The Brake: A Streetsblog Podcast

A sidewalk isn't just a strip of asphalt; it's a place where countless laws collide, whether they're governing our movement, our safety, our right to free speech, our economy, or even just who's responsible for shoveling after a snow storm. But most communities don't have a single agency that manages all these competing concerns — and maybe it's time they create one.  Today on The Brake, we interv...

Affordability is the buzzword in American politics — and when it comes to transportation affordability, the policies that would give the most families the most immediate relief would also do the most to address the climate crisis. So why aren't things like fast, free buses, better connected sidewalks, and quick-build bike lanes sitting front and center of every politician's platform? And if they w...

Robotaxis from companies like Waymo are already rolling onto roads across America, whehter or not cities are ready for them. How can cities take back their power and put shared autonomous vehicles in their proper place, understand what impact they're having on local transportation goals, and avoid amplifying some of the worst impacts of old-school car dependency?  Today on The Brake, we're talking...

Even before the Trump administration and the current congress started rescinding federal grants left and right, it was hard to get major sustainable transportation projects across the finish line in America. That's why one livable streets legend is stepping up to help push those efforts forward — including a few that lost funding since his own time in Washington On this episode of The Brake, we're...

The idea of providing a "universal basic income" to ensure every U.S. resident can afford the fundamentals is gaining traction with the rise of AI. But even that much-needed money might not guarantee much of a life to people who live in neighborhoods with dirty air and water, insufficient housing, and — yes — no transportation to access to all the things they need. Enter the idea of a Universal Ba...

Highway teardowns are messy, multi-decade projects that spark countless debates and competing narratives —  even among livable streets advocates who broadly agree that replacing autocentric infrastructure is a good idea. In his Peabody Award-winning podcast The Big Dig , though, Ian Coss was able to do the impossible by encapsulating the Boston project of the same name into nine astonishing, thoug...

Washington State is on the brink of completing America's first comprehensive, statewide inventory of every single sidewalk and pedestrian path — and along with it, a collection of tools that make it easy for transportation professionals and every day travelers to see exactly where those paths fall short.  But why did it take any American state so long to create something like this, even in an era...

Protests are raging in the streets of Minneapolis and across the country as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accelerate their campaign to deport migrants — with increasingly violent and deadly results, particularly in the transportation realm. But what is the transportation reform advocate's role in that fight? And can the battle to remake our violent transportation system help support t...

How can transportation start-ups help fight climate change, and who are the leaders pushing them forward?  We sat down with Josh Dorfman, host of the podcast 'Supercool', to talk about what he's learned from interviewing the founders behind companies like CityThread , Veo , Brompton Bicycle , Zum , and Upway . And along the way, he unpacks why it's critical to harness 'market momentum' in the batt...

There's a big difference between knowing what is best of your city's transportation system, and knowing how to fight the often fierce political battles you need to win in order to make it real. Fortunately, one author has written a manual to help transit advocates across America do exactly that, from picking campaigns out of the tangle of interlocking transportation challenges that ensnare our cit...

What will it take to wake more of the world up to the dangers of mass automobility — and could a book be help Americans imagine a future beyond car dominance?  That's what Sarah Goodyear and her co-authors are hoping as they release their new book "Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves From the Tyranny of the Automobile."  Along with Doug Gordon and Aaron Naperstek, with whom she co-founded the legen...

Hey everyone, it's Kea; welcome the brake. If you've ever taken a stroll on New York's High Line or ridden along Missouri's Katy Trail, you might assume that it was a no-brainer for communities across the U.S. to rip up the old abandoned train tracks that used to run there and build a sanctuary for people outside cars.  In actuality, though, the story of the rails-to-trails movement is one of the...

Car culture has a higher body count than both world wars combined . So why don't we think of automobility in the same way we think about the bloody and destructive global conflicts that dominate the news — and what would it take to transform our streets into a tool to make our whole society more peaceful, rather than more violent?  Today on the Brake, we sat down with PhD candidate Ashton Rohmer t...

Active transportation advocates constantly get accused of waging a "war on cars." But when you look around our communities, it sure looks more like we're in the middle of a war on walking and biking — and the wrong side is winning.  In today's episode of The Brake, we sat down with Dr. Tepi McLaughlin, who co-authored of a provocative new paper that argues it's time to name the "enemies of physica...

Secretary Sean Duffy withholding grants for America's first high speed rail line. Congress surprisingly showing up for Amtrak in its annual budget. Elon Musk pushing for privatization . A surprisingly strong showing for trains in the Senate's budget proposal , and advocates who have even bigger hopes for the future. It seems like every time you turn on the news, there's an explosive new headline a...

USDOT is accepting public comments about what it should propose for the next surface transportation reauthorization bill — and one advocate is hoping that legislation will finally give victims a voice at USDOT. Today on the Brake, we're talking to Marianne Karth of AnnaLeah and Mary for Truck Safety, who's pushing for the creation of a new, non-partisan "National Roadway Safety Advocate" position,...

Autonomous vehicle giant Waymo is starting to experiment with subscription packages for teens — including those too young to drive. But as America's kids gain high-tech motorized independence, what will they lose in exchange?  Today on the Brake, host Kea Wilson is going solo for an informal chat about the debate over driverless cars as a youth mobility solution, how autonomous vehicles could even...

We've all heard the argument that the soul of America's economy is based on how much we all love to drive. But does the data support the narrative that cars connect us to far-flung opportunities to make and spend more money — or has our country's car-powered productivity revolution actually stalled out?  Today on The Brake, we're talking to Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute ab...

As the Baby Boomer set ages out of driving, are American cities ready to support their changing transportation needs — and what policies should they be writing right now to help seniors  and their neighbors weather the silver tsunami?  Today, we're posting an extended audio version of our earlier  conversation with the fantastic author, attorney, and law professor Greg Shill about his contribution...

One in five U.S. college students are also parents with children of their own — and in many cases, a single unexpected expense can be enough to force them to drop out before they earn their degrees. And too often, that emergency comes in the form of a transportation challenge like a cancelled bus route or a flat tire that keeps them from ever reaching the classroom. In honor of Mother's Day and Fa...

Are Americans really more "car-brained" than their peers in the UK or the Netherlands — and if they are, what can make us change?  The Brake is back from its spring hiatus with the return of two of our all-time favorite guests: researchers Ian Walker and Marco te Brömmelstroet, who teamed up for a new paper about how "motonormativity" manifests across their respective nations and the US. And along...

How does our popular media normalize dangerous behavior on our roads — and does it even help create it?  Today on The Brake, we're talking about the role of culture in driving our road violence crisis, including car ads that make reckless driving seem like it never has deadly consequences, action movies, video games, and even social media trends. And my guest today, documentarian and journalist My...

Decades of research prove that highways tear apart the physical fabric of our cities,  segregating neighborhoods by race and income and making it harder for anyone outside a car to access the jobs, services and communities they rely on — at least if those things happen to be located on the other side of a dangerous road. But what impact do highways have on the invisible social fabric of our places...

Cities across America have been trying — and mostly failing — to achieve Vision Zero for more than a decade. But is it really time to trade the goal of ending road deaths and serious injuries for the aim of reducing them 30 percent by 2030? And would we be better positioned to eliminate the other 70 percent of fatalities if we made that strategic shift, or not?  Today on the Brake, we sit down wit...

What's a little bigger than a bike, a lot smaller than a car, and might be the tool you didn't know you needed to get a big haul home from the grocery store two miles away in the pouring rain? The answer is actually an entire category of vehicles that aren't common on U.S. roads — but with the right mix of policy, code, and infrastructure reform, we could see a lot more of them. Today on the Brake...