cars are already a tool of privilege (like many such, they can also be a support for the vulnerable), such a small but terrible step to literally weaponize them.
cars are given priority over pedestrians, over the environment, their roads are given priority over communities. https://twitter.com/newrepublic/status/1386290583170424832

I've researched post-disaster aid distribution centers that were designed to be used exclusively by people in cars. I've traveled in cities and towns, ditto.

cars have long been used as a tool to separate certain people from other people: that's what suburbs and highways are. then in the suburbs, because no one has a reason to walk, people become even more separate.

cars are horribly dangerous, and mostly uselessly so, in the sense that most cars (esp in US) have way more weight and power than the driver will ever need; just like they're mostly uselessly bad for the environment for the same reason and also because

of the space they take up even during the 90+% of the time that the average car is parked.

I enjoy driving under most circumstances. I hate cars.

And cars are used in the US to divide classes. public transportation is generally unpleasant. Subways are an intermediate because lines can be designed to keep certain people out. Buses are often worse. This is not always the case in other places.

They're also made difficult to use. Most public transportation in the US (and many other places) requires stairs or large steps up, making them impossible for people with mobility difficulties. Or with large bags. Or with strollers. Doesn't have to be that way.

When there are elevators they're awful (looking at you, DC @wmata. but at least you have them.) And bathrooms in public transportation are usually terrifying. Want to force families with young kids to buy cars? There you go. In Japan? Subway bathrooms are usable.

I said at the beginning that cars can also support vulnerable people. Of course they can! It's incredibly helpful for a lot of people to have that additional mobility, carrying power, and speed. But a) vast majority of car trips are not necessary, esp if we had public transport

b) cars are not optimized for supporting vulnerable people. Most are optimized for making money by making people feel powerful, fast, or cool.

c) cars do not stand alone. They're woven into a broadly harmful system that includes gas, parking, roads, and insurance.

We should use automotive technology to make devices that support mobility in ways that are less dangerous to pedestrians, harmful to the environment, overwhelming to urban design.

Maybe those would also be devices less easy to use to kill protestors or random crowds.

But at the moment, like so many other things that could be democratizing and/or support vulnerable people, cars and their auxiliary tech are currently designed primarily as tools of privilege.

In Mexico & Argentina & maybe other parts of LatinAm there are (or were -it's been a while since I've been there) a whole range of long-haul bus travel, including buses that are more comfortable than planes. Think about what it means that in US bus travel is uniformly awful.

and trains, where they exist, are not much better. In Mexico, if you don't have a car or prefer not to drive, you can take a bus with huge seats, movies at your seat, and snacks/meals. In the US you fly or drive or you are miserable.

In Europe, if you want to pay a lot for a very comfortable train ride, you get a very comfortable train ride, maybe luxurious even. In the US there are no comfortable trains. First class on the Acela is a joke, I'd say fight me but I'm pretty confident no one will.

This speaks to the assumption that nobody rides public transport, even long-haul public transport (excepting planes) unless they have to; and that the people who have to aren't worth providing good services to.

I've never owned a car in the US (although I have had greater or lesser use of my parents' (single) car at various times). I've been on Greyhound buses where the reading light didn't work and the bus driver asked the passengers if they knew the way b/c he was lost. I've taken

Fung Wah and Bolt and both Acela and non-Acela up and down the Northeast corridor. I've tried to manage without a car in other parts of the US. In NOLA the bus driver warned me about the dangers of public transport. I've taken metrobus in DC a lot.

And I've lived without a car in Europe and traveled without one all over the world. (I've also lived in various places where I didn't own a car but had access to drivers through the NGO I worked for). It's such an enormous difference when you don't need one for everything.

And again, there's a huge multiplier if you have any kind of mobility issue. That could be a disability. It could be you sprained your ankle last week. It could be you're pregnant, or you're carrying a heavy suitcase, or you're wearing heels.

In Germany, for a pretty nominal fee you can reserve a "family compartment" on a train; on Northeast Regionals in the US they don't even have diaper changing tables in the (entirely disgusting) bathrooms.

Also, and this is a tangent, but the food available in transport hubs in the US is abysmal and sad, and that includes airports and 100% includes highway rest stops. In Japan, getting on the train is a reason to eat well. Even in Europe you can eat decently on a train.

coda (probably?): interesting how angry some of the reactions to the initial tweet are. not sure if they're based on attachment to cars or knee-jerk reactions to any use of the word "privilege"