Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Automakers

How to Reframe the Narrative About Car Dependency

Photo: <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/jVWxLStmxPU"Clay Leconey, CC

"Roadway safety is a shared responsibility, and people in cars and outside of cars play an equal role in keeping each other safe."

"Sprawl is good, actually, because it means people can have big, beautiful houses and some quality alone time on their daily commutes."

"We won’t need to worry about transportation emissions or the broader impacts of automobiles on the environment for that much longer, because haven’t you heard? Electric cars are here!"

Those phrases might make the average sustainable transportation advocate's blood pressure spike. But in the world of corporate disinformation, they're simply a handy way to reframe the conversation about car dependency — and to manipulate the public into accepting the avoidable deaths of their loved ones and their planet.

On today's episode of The Brake, host Kea Wilson brings you an extended interview with Grant Ennis, author of Dark PR: How Corporate Disinformation Harms Our Health and the EnvironmentListen below, and check out a sharable summary of the "nine devious frames" he outlines in his book here. 

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Krakow is a Polish Pedestrian Paradise

Check out how car drivers simply stop for pedestrians — and not just pedestrians in a crosswalk, but also pedestrians about to enter a crosswalk or even just thinking about maybe entering a crosswalk.

July 25, 2025

Friday Video: The Secret to Getting People Biking In a Hilly City

Steep streets don't have to put a stop to your city's cycling future.

July 25, 2025

Friday’s Headlines Look to the Future

Despite some minor reforms around the edges under President Biden, U.S. transportation remains a car-centric anachronism.

July 25, 2025

Talking Headways Podcast: Measuring Transportation System Success

Karel Martens on how transportation engineering is good at finding problems but not solving them — and a new tool to measure policy success.

July 24, 2025

What Will It Take to Automatically Brick Drivers’ Cell Phones Behind the Wheel?

The technology to stop cell phone use behind the wheel has existed for years. Why are so few drivers using it – and why aren't lawmakers making them?

July 24, 2025

Thursday’s Headlines See Mixed Results

It's easier to commit to Vision Zero as a concept than it is to actually implement its principles.

July 24, 2025
See all posts