The Brake: A Streetsblog Podcast

For years, experts have been perfecting sophisticated technologies that could virtually end impaired driving on U.S. roads — and thanks to a new bill, regulators are already exploring making it a requirement on all new cars. But will Washington take that historic step in the next two years, as advocates hope, or will the legislation get tied up in the misinformation campaigns that have plagued the...

Whether they were in political office, in the board room, or simply behind the wheel of an SUV, Baby Boomers have been behind some of the worst climate decisions in recent memory.  But they may also a unique opportunity — and a unique responsibility — to repair the planet they helped wreck, especially when it comes to the transportation sector.  At least that's the argument behind the new book " A...

As co-founder of the Congressional Bike Caucus Rep. Earl Blumaneuer (D - Ore.) has long been one of Washington's most staunch advocates for sustainable transportation — not least during the writing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which he fought to make better for vulnerable road users through the inclusion of programs like Safe Streets for All and Reconnecting Communities. Now, on the two-y...

This Halloween, we're giving you a treat instead of a trick, in the form of an extended (but still bite-sized) interview with legendary author and climate activist Bill McKibben. On today's episode of The Brake,   we're revisiting our conversation from earlier this month about  why the 350.org founder thinks the Week Without Driving campaign was so critical to the movement to curb the worst effect...

Artificial intelligence is becoming a bigger and bigger part of the U.S. transportation landscape. Beyond headline-grabbing crashes with driverless cars, though, some advocates may not realize how else this rapidly-emerging technology is shaping their streets right now — and how it might be used in the future.  On this episode of  The Brake,  we sit down with Renee Autumn Ray of Hayden AI to talk...

Many sustainable transportation advocates fear that the era of autonomous vehicles will spur us to even further optimize our streets for the efficient operation of machines rather than the cultivation of experiences that make us fully human. By adopting a framework that radically centers 'livability' on our roads, though, could we make the robo-cars work for us — and maybe, undo the damage of the...

A lot of ink has been spilled on the long-term impact of COVID-19 on American transportation. But less has been spilled on the impcact of long COVID on individual people who walk and bike — and what happens when the disease makes active transportation impossible.  On today's episode of "The Brake," Kea Wilson sits down with John Bolecek, who built his career in bicycle and pedestrian planning for...

Climate-conscious cities around the world are scrambling for ideas to cut how many miles their residents drive. But which strategies work the best — and which ones will residents actually accept?  Today on  The Brake,  Kea Wilson sits down with researcher and best-selling author Dr. Kimberly Nicholas to talk about a recent study of the most effective ideas European cities have tried to transition...

Federal transportation leaders are doling out billions of dollars to reconnect communities torn apart by highways. How exactly they should do it, though, is a matter of fierce debate — and some advocates say that even the most radical solutions aren't radical at all when seen through the lens of the radical harm that racialized and low-income communities are still enduring.  On today's epsiode of...

With billions of federal dollars promised to reconnect communities torn apart by highways, America could be the brink of one of the largest mobility justice movements in decades. To really right the wrongs of our transportaiton past, though, author Veronica O. Davis agues we need a new playbook for how to engage and empower the Black, brown and low income communities we harmed — and her book, "Inc...

State transportation bills may not get as much attention as their federal counterparts, but they have a colossal impact on how we get around. And the state of Minnesota may have just created one of the most exciting blueprints yet for progressive governments across the country to follow — even if it took them the better part of three decades to do it. On this episode of  The Brake,  we sit down wi...

On paper, a lot of people care about making their cities less car-dependent — but not all of us are taking action to actually do it. So why do so many people stay on the sidelines, and what will itake to get them into the fight?  Today, we're sitting down with Carter Lavin, a Bay-area activist who's made it his mission to give people the skills, vision, and capacity to campaign for better sustaina...

late's cities reporter Henry Grabar's new book, Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World (Penguin Press), could have been a sleeper, aimed at livable cities nerds who already know how drivers' obsessive demand for free car storage has ruined our cities and enabled sprawl, all the while devastating our air quality and congesting our roads. Instead, it's quickly becoming a media sensation that...

What is an electric car, really?  Is it a godsend that could save the planet from climate catastrophe by slashing emissions in the sector that contributes the most greenhouse gases in virtually every developed country in the world Is it an important tool for climate harm reduction that we have to invest in big, even if it doesn't solve all of the problems of car dependent transportation systems? O...

One in nine Americans live in poverty, and millions more live in a precarious place somewhere between precarity and true security. A new book argues, though, that it doesn't have to be this way — and that we can all play a role in challenging the systems and individual choices that "keep poor people poor" for benefit for everyone else.  On this episode of The Brake, host Kea Wilson sits down with...

Look up traffic fatality stats for almost any country in the world, and you'll find that men are almost always drastically over-represented among the dead, even in countries like the Netherlands and Sweden which have made the most progress towards Vision Zero. But if good road, vehicle and systems design isn't saving as many male-identified lives, what will — and why is it so hard to talk about cu...

"Roadway safety is a shared responsibility, and people in cars and outside of cars play an equal role in keeping each other safe." "Sprawl is good, actually, because it means people can have big, beautiful houses and some quality alone time on their daily commutes." "We won't need to worry about transportation emissions or the broader impacts of automobiles on the environment for that much longer,...

Most bikeshare rides taken on U.S. soil happen in a handful of gigantic cities, on systems maintained by big corporations. At YoGo Bikeshare, though, Ronnell Elkins and his team are building a bespoke micromobility option specifically for his neighbors in Youngstown, Ohio — and hoping to create a model for other small cities to combat car dependency. On this episode of  The Brake,  host Kea Wilson...

Across America, a shocking number of drivers are illegally hacking their cars to be as loud as possible — and evidence is mounting that the phenomenon has a huge impact on public health. But what can cities do about it?  Today on  The Brake,  we sat down with researcher Nick Ferenchak, whose work on traffic safety we've been following for years. Now, he's turning his attention to the link between...

If the typical professional athlete talks about transportation at all, it's usually in the context of a mulit-million SUV commercial. Soccer star Tesho Akindele, though, isn't the typical athlete — and as he transitions out of his career onthe field, he's making building walkable, bikeable, equitable cities his full-time job.  Today on The Brake, we talk to Tesho about how he fell in love with urb...

Not enough U.S. mayors make sustainable transportation a priority, and even the ones that do don't always get much done. On today's episode of The Brake , though, we spoke with one elected official who's   making massive progress to make streets safer, greener and more equitable in his small town — and sharing lessons in leadership that can scale to even the biggest cities.  In this extended conve...

Mass memorials to the victims of traffic violence are a rarity on American roads. But it wasn't always that way — and there's a fascinating history behind why so many lost lives have become virtually invisible in the public realm today.  On this episode of  The Brake,  Kea Wilson sits down with historian and author Peter Norton to talk about how America used to memorialize car crash deaths in the...

In communities across the U.S., city leaders have reacted to safety concerns about the shared e-scooter industry with fleet curfews, neighborhood restrictions, and even outright bans. Those blunt policies, though, might hurt more people than they help — especially when it comes to socially and racially marginalized communities without other ways to get around.   On today's special edition of  The...

In 2012, Jeff Speck's Walkable City sparked a conversation about why pedestrianized places matter and became one of the best-selling books about the built environment in recent memory. Ten years later, though, so much about the world has changed — even as human-centered communities have become more important than ever. On this episode of The Brake, host Kea Wilson sits down with Speck to talk abou...

Hundreds of thousands of Americans lose a loved one in a car crash every single year. So why don't more of us talk about it — and why don't more of us take action to prevent other families from enduring those tragedies, too? On this special episode of The Brake, host Kea Wilson has an emotional conversation with advocate Dan Langenkamp about the people they've each recently lost to traffic violenc...