Nathan Cardon

A 1960s portrait of Secretary of the Interior, Stewart L. Udall, By Official Administration photograph - JFK Library: Stewart L Udall, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18389534

In October 1972, almost exactly a year before the start of the 1973 Oil Crisis, former Secretary of the Interior, Stewart L. Udall, wrote an essay for 'The Atlantic' (@theatlantic.com) titled, "The Last Traffic Jam" that 54 years later speaks directly to our current moment. A 🧵:

Bike Boom: The Unexpected Resurgence of Cycling Bike Boom: The Unexpected Resurgence of Cycling : Carlton Reid: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Shout out to @carltonreid.com who put me on to Udall's anticar agenda in his book 'Bike Boom' amzn.eu/d/0gWFZLJQ

Anyways, you can read about Udall and the politics of cycling and U.S. global power in my forthcoming book for @columbiaup.bsky.social - The World Awheel: the United States and the First Global Bicycle Age.

"The choice facing the American people is not between growth and stagnation, but between short-term growth and long-term disaster." By all appearances, in 2026, the U.S. has settled on the latter...

was to move away from the motorcar and airplane to trains, busses, and bicycles. For Udall, this was a patriotic argument about the projection of U.S. power. In the end, looking at the choice between reorienting cities away from cars to human-scale mobility, Udall put it this way:...

This was consistent with his long term beliefs. As early as 1964 he was criticising the "tyranny of the automobile" and "the cancer of suburban sprawl." Few people had better knowledge of the U.S.' reliance on foreign oil, and Udall made a plea that the best way to preserve U.S. power abroad...

Paris school streets are raising the global bar for children’s wellbeing More than 300 streets in the French capital have been redesigned to be traffic free. The welcome sense of calm is not going unnoticed

human-scale mobility." Such policies he believed would prompt American cities to "build quick, quiet, and convenient modes of transportation ranging from bicycle paths to mass transit systems." In essence, Udall wanted American cities to do what Paris is doing now: www.ft.com/content/4451...

the independence it provides us," he predicted correctly. The solution for Udall was obvious: "transportation policy should seek a balance between individual convenience, the efficient use of limited resources, and urban-living values that protect spaciousness, natural beauty, and...

finite. This, he noted, made the U.S. dependent on the oil of foreign nations, especially in the Middle East. Without "growth-limit policies for the auto industry, events will thrust us into a crisis that will lead to the substantial erosion of our domestic oil supply as well as...

Udall was also a conservationist and often critical of the very world this mineral frontier created, no more so than in The Last Traffic Jam. In the essay, he outlined the devastating impact of automobiles on American cities, while citing data from the oil industry that U.S. reserves were...

As @megan-a-black.bsky.social has made clear in her brilliant book, 'The Global Interior,' Udall was a key player that expanded the U.S. mineral and oil frontier from Indigenous land in North America to the rest of the world. A form of expanding US foreign power.

A 1960s portrait of Secretary of the Interior, Stewart L. Udall, By Official Administration photograph - JFK Library: Stewart L Udall, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18389534

In October 1972, almost exactly a year before the start of the 1973 Oil Crisis, former Secretary of the Interior, Stewart L. Udall, wrote an essay for 'The Atlantic' (@theatlantic.com) titled, "The Last Traffic Jam" that 54 years later speaks directly to our current moment. A 🧵:

I guess it wasn't a good idea to power our entire transportation network on a single imported commodity from a region with a long history of instability (often engineered by ourselves)?

Expect the British media, including the BBC, to now fully align behind Reform (more than they already do).

A good overview. Also includes sound advice for Labour should it wish to revive its fortunes.

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...

If America still had the rule of law, this would be the easiest prosecution ever, but we all know absolutely nothing will happen.

In Brum, daily vehicles are up nearly 9,000 since 2022.

More cars = more danger, more pollution at child height, fewer kids walking or cycling.

If we care about children’s health, it’s time to introduce a congestion charge - and cut traffic, not just emissions.

www.itv.com/news/central...

@greenparty.org.uk yes, please!

This result shows
1 English voters will swing to whichever party of the left will keep out the crazies
2 Even with star candidates Reform fizzles, discouraging the consolidation of the far right
3 The Starmer tack of treating Reform delusions as “legitimate grievances” has no future

INTRODUCING! Hannah Spencer The new Green MP for GORTON & DENTON Green Party Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ

Introducing Hannah Spencer MP 💚

Thanks to @cambridgebookshop.bsky.social for this wonderful window display featuring Keeping Hold!

GREEN VS REFORM VOTE GREEN! Green Party Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ

Today is the day.

Hope vs hate.

Green vs Reform.

Vote Green in Gorton & Denton.

The mistreatment of prisoners in Louisiana has a long history that goes back to the founding of Angola penitentiary in 1901. As well as before in the state's use of Black convict labor via the leasing system. Something I wrote about in 2017 for Louisiana History.

www.jstor.org/stable/26290...

Job in early modern history at Warwick 👇 warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

I may start assuming all emails from work are phishing scams. You can never be too careful...

I deleted it. Assumed it was a phishing email. On the vanguard of safety.

Listen to our podcast – Better Streets for Birmingham Listen to our podcast where we talk to experts, activists and those experiencing Britain’s motor city from outside a car.

New episode of the Better Streets for Birmingham podcast came out on Monday.

SUVs - the damage they cause and charging them fairly. betterstreetsforbirmingham.org/podcast/

CONFERENCE - 'Sociability & Political Life', University of York, 3rd/4th July 2026

Get your abstracts in by 14th Feb!

It would be great to see a UK equivalent of this. I wonder where @unibirmingham.bsky.social would end up? Given that Gen Z is the generation least likely to drive or have a licence, it could be a good way to attract students.

Dinner with Mr Brexit: Bannon’s European Revolution – Planned with Farage, Backed by Epstein Nigel Farage was the figurehead and his partner Laure Ferrari started it. Steve Bannon and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were providing almost daily support

Epstein managed different networks. The UK media has rightly centred the powerful pedophile ring. It has maintained an uncanny silence about the global, anti-democratic, far right political network. Farage is up to his neck in it. If it weren’t for unprecedented double standards it’d be career over.