and Gary Blake's Technical Writing: Structure, Standards, and Style,
fewer is used when units or individuals can be counted ("fewer
containers") while less is used with quantities of mass, bulk or volume
("less weight")."
Bicycle Coalition program director Andy Thornley was a good sport, admitting that, yes, "One Less Car" (and, by extension, "One Less Lawyer in a Car") is grammatically incorrect -- but it catches the eye: "It's really a very catchy slogan. It gets people talking -- and gets people from alt-weekly papers calling me."
Fair enough. And yet -- especially in the case of Herrera, who must pay attention to the "letter of the law" -- this ongoing bastardization of the English language, even in service of a good cause, is problematic. Is "One Fewer Car" really that hard on the ears? Will the bicycle enthusiasts and grammar enthusiasts ever see eye to eye?
When queried about this, Dorsey laughed and chided himself for falling into the same grammatical trap that has plagued countless supermarket express lanes. In the meantime, those of us hoping to curry favor with the lawyer-hating general public could special-order Herrera's shirt -- and remove the words "in a car."
