Following the terrorist attack last Tuesday in which a radical Islamist drove a truck along a bike path in downtown Manhattan, mowing down cyclists and pedestrians as he proclaimed “Allahu akbar!” conservatives glibly offered a solution: Ban motor vehicles. The suggestion, which was made tongue-in-cheek, was intended to mock liberal cries for more stringent handgun legislation every time there is a mass shooting.
Be careful how you joke. One liberal liberal, BuzzFeed published an article titled “We Should Ban Cars From Big Cities. Seriously.”
Author Jesse Singer wrote:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
In the coming days, politicians will try to convince you that what happened on the West Side Highway in Manhattan this week was an issue of terrorism, immigration, or religion. But just like the plague of mass shootings is a gun problem, the thousands of people killed by cars as they walk our streets every year is a car problem.
A gun lobbyist would typically step in right about now to ask whether those who demand gun control after mass shootings also want to ban cars after events like this week. To which I say: Hell yes. Cars don’t belong on the streets of big cities, and we should do everything in our power to get rid of them.
You can’t stop crazy. But you can reduce the number of people allowed to drive their 4,000 pound machines into city parks, along city beaches, past playgrounds, and alongside the sidewalks of the most pedestrian-packed places in the nation. If we banned cars from every city in the US tomorrow, we would stop vehicular terrorism overnight — and save thousands of lives.
Wait — cars don’t belong on streets in big cities? What does she think the streets were made for?
Statements like this are why leftists are often derided as “low-information.”
Singer also offered this:
Self-driving cars have the potential to prevent anyone from being killed by a car ever again. Of course, that requires a city of only autonomous vehicles, and manufacturers who care about the vehicular death toll. If manufacturers don’t program driverless cars to protect pedestrians, then we will be corralled to the sidewalk like so many sheep, blamed for our deaths should we be so bold as to venture near the roar of traffic. That does not sound like an idyllic urban future.
But wait — how can Singer call for a ban on all cars, then turn around and hype driverless vehicles?
In the comment section of the article, one reader responded, “I know this is BuzzFeed so I don’t expect much in the first place, but this is hands down the dumbest f*cking article I’ve ever read.” [Edited to avoid profanity]
People on Twitter were equally taken aback:
This is a joke right?????
— ???? (@hamrick96) November 4, 2017
Sure. Change how WE live for terrorists. Upon which they will promptly find a NEW method to kill us.
— VK (@vjeannek) November 3, 2017
Wait, is this an Onion article?
— ʗhristie ℒee (@ChristieLee__) November 3, 2017
Sure seems like it.
Another person recommended taking the idea a step further:
Ban cities.
— Steph Willems (@willems_steph) November 3, 2017
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