University of Iowa College of Law Associate Professor Gregory H. Shill wrote an interesting piece for The Atlantic that looks at how lawmakers essentially made America car-dependant by law. Here’s a short excerpt from his piece, which is based on a forthcoming piece he’ll be publishing in a professional journal: “Over the course of several generations lawmakers rewrote the rules of American life to conform to the interests of Big Oil, the auto barons, and the car-loving 1 percenters of the Roaring Twenties. They gave legal force to a mind-set — let’s call it automobile supremacy — that kills 40,000 Americans a year and seriously injures more than 4 million more. Include all those harmed by emissions and climate change, and the damage is even greater.” The article initially points at zoning decisions at the local level — specifically parking — as a key reason for automobile supremacy. It goes on to describe how the automobile took over because the legal system helped squeeze out alternatives. Here’s the full piece: Read more