Car Culture

IndyKids is a New York-based school newspaper distributed online and in print nationwide to students in grades four through eight. With its distinctly progressive point of view, the ad-free pub aims to counter the often commercialized infotainment that has been piped into American classrooms for decades. Say the editors: "We believe that kids understand what is happening around them and the truth does not have to be sanitized."

Silver also points out that between 2004 and 2008, cities that took the biggest hit in home prices, like Las Vegas and Detroit, were "highly car-dependent," while Portland, Oregon had the largest gains.

When she wrote a column for the New York Sun last year about letting her nine-year-old ride the subway on his own, Lenore Skenazy was pilloried by many as an irresponsible mom. She stuck to her guns, though, and started a blog dedicated to "sane parenting", advocating the idea that we are over-sheltering our children from infinitesimal threats such as stranger abduction. According to Skenazy, the kind of independence represented by that subway trip is necessary and healthy for children -- and their parents as well.

Environmentally-conscious citizens of India aren't alone in their concern about the rollout of the Tata Nano, the "world's cheapest car." But in an op-ed piece for Forbes, Projjal Dutta, the director of sustainability initiatives for the MTA, writes that American critics should look to their own example if they expect developing nations to follow a more sustainable path.

Today's Wall Street Journal reports on the extraordinary lengths that a certain breed of driver will go to in order to avoid culpability for speeding and red-light running. With the use of automated enforcement cameras on the rise, some motorists are making it abundantly clear that they see themselves as above the law:

The Ad Council has some new material in its campaign aimed at teenage drivers. In these spots, a comedic actor (Fred Willard in the ad above) in the backseat of a car with three teens cajoles or threatens the driver into slowing down or minding the road. The gist of the campaign, corresponding with the title of its web site, is "speak up or else" -- a name perhaps more suited to hard-hitting PSAs from overseas.

In this clip from NY1's "Road to City Hall," City Council member Simcha Felder defends his proposal to give drivers a five-minute "grace period" before they can be ticketed for overstaying the time limit at parking spots. Taking the law-and-order view is Transportation Alternatives director Paul White, who points out that codifying parking ticket excuses will simply sow confusion about what constitutes a violation.

Warning: Graphic video