[zachkatz]

I know it seems too cartoonish to be real, but if you read about Robert Moses, you’ll see that it is shockingly true. He didn’t just lobby and propogandize; he had absolute power over all public works projects in NYC. That’s not a typo or an exaggeration—absolute power, outside of the established system of checks and balances. And he genuinely loved cars, and hated public transit, so his projects were all designed as such. Since his reign, no one has had nearly as much power (some say he was as powerful as Gengis Khan), so it’s been very difficult to reverse the impact of his decisions.

Robert Moses was so influential in reshaping the urban fabric of the US to prioritize cars that everything else is basically a footnote.

[pfannkuchen]

It isn't the story itself that I'm saying is cartoonish (though it may be as well). It is jumping from that factually happening to that being the primary cause for the nation's car centric infrastructure and lifestyle. IME an emergent social dynamics explanation is much more likely to be correct than a conspiracy theory most of the time.

[zachkatz]

It’s not a conspiracy theory. The nation’s car-centic instructure is a direct result of the decisions and actions of Robert Moses, as detailed in The Power Broker.

Not to say that “emergent social dynamics” didn’t play a role, but Moses singlehandedly built most highways in NYC, and influenced hundreds (thousands?) more around the world. And he built them not simply as a response to emerging demand, but because he personally saw cars as the future of transportation.

I suggest reading The Power Broker to learn more about this; I wouldn’t have believed it either before reading it!