Has Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn really declared a "war on cars?" Or is that just a manufactured right-wing talking point?

http://tinyurl.com/34thhyo

At the blog of the green think tank, the Sightline Institute, Eric De Place has a fascinating blog post today investigating the origin of the term "war on cars."

De Place traces the popularization of the phrase to the conservative Heritage Foundation, suggesting the term has been parroted by a network of conservative bloggers, who borrowed some of their ideas from a transportation controversy in Toronto.

"So that’s the origin of Seattle’s “war on cars” tempest in a teapot: it was a low-level “meme” that circulated for a decade or so; bubbled up in Toronto; was then picked up by a few right-leaning national pundits in the US; and was then parroted by the Seattle-area noise machine."

Of course, if there were a "war on cars," you can bet Sightline Institute wouldn't enlist on the side of General Motors.

Still, De Place thinks it's silly to cite proposals to increase parking rates as evidence of a Seattle "war on cars" when most local leaders are supporting two car-centric mega projects: the new waterfront tunnel and 520 bridge.

He concludes:

"There's something almost laughably overheated about the "war on cars" rhetoric. It's almost as if the purveyors of the phrase have either lost their cool entirely, or else they're trying desperately to avoid a level-headed discussion of transportation policy."

It's worth a read, whichever side of the war-or-not-war you are on.