Back in 2014, a New York Times article repeated Uber and Lyft’s wild claims that ride-sharing services could lead to cheaper rides, more housing, less greenhouse emissions, and even better public funding for mass-transit.
Ten years later and we can clearly see that these ride-sharing services have actually made these problems worse. In San Francisco, for example, Uber and Lyft have caused a 40% increase in traffic congestion. More traffic means more emissions. These companies also fought regulations to fairly pay their drivers, meaning most of Uber and Lyft drivers can’t even afford to live in the city they work in. Meaning these drivers have to commute into the city from further and further away… which leads to more traffic congestion.
Now huge companies like Google and GM are repeating these wild claims when they hype up their self-driving car services. GM thinks the solution to San Francisco’s car problem is more cars? What a surprise.
A few months back, a group of activists called SafeStreetRebels organized ConeSF and the #WeekOfCone, where they showed how easily these cars can be disabled by simply putting a traffic cone on their hood. If you follow the local news, you know these cars don’t need any cones to suddenly stop working while on our streets, but the ConeSF protest helped bring scrutiny to the impact these self-driving cars were having on our city.
As a fan of SafeStreetRebels actions, I designed some “coned car” illustrations that anyone can print up and distribute as they wish. These stickers are CC-BY Doc Pop, so you can print them, sell them, give them away, or stick them on whatever you want. Please share attribution when possible, but you don’t need to print it on the stickers.
I’ve seen green ones, holographic ones, and glittery ones. As far as printers, I’m a fan of Sticker Ninja, Sticky Brand, and Sticker Giant, but there are plenty of other options out there. I’d recommend a 3″ wide sticker, custom shaped, on a glitter holographic background. Like the ones below:
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