We've looked at why and how land-use planning and the current transport system make us dependent on the car. We've also seen the limits of public transport today, and the pitfalls to be avoided to make these services truly accessible to all in the future. But where do we start to reverse car culture? What can we do in the face of all this disaster? Here's three ideas: sabotage, reappropriate, collectivize.
Sabotage
We are collectively inheriting a fleet of machines worthy only of another era. The oversized bodies of gasoline-, diesel-, and electric-powered vehicles dominate our urban and rural spaces. If things proceed as planned, not only will these hulking skeletons remain until the end of their working lives, but the factories that produced them will also continue to operate at full capacity for as long as possible, flooding our living environments with an endless stream of private vehicles.
The long-awaited day when these factories shut down on their own, with no new ones to replace them, will never arrive. If we want to see our cities free of the roar of engines and the hum of batteries, if we want to see spaces reclaimed by living beings instead of dominated by empty or semi-empty vehicles, we must halt the car industry's expansion by directly targeting its infrastructure.
Fortunately, we have many options. The automotive production chain is long, offering countless points where disruption can ripple through the entire industry. Factories producing parts, batteries, and vehicles, along with transport hubs like trains and trucks, dealerships, gas stations, and recharging stations, are all hotspots where targeted disruptions could significantly impact the industry.
We must also dismantle the illusion of invincibility that a metal frame gives its drivers. Protection does not equate to impunity. Drivers who endanger cyclists and pedestrians through reckless maneuvers or careless nonchalance are not immune from consequences (see: Killing Tank Culture with Kryptonite, last issue). Even the most imposing cars have their vulnerabilities.
Reappropriate
We don't have to wait for the collapse of fossil capital or the end of the solo car era to reclaim our living spaces and modes of transport.
Public transit accessibility for all is just a turnstile hop away. Let's normalize free access to public transportation and protect our fellow jumpers from police repression. By reporting fare inspectors in messaging groups created for the occasion, we can make free access to public transit safer and more accessible. Let's put the need for free transit into action!
Calling for a fare strike, where we collectively decide to stop paying for buses and metros, can become a powerful act of collective action. We can draw inspiration from a group of young anarcho-syndicalists in Stockholm who, in the early 2000s, used this tactic to demand free transport, collective ownership of the system, and worker management. Their movement, called Planka.nu (translated as Grèvedetarif.maintenant), placed stickers in metro stations, encouraging citizens to take direct ownership of transport. Got any ideas?
As for reclaiming space outside: it may seem normal that much of our cities are filled with cars, but consider this—nearly 75% of Montreal's roadways are devoted to cars.1 Try filling a single parking space with garden furniture, and you'll see that one less parked car could make way for an entire terrace. The alternative possibilities for these parking spaces are endless: community terraces, communal gardens, bike racks, hopscotch games. All that's left is to take them back.
Collectivize
Finally, because the need for transportation is not going to disappear anytime soon, we urgently need to pool available resources and find solutions together.
To reduce the need for cars, why not share one with your roommates? Your family? Your neighbors? Why not do the same with our cargo bikes, trailers, and scooters? Let’s also consider sharing the village pickup truck while we're at it!
Why not pool our tools and knowledge, and repair our bikes and other means of transport together? Share our knowledge, develop our mechanical skills and build our collective resilience. Changing tires, brake cables, exchanging frames, handlebars, offering advice, and spending a little time together, perhaps?
Ensure everyone has the means to get around, so we can move together towards a radically just, sustainable, and collective future.
Another path forward includes decommodifying housing alongside mass transit, taxing the rich—perhaps to the point of eating them—and developing a robust mass transit system that can effectively reduce car use. This could involve transforming highways into lanes dedicated entirely to mass transit and decentralizing cities to drive out the ideology of colonial and racial capitalism.
Take action!
The destructive logic of capital can be resisted. Massive investment in the automotive industry is omnipresent — targets are all around us, and they are highly vulnerable. By opposing the proliferation of cars — both gasoline-powered and battery-powered — we stand in solidarity with Indigenous groups protecting their lands from mining. By actively fighting for free, widespread, accessible, and self-managed public and active transport, we directly challenge the capitalist market by undermining its opportunities for profit. At the same time, we are building transportation for all, enhancing our collective capacity for resistance.
Join the fight!
From unions to environmental organizations, many groups are organizing for better public transit. Rage Climatique is part of this struggle, organizing in an egalitarian and horizontal way, from an ecological, anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, anti-patriarchal, and anti-oppressive perspective. You can join us at rageclimatique at riseup dot net. We look forward to meeting you and joining our collective efforts!
Notes
1. Lefebvre-Ropars, G., Morency, C. et Negron-Poblete, P. (2021) Caractérisation du partage de la voirie à Montréal. Note de recherche, Polytechnique Montréal, 15 pages. https://www.polymtl.ca/mobilite/publications