William Clay Ford Jr. Quotes

Our vision for the world is making car ownership unnecessary.

The overwhelming success of San Antonio B-Cycle has proven that San Antonio is a model city for bike-sharing, and as we work toward creating a fitter city, the bike-share program encourages a more active and healthy lifestyle.

We didn't build the modern country to be bike-friendly - our initial round of infrastructure was not designed to think about how to get around if you're not in a car. So we've got to be targeting resources, both nationally and locally, to how people are going to get around in the new world.

We need to improve our public transportation and invest in physical infrastructure changes so that people can safely choose alternatives to driving like walking, riding a bike or even, yes, electric scooters.

In March 2005, I was appointed to the board of the Santa Barbara metro transit district. I was incredibly optimistic about how public transportation can be the solution to help people live in the city and not need a car.

The problem of getting from home to the metro, BRT or bus stop makes many people take their cars to work. Why not start a fleet of electric buses that just circle through neighbourhoods connecting them to the various public transport hubs?

It makes no sense to make people drive cars.

Technology is rapidly changing our transportation systems, and if we craft smart regulations, these changes can be for the better.

Improving our transportation infrastructure reduces car trips, helps us reach our carbon emission reduction goals, is healthier for our residents, and saves lives. Too often in the past we have been slow to make these common sense improvements to our streets.

Even if we accepted the health implications of pollution and the impact on global warming, from a simple space management perspective, mobility will eventually collapse in cities that give priority to the car.

With pollution from traffic a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, we should be building a transport and planning system that makes car-free travel for shorter distances the norm for the majority.

What if we fail to stop the erosion of cities by automobiles? ... In that case America will hardly need to ponder a mystery that has troubled men for millennia. What is the purpose of life? For us, the answer will be clear, established and for all practical purposes indisputable. The purpose of life is to produce and consume automobiles.

In Australia’s biggest cities, public transport is generally slow, expensive, not especially reliable and still hideous drain on the public purse. Part of the problem is inefficient, overmanned, union-dominated government run train and bus systems. Mostly though, …there just aren’t enough people wanting to go from a particular place to a particular destination at a particular time to justify any vehicle larger than a car, and cars need roads.

If I ever have to stop taking the subway, I'm gonna have a heart attack.

I don't think people are going to switch over to bikes because it's good for them or because it's politically correct. They're going to do it because it gets them from A to B faster.

If you had a carbon tax, you'd have less cars and more bicycles, more people getting around on foot and by public transport.

I know well the opportunities and the challenges of maintaining and improving infrastructure and providing good transportation choices.

In Copenhagen, we all ride bicycles everywhere, partly because it is impossible to park a car, but also because you can cross the city in 20 minutes on a bike.

Growing up in New York City, my car culture is minimal. I rode on the train, the bus. I walked; I rode my bike, and when I was younger, I rode my skateboard.

Everywhere I go, I see incredible examples of communities that have a vision for transportation and how it will impact the quality of life, mobility, economics and opportunity.

What Paris has done right is to make it awful to get around by car and awfully easy to get around by public transportation or by bike.

Whether you live in a city or a small town, and whether you drive a car, take the bus or ride a train, at some point in the day, everyone is a pedestrian.

Our congressional district is the fastest growing in the state. Nowhere is there a greater need for new and improved roads and transit systems that will spare us the hours we spend each day in traffic.

We could live in a much better society if there was less personal car ownership.

We need to find innovative ways to dramatically ease congestion, improve personal mobility, and cut energy use.