Congress to America: “Get a Car!”

Photographer and blogger Jay Mallin, whose video of Woodbridge, VA police ticketing injured pedestrians was picked up by Streetsblog NYC a year ago, has turned his attention to the congressional transportation debacle.

Mallin’s new video is entitled “Get a Car,” and is named for the apparent message of the House transportation bill, and, to a lesser degree, the Senate bill. “The new bills are called ‘transportation’ bills,” Mallin says, “but the reality is they would pretty much limit Americans to their cars.” Walking and biking, it seems to Mallin, “are strictly for kids” according to Congressmen like Bill Shuster, who claimed during this month’s marathon T&I markup that his fellow Pennsylvanians loved their kids as much as anybody, right before voting to eliminate the Safe Routes to School program.

Of course, walking and biking aren’t just for kids, and Mallin uses powerful stories to get that point across, like the car wash attendant who was killed while biking to work on a street with paltry sidewalks and no bike lane, and Raquel Nelson, who was charged with vehicular homicide after a drunk driver ran down her son as he tried to walk from a bus stop to his home on the other side of the street.

With its transportation legislation, Congress seems to have just one answer for Americans who struggle in a car-centric system: Get a car.