Big road can hurt you

Dan Moskovitz (he/him)

A recent study by the University of Otago found that New Zealand’s automobile industry (Big Road) lobbies similarly to Big Tobacco. The authors found Big Road often framed climate change as caused by individuals, and carless travel as unviable due to the lack of infrastructure. Given the negative health and climate impacts a car-centric society has, the authors argued that the automobile industry is as detrimental to public health as the tobacco and fossil fuel sectors. The study however only examined Big Road’s lobbying tactics and not the actual policy outcomes from said lobbying.