Who's Afraid of a Car-Free Day? The Competitive Enterprise Institute, Apparently

As a Ford stockholder, I am angry, Their stock has tanked, they have no dividends, and they blame environmentalists? Its their own boneheaded management. Toyota and Honda are thriving, and GM is cleaning their clock with re-badged Opels.

The "logic" in this video makes me physically ill.

I think everyone bringing personal cameras and taping these events like this video suggests is a great idea! We could have avoided the recent tragedy in Seattle where a group of bikers calling themselves Critical Mass attacked a car driver, punched him in the face through his open window, slashed his tires and after dragging him out of his car, someone hit him in the head with a bike lock and put him in the hospital with serious injuries!

The Pregnant woman with him may have miscarried, this isn't known since the family does not want these details in the media, but as I reported to the police when i was there on a recent trip to Seattle to visit friends, Some one in the crowd said "Today we took our knives and slashed your tires and if you try to stop us we'll take our knives and slash your throats"!

Yes, we need citizen cameras at ALL of these events!

the last post was flame bait and should be pulled.

Concur. I would rely on legit media outlets for news like that, not some likely-contrived rumour.

Unconvinced is one of those fanatics that will keep poping up as along as Critical Mass continues to do their own fundamentalist approach.
Idiots attract idots and both attract violence...

Happy Car-Free day in advance!

Yeah, if you're gonna say that violence occured, that's relevant, but for heavens sake, if you're serious, include a link. That's how lawsuits get started.

CEI also funded by Coca-cola. No wonder they want to depress the effect of anti-bottled water campaigns.

Dear Unconvinced,

You sir, are a liar.

Thank you,
A faithful rider of critical mass

Yea Gads! Unconvinced is spouting all sorts of 1/2 truths and exagerations. Here is a description of the "events" posted by a bike-friendly group in Seattle after a community forum arranged by the City and the Seattle police:

http://seattlelikesbikes.org/wordpress/?p=49

Bottom line driver and critical massers overreacted.

I'm pretty sure the whole pregant-passenger myth was dispelled right away.

Here is a quote from the driver who ran into the cyclists and was attacked: “I sympathize with [cyclists’] cause. I ride bikes too. I’m a liberal hippie democrat,” he says, adding “I’m gay, the person with me was a lesbian and we were a attacked by eco-terrorists. It’s the most Seattle thing that could have happened." His side of the story can be found here:

http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/the_driver_speaks

I hope that is even handed enough for you all, no go draw your own conlusions.

I don't think anyone participating in Car Free Day is advocating complete elimination of motorized transportation. CEI is advancing a fallacious argument built on a false dichotomy - Everyone must use cars, or NO ONE CAN (not even the handicapped or the farmers).

The argument is so thin, it's transparent.

Their contest is begging for a demonstration of Poe's Law applied to automobile advocacy.

I think this is a great start. But to go any further it will fundamentally rerquire a complete overhaul of our infrastructure. I am an American currently living in Hiroshima, Japan and have lived in Japan for almost five years. Do you know the when the last time I drove a car was? About 5 years ago. Do you know how much money that has saved me? Thousands, tens of thousands of dollars. My point is things like going car free are easy if our frastructure allows it. And it won't change until we demand it.

Why not get out there and film some successes of Car Free day and post a response. Maybe you'll be able to overwhelm them.

I'd contribute a video, but most days for me are car-free days. I don't think a video of me walking to work and walking home again would be very exciting.

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Yeah, that's their underlying driver, isn't it? It's always easier to ridicule and diss someone else and a lot less exciting to simply do the work!

You have to remember, CEI are 'international investors' who do not believe in national citizenship or love of country. They simply want a return to the days when there were no laws which 'hindered' investors.

In this case, they represent wealthy oil states of the Middle East. ANYTHING that gets in the way of the wealth transfer from here to there is simply bad for CEI's patrons.

Energy conservation IS patriotic!

I think there would be less craziness around bike riding if it wasn't such an ordeal and a hazard. In the bad old days you took your life in your hands if you rode anywhere but a quiet country lane. I find bikers in NY are more polite and considerate since they started getting bike lanes. This also assisted police in ticketing miscreants.

After all, most motorists are cool and normal, there are only hot-rodders and pushy truck drivers out there, but curb them and driving is much easier too. It's the same with bikes.