Angry in Seattle - Okay, Fine, It's War [via The Stranger]

A Manifesto: We Fight Because We Must

Okay, Fine, It's War

Cyclists are dying, collisions are rising, and people who claim that there is a "War on Cars" are out of control—it's time for a reality check and an action plan.

by STRANGER STAFF

JAMES YAMASAKIAspecter is haunting Seattle—the specter of a War on Cars. All the powers of Old Seattle have entered into a "holy" alliance to win this war: Seattle Timespublisher and city council president, columnist Joni Balter and developer Kemper Freeman, Rainier Club regulars and suburban slobs.

Where is the advocate for increased bike and pedestrian safety who has not been branded an anti-car "militant"? Where is the politico who has not used the "War on Cars" rubric as a tool for demonizing the nondriving classes, for marginalizing our city's walkers, bike riders, and mass transit users?

The mindless repetition of this "War on Cars" falsehood—by car advocates harboring a phony, self-serving sense of victimhood—has led to a situation in which this "War on Cars" is acknowledged by most Seattleites to be real. Because of this regrettable specter, it is high time that cyclists, pedestrians, and their transit-­riding comrades openly publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of a "War on Cars" with a manifesto of and by the nondrivers themselves:

[continue reading to see the manifesto at The Stranger]