No new highways

For many years now we've dealt with extreme weather events. They can be very discouraging, but that's why some of us do climate advocacy. It's good to remind ourselves and others of that, and to hopefully convert some of that discouragement into action. That's why I've started responding to news of climate disasters with "No new highways!"

Sloganeering has a long and mixed history, but recently we've seen advocates get traction with slogans like "tax the rich," "defund the police" and "medicare for all." In the transportation sector we have "ban cars."

Most of these slogans have gotten pushback. Is "defund the police" too extreme? Will "ban cars" alienate too many people? I've seen people on Bluesky twist themselves into knots trying to explain that they didn't really mean "ban cars." I personally think it's healthy to get pushback, because it means we're getting our message across. But we should mean what we say, and the best slogans are the ones that get meaningful action.

I personally don't see a way out of this climate disaster without ending car use, and I'm not going to go out of my way to criticize anyone who says "ban cars" in a debate. But I'm wondering if there's a slogan that's just a little bit outside people's Overton windows, that might help them to see a way out.

There are lots of places where we can push back on the cycle of car dependency. We've seen over the years that it's not enough to build abundant transit while other people are building abundant roads and parking. We could ban cars. We could charge more for driving. We could ban new highways.

The best slogan to use may depend on the context. In New York, we used to respond to some events with "congestion pricing now!" but now that we have congestion pricing, we might come up with a slogan about raising the congestion pricing fee. I used to say "tear it down" about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, but we really need to start talking about the Cross-Harbor Rail Freight Tunnel.

We really need to get people thinking about not wasting our public money on new highways and parking. That means we need to associate highways and parking with climate disaster in their minds, the way we associate them in our minds. That's why I've been saying "no new highways." But I'm open to other possibilities. What slogans are you using?