Zag Talk

Jonah Bliss

Jonah and Greg give you the low down on all the week's latest urbanism, delivery, mobility and tech policy developments. www.thecurbivore.com

  1. 11/27/2025

    Can Sustainable Delivery Be a Sustainable Business? Delivery Mates' Kevin Savage Makes the Case

    Over the past few months we’ve had the distinct pleasure of digging deep in the world of sustainable delivery: we’ve kicked the tires on the new Honda Fastport, snuck in to Amazon’s NYC equad operations and studied how cities and third party delivery networks are working together to get couriers onto e-bikes. That’s all well and good… but those are huge companies that have big bucks to spend on pilots (or worse yet, PR stunts masquerading as pilots.) What about the every day businesses that want to move their goods a bit more sustainably? And what of the hard scrabble logistics businesses that need green mobility to be not just “the right thing to do,” but actually work profitably? That’s why Jonah was pleased to sit down with Kevin Savage, the COO of Delivery Mates, for the final episode of this season of the Zag Talk podcast. Many others have tried, with a rather spotty track record, to make carbon-free deliveries work. Delivery Mates, with its fleet of electric vans, e-mopeds and equads, and some special sauce around its in-house software, may just have cracked the code on making it work. Do give the episode a listen; Kevin shares plenty of insights from decades in the logistics biz. Plus, Sela and Jonah go deep on London’s latest plan to tackle congestion, the newest sad SPAC saga (hint: it’s Luminar,) Starship’s partnership with Uber and much more. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecurbivore.com

    38 min
  2. 11/13/2025

    Lyft’s Not Content With Second Place in the Robotaxi Race

    As robotaxis race towards becoming a regular part of our mobility landscape, it at first looked like Lyft had no interest in joining the competition, instead letting deep pocked competitors like Waymo and Uber push ahead (while wisely avoiding the costly mistakes that took down others like Cruise and Argo AI.) But in the past year, the pink mustache has emerged as a serious AV contender, striking up meaningful partnerships with the likes of May Mobility, Mobileye, Nexar, Tensor, Benteler, Baidu and even Waymo itself. Lyft-branded robotaxis are now rolling around Midtown Atlanta, with more geographies set to come online shortly. Stephen Hayes, Lyft’s VP of Autonomous, Fleets, and Driver Operations, has been leading that charge, alongside other weighty responsibilities like orchestrating the company’s fleet management platform for tens of thousands of vehicles, while trying to keep Lyft’s human drivers from sweating too much about the idea of mechanical competition. (Talk about a tricky job!) Stephen and Jonah chat all about that, Lyft’s evolution over the past decade and a half, the lessons learned from running Flexdrive and much more in a must-listen episode of the podcast. Plus, Zag’s Athena Browning and Jonah Bliss get into all the latest mobility news: what to make of Q3 earnings, the boom in used bikes and top takeaways from Smart City Expo 2025. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecurbivore.com

    32 min
  3. 10/30/2025

    Can Corporations Nudge Workers Towards Greener Commuting Options?

    A city can spend all the money in the world on making its streets multi-modal, on transit investments and the like, but if all the jobs are still located out in the burbs, commuters will likely opt to stick with their cars. That’s why corporate mobility is so important — the interplay between governments and employers that can nudge workers onto greener mobility options. For this episode of Zag Talk, Jonah Bliss chats with Maria Angelica, an urban planner and consultant at Factual about the challenges that cities, workers and employers face, the carrots and sticks that can be deployed (which can really vary depending on if you’ve got a single job site or a distributed workforce) and innovative approaches being deployed in Europe and worldwide. More importantly, Maria has authored a new course on Corporate Mobility for UMX, the European Union’s free, self-guided educational platform for all things transportation. Interested parties can take a crack at the course now. Also on this week’s pod, Zag Daily Editor Sela Musa and Jonah chat about high-end two-wheelers like Also and Infinite Machine, big transportation changes headed to the U.K., Grubhub’s new partnership with Instacart, the latest plans for California Forever and more. Tune in above, and thank you to our episode sponsors at EITC Urban Mobility. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecurbivore.com

    37 min
  4. 10/16/2025

    Senator Scott Wiener Discusses YIMBY's Big Win: SB79

    Dense housing and public transit: two great tastes that taste better together. You’d think this classic combo would be a no-brainer, as building mid-rise housing helps with affordability and locating it near rail stations lets folks cut down on commuting costs, while putting more commuters near each metro stop leads to improved transit ridership. Talk about a virtuous cycle! And yet in California, and the nation as a whole, this has been an oddly hard sell. You’ll see rapid transit stations, some over a century old, surrounded by incredibly expensive single family homes. Finally, finally, this is set to change, with Governor Newsom just signing Senate Bill (SB) 79, the Abundant & Affordable Homes Near Transit Act. Championed by state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco,) this hard-fought win comes after nearly a decade of trying, with similar bills not quite making it all the way to the finish line. On the eve of the bill’s passage, Jonah Bliss caught up with Senator Wiener, to discuss the statecraft that went into creating this landmark legislation, what’s changed to finally get other state leaders ready to embrace more housing, how California can continue to lead the nation, the role he views for the state in an era of a hostile federal government (not to mention a few hostile tech leaders in his home district,) and much more. This is a must-listen conversation, please do tune in to the full thing (which also includes a few news items of the week: new transit routes, air races and drone regulations, and the role of AI in transportation. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecurbivore.com

    47 min

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Jonah and Greg give you the low down on all the week's latest urbanism, delivery, mobility and tech policy developments. www.thecurbivore.com