The Brake: A Streetsblog Podcast StreetsblogUSA

Who, exactly is designing America's notriously deadly road network — and how on earth do they keep getting away with it? 

On today's episode of The Brake, we’re talking to traffic engineer, academic and now author, Wes Marshall, whose new book — “Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion that Science Underlies Our Transportation System” — unpacks the mountain of wildly outdated, severely limited, and often downright non-existent research that underlies so much of our national road design manuals. 

More importantly, though, Marshall's book also unpacks the more fundamental reasons why engineers keep widening lanes and saying no to crosswalks, even when the manuals give them permission to do something better — which, more often than not, they do.
Listen in, and read an excerpt from "Killed by a Traffic Engineer" here.

The Dutch are known around the world as global leaders in sustainable transportation. But as excellent as they are at designing cities to optimize the mobility experience, what about all the other reasons residents might move through their communities — and what other questions should the Netherlands and America be asking about what public space is really for?
Those questions are at the heart of the new Dutch book “Movement: How to Take Back Our Streets and Transform our Lives,” which is now out in English for the first time. And on this episode of the Brake, we sit down with authors Thalia Verkade and Marco te Brömmelstroet to talk about how much of their country treats bikes as “cars on two wheels,” the good and bad ways that e-bikes are reshaping their landscapes, and how American communities can continue to learn from the Dutch example, while also joining them in the fight for even better streets.  

Most American communities don’t even bother to count what percentage of the population can't legally drive. In the handful of states that have tried, though, the answer has been around 30 percent – which is just enough to create a real movement for change, if we'd all just band together 

On today’s episode of The Brake, we're bringing you an extended audio version of our conversation with author Anna Zivarts, who has been quietly building that movement of non-drivers through her work with groups like Disability Rights Washington and America Walks. And in her new book, "When Driving is Not an Option: Steering Away From Car Dependency," Anna outlines what you can do right now to to center the needs of people who are the least well-served by our auto-dominated transportaiton system — and how that shift would benefit even those who are able and willing to spend much of their lives behind the wheel.

Across the country, grassroots advocates are fighting a David-and-Goliath-style battle against massive, powerful departments of transportation who are attempting to widen highways in their neighborhoods. And in her new book, City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America’s Highways, author Megan Kimble introduces us to the many Davids who are taking on one of the biggest Goliaths of all: the Texas Department of Transportation.
In this extended audio version of our recent interview, Megan unpacks not just why the Lone Star state is so uniquely emblematic of the larger movement to re-imagine our cities around people rather than cars, but what’s happened to these projects in the months since she finished her essential book — and what advocates in states without a visible freeway fighting contingent can do to galvanize their neighbors. 

Across the country right now, cities and transit agencies are taking steps to address violence on their systems — particularly against the people who work to keep our buses and trains running, clean, and safe for everyone to ride. But what are the root causes of that violence — and are strategies like deploying armed police actually addressing them? 

On today's episode of The Brake, we speak to Urban Institute Senior Research Associate Lindiwe Rennert about her research into how violence against transit workers correlates with larger problems like police brutality and income inequality – and what that means for transit advocates who want to keep people safe on board. 

Listen in, and check out our earlier coverage of Rennert's work here. 

Is it possible to build streets that are slow enough to keep vulnerable road users safe and lightning fast when an emergency service vehicle needs to reach a person in need? That's been a hot topic of debate among U.S. sustainable transportation advocates lately — and it's also the subject of a fascinating new research paper from the Dutch Cycling Embassy.

In this episode of The Brake, we sit down with study co-authors Shelley Bontje and Chris Bruntlett to unpack how the Netherlands and other countries have navigated the challenge of building EMS-friendly streets that aren't hostile to people outside cars. Spoiler alert: it's not only about the famous Dutch culture of collaboration.