Look Both Ways with David & Wes

Climate + Transportation - David & Wes kick things off with a good conversation about the irony of Waymo sponsoring Climate Week events. Electric robotaxis may be cleaner than gas-powered car trips, but that does not mean they help the bigger cause. The harder questions are about what kinds of trips they replace, whether they create new vehicle miles, and whether AVs reduce driving or simply make car travel easier to justify. From there, the discussion turns to regional rail and the role it could play. Topics include:🔹 Our most miserable travel experiences🔹 Waymo, Climate Week, & the greenwashing question 🔹 Electric AVs & the problem of more vehicle miles🔹 Colorado’s growing interest in regional transit & passenger rail 🔹 And send your Look Both Ways sticker ideas to [email protected] Subscribe for biweekly conversations about all things transportation. Additional resources:Self-driving cars would be a climate disaster (David's article) Music by Charlie Van Stee (courtesy of bensound) Email us at [email protected] or find us at www.lookbothwayspodcast.com, www.davidzipper.com, and www.wesmarshall.org

Speed Limits - David & Wes talk about speed limits: what they can do, what they can’t do, and the surprisingly complicated question of how robotaxis should handle them. Japan is moving toward lower speed limits on a large share of its roads, shifting many streets from 60 km/h to 30 km/h. That sounds simple enough, but speed is never just the number on the sign. It looks different from behind the windshield, in the crosswalk, inside a traffic study, or at the moment of impact. From there, David & Wes get into the 85th percentile, why traffic engineering has often treated driver comfort as data, and whether AVs should strictly follow the law, move with traffic, or behave the way human drivers actually do. Topics include:🔹 Car commercials that made us mad (or happy)🔹 Why speed feels different from inside and outside the car 🔹 The 85th percentile trap 🔹 Robotaxis, speed limits, and the weirdness of legal compliance 🔹 And send us your Look Both Ways sticker ideas! Subscribe for biweekly conversations about all things transportation. Additional resources: How Japan Won its ‘Traffic War’ (David’s article in Bloomberg) Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets Saturn “Sheet Metal” commercial from 2003 Everybody loves the Ford Ranger commercial from 1995 GM “Stop pedaling…start driving” advertisement from 2011 Dodge Charger Empty Streets Superbowl commercial from 2018 Nissan Sentra “Bob” commercial from 1990 VW “Think Small” commercial from 1959 Volkswagen 0-60? Yes. advertisement from 1998 Music by Charlie Van Stee (courtesy of bensound) Email us at [email protected] or find us at www.lookbothwayspodcast.com, www.davidzipper.com, and www.wesmarshall.org

Senior Mobility - David & Wes talk about older drivers, road safety, and the uneasy idea of “driving forever.” Wes starts with a paper he co-authored about how people think about driving, aging, and the possibility that they may someday need to give up the keys. But the point is not just what happens when someone can no longer drive; it is what happens before that. David then talks about visiting his parents’ retirement community, where slow streets, golf carts, and walkable destinations offer one version of what can come after driving becomes less central. But even there, the tradeoffs are real (and one neighbor bought a Tesla hoping Full Self-Driving might help him keep going). That opens up a bigger conversation about safety, independence, loneliness, family, and what life after driving can actually look like. Today's topics: 🔹 The Fiat Topolino🔹 Transportation stories about our grandparents🔹 Our first Look Both Ways merch, which is going to be sticker-focused... and to start, we’re holding a sticker idea contest so send your suggestions to [email protected] (and we’ll put the best ones up for a listener vote) Subscribe for biweekly conversations about all things transportation! Additional resources: Fiat Topolino Officially Goes on Sale in the U.S. for Under $15K Who wants to drive forever? Exploring attitudes toward driving and aging (Wes's paper with Dan Piatkowski) Music by Charlie Van Stee (courtesy of bensound) Email us at [email protected] or find us at www.lookbothwayspodcast.com, www.davidzipper.com, and www.wesmarshall.org

Global Road Safety - David & Wes take a global view of road safety and ask why the United States keeps falling behind. They start with the U.S. being the only country to vote against a United Nations road safety declaration, then turn to a more uncomfortable comparison: the U.S. now appears to have a worse per-capita road fatality rate than Russia. From there, they look at the widening global road safety gap, including countries that once had worse safety records than the U.S. but have since lapped us. They also talk about Pontevedra, Spain, a city that dramatically reduced car dominance and has not had a road fatality since 2011. Today's topics: 🔹 Why the U.S. voted against a global road safety declaration🔹 How Russia’s road safety record compares to the U.S. over time & countries that used to be more dangerous than the U.S. but are now far safer🔹 Why “car-free” cities like Pontevedra still have cars🔹 Monster truck rallies, obviously Subscribe for biweekly conversations about all things transportation! Additional resources:This Spanish city has been restricting cars for 24 years. Here’s what we can learn from it. (David's article in Fast Company) The U.S. Alone Votes Against A Road Safety Declaration Digger's Dungeon (Home of the Gravedigger) Music by Charlie Van Stee (courtesy of bensound) Email us at [email protected] or find us at www.lookbothwayspodcast.com, www.davidzipper.com, and www.wesmarshall.org

Transit Funding Freeze - David & Wes dig into our frozen federal transit funding situation and what happens when major transit projects are not officially killed, but also are not allowed to move forward. After new reporting on the Trump administration’s apparent halt in final agreements for Capital Investment Grants, they talk about what these delays mean, why stalled transit funding makes projects more expensive, and the hard reality that cities can no longer assume the federal government will be a reliable partner. Other topics: 🔹 Lebron’s new commute🔹 FHWA’s Proven Safety Countermeasures website & the disappearance of road diets and speed safety cameras🔹 Bicycling disappearing from FHWA’s proven safety countermeasures, along with the infrastructure that helps make biking safer🔹 Why Waymos are still blocking bike lanes (and what to do about it)🔹 We also answer a couple mailbag questions and, for some reason, talk more about Fabio Subscribe for biweekly conversations about all things transportation! Additional resources: Congress Budgeted Billions for Big Transit Projects. Trump Isn’t Spending It. FHWA's Proven Safety Countermeasures website Why Are Waymos Still Blocking Bike Lanes? (David's article in The Driverless Digest) Music by Charlie Van Stee (courtesy of bensound) Email us at [email protected] or find us at www.lookbothwayspodcast.com, www.davidzipper.com, and www.wesmarshall.org