Flutterby™! : Motornormativity

Bloomberg: 'Car Brain' is making the US Unhealthy and Dangerous. EVs won't fix it. (gift link) is a review of Saving Ourselves from Big Car, Roadkill: Unveiling the True Cost of Our Toxic Relationship With Cars, and Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile.

But there’s more to it than that. Texas A&M urban planning professor Tara Goddard has documented a phenomenon called motonormativity — also known as “car brain” — that she defines as an “inability to see beyond the literal and figurative windshield to envision different ways of doing things.” Some blame should also fall on journalists who spend far more time dwelling on violent crime than car crashes, even though an American is roughly twice as likely to die as a road fatality than as a murder victim. Car companies, for their part, have largely managed to duck responsibility for the US crisis in roadway safety, and based on their effusive marketing, one might conclude that operating an electric vehicle improves the environment, rather than merely mitigating damage.

Via.