I can't agree. The article seemed very sensible to me, it was the students who were nutty.
Far from being a means of destruction, the internal combustion engine is a condition for the reproduction of western societies.
Consider this, almost every single thing that you will buy from your local store or supermarket was delivered by van or lorry. The agricultural output that sustains the US and Europe is premised upon the motorisation of agriculture. And overwhelmingly, labour travels to work by car.
The logistics department of logistics at Edinburgh U. did a projection of the effects of a disruption to gasoline supply - within about two weeks the entire country collapses, without food or other basics. Of course some will say that that shows that we are unnecessarily 'dependent' on the car. But no-one could explain how a society could support 60, or 260 million, at existing standards, without internal combustion. The car, is primarily, a means of life, not death.