing car culture and less on presenting policy alternatives. Authors Catherine Lutz and Anne Lutz Fernandez also paid more attention to encouraging individual readers to change […]
Readings
Autopia: Cars and Culture
This collection of roughly 50 essays covers a broad range of topics. For example, Jane Jacobs considered the subtleties of how people could better interact with cars in urban centers; Geremie Barme discussed the “revolutionary” nature […]