isaacsapphire:

dryiffsrevitalizingtailholetonic:

one paranoid explanation for the constant attacks on personal internal combustion engine vehicles is that they give people too much freedom. They’re cheap and reliable and can take you 300-400 miles on a tank. You can refill them anywhere. 

Mass transit only runs on set paths. The stations can be closed at any time. Users can be monitored fairly easily. Electric cars have shorter ranges, and take a very long time to recharge. Throw in automation/self-driving bullshit and you have a vehicle fleet the state can disable on a whim. Or take over and send you to a predesignated place. Can’t do that with an older gas engine car. 

That may or may not be the plan™ but still…

Doesn’t have to be The Plan to become someone’s plan.

The rise of the automobile was a big challenge for American law enforcement - the ability to arrive in or leave town very quickly on any path predictable only as far as the next major intersection. You had the “Bonnie & Clyde” wave of bank robbers and the moonshiners that inspired NASCAR, but more subtly it made people like con men and check kiters harder to trace.

Then there was the Dukes of Hazzard issue of criminals operating across jurisdictions, and even into the ‘60s when the Hells Angels had counterculture cred they basically operated like highway Vikings, swooping en masse into small rural outposts and overwhelming the local defenders. Hell, the “serial killer” boom of the 70s and the whole “stranger in a van with candy” figure were pretty much about the new specter of auto-empowered crime

In response you saw the rise of police radio and better interagency cooperation, and legal doctrines that enhanced police power w/r/t automobiles