Episode 6: How Cities Should Prepare for Robotaxis + Old Bike Fights That Won’t Die

Robotaxis – David & Wes look ahead to the arrival of robotaxis and what cities should be doing (or not doing) to prepare. Rather than asking whether autonomous vehicles will “work,” they focus on the decisions cities actually control. Listeners will come away with a clearer sense of why waiting for technology to mature is not a plan, and how today’s choices could lock in decades of consequences for safety, access, and street life.

Today, we also talk about: 🔹 How we go about finding a neighborhood to live in & what that reveals about transportation  🔹 Whatever happened to MaaS & why integrated mobility never delivered on its promises 🔹 Evolving bike lanes, bikelash, & John Forester & why old arguments keep resurfacing in new forms

And then some rail drinks... stay tuned for bi-weekly conversations about all things transportation!

If you are interested, here is David's new article on Cities & Self-Driving Cars: www.vox.com/future-perfect/461393/self-driving-cars-cities-congestion-avs-parking

and his old one on MaaS: www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/the-struggle-to-make-mobility-as-a-service-make-money

Here is Wes' paper on how cities with more protected & separated bike lanes are safer for everyone: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214140518301488

(if you don't like academic papers, this video explains our results: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwYeNz1jCkM)

as well as the back-and-forth... www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214140519305481 www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214140519306310

Music by Charlie Van Stee (courtesy of bensound)

Email us at [email protected] or find us at www.davidzipper.com and www.wesmarshall.org