Though small in number, the elected interests of most local cities give disproportionate attention to business interests and their pro-driving beliefs. Even in progressive Berkeley, home of many climate scientists from the university, transportation decisions are dictated by science illiterates and business interests, not the city’s intellectuals. When Berkeley proposed building a bike lane in my neighborhood, which has no protected bike lanes near a prominent middle school, many wise locals went uncharacteristically nuts. Plastered on neighborhood businesses were conspiracy theories about a United Nations agenda to force people into plastic cities where they won’t be allowed to own cars. Every other lawn has signs proclaiming economic ruin if drivers are forced to park a whopping 30 seconds away on side streets rather than directly in front of businesses.

Despite the town being highly educated, many Berkeleyans simply closed their ears to modern climate science and empirical evidence on transportation. A writer for The New York Times, one of many residing in Berkeley, privately remarked to me how astonishing it was to witness such a sophisticated population reacting like simpletons to the most modest safety improvements that are commonplace throughout the world.