Wes Marshall

Biked past this on the way in this morning...
way more frightening that most Halloween decorations

Halloween advice from @davidzipper.bsky.social & @wesmars.bsky.social:

"Don't be afraid of someone poisoning your kids; be afraid of a car driver hitting them."

Full episode: lookbothwayspod.podbean.com/e/episode-8-...

Civil engineer crashes status quo: Lack of research, flawed assumptions fuel roadside carnage • Kansas Reflector A Colorado engineer calls into question assumptions built into traffic infrastructure that unnecessarily threatens bicyclists and pedestrians.

I didn't realize that I could do that with my eyebrow...

RTD bans ads covering windows of metro Denver buses and trains The prohibition means losing revenue at a time when agency officials are grappling with financial constraints.

Totally agree with the move but honestly surprised they made it...

Thanks for this bill @jlocantore.bsky.social & @bikewalkbus.bsky.social...
No, seriously, thank you!

It really is true: Cities aren't loud; cars aren't loud. And EVs won't fix the problem.

@wesmars.bsky.social: "Once you get about 20-30 mph, most of the noise comes from the tire-roadway interaction."

From the new episode: lookbothwayspod.podbean.com/e/episode-8-...

​Episode 8 is up!

On the agenda:
🔹 The scariness of walking on Halloween
🔹 Advice to a young traffic engineer
🔹 Traffic noise & human health
🔹 A trio of new anti-car books

Watch on YouTube, or listen on any podcast platform.

lookbothwayspod.podbean.com/e/episode-8-...

A context-sensitive roadway classification framework for speed limit setting in the US In the US, speed limit setting (SLS) procedures have historically relied on driver-behavior-based methods, such as the 85th percentile speed, which ar…

Setting speed limits with the 85th-percentile is ass backwards... For years, I've been teaching my students about a context-based approach using a grid of Movement vs. Place that is popular in other (much safer) countries.

It is great to see it getting some love in the literature...

Wes and I will discuss these new books -- and where the anti-car movement could go from here -- in the next episode of
@lookbothwayspod.bsky.social. Coming soon.

Subscribe/listen/watch: lookbothwayspod.podbean.com

Terrible story but great reporting by Laura Penington of the Denver Post:
- "A man died... after being hit by the driver of a van while riding his bike"
- "the driver struck him from behind"

And some extra context that you rarely ever see:
- "There are no bike lanes along that stretch of road"

YouTube video by Active Towns DENVER: Park Hill Elementary Bike Bus & Crossing Guard Experience

ICYMI: In honor of Walk ’n Roll to School Day today, here’s my special profile of Denver’s Park Hill Elementary Bike Bus and Crossing Guard Experience featuring Liz Brodahl and Nicole McSpirit, respectively, that I released yesterday. @bikebusworld.bsky.social
youtu.be/xlu8sCCQAFU

Episode 7 is out!
Listen wherever you pod, or watch the video version here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5ydKzNluAY

~20 minutes until Look Both Ways LIVE with David & Wes www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8FCCqkjnKA

Still haven't seen it but now on Hulu...

There are very few books I read and find myself doing everything at once. Highlighting passages, nodding in agreement, shaking my head vigorously, re-reading a line because the truth in it hits so hard. This is one of those rare books. I don’t think I’ll even “finish” it in the traditional sense, because I keep stopping, not from confusion, but from absolute clarity. Every sentence is a mirror to the reality of our streets, and to the engineering profession that has shaped them. To my friends and colleagues in traffic engineering, civil engineering: get yourselves this book. Not as a casual read. Create time for it and read it diligently. This book is a challenge, a provocation, and a chance to re-examine how decisions in design translate into lived experiences.

Hey @islandpress.bsky.social...
is it too late to put this on the back cover?

Nothing to sell, but I do cohost a podcast where @wesmars.bsky.social and I wonk out on all kinds of transportation topics — including car car bloat.

Check it out: lookbothwayspod.podbean.com

I'm not saying that e-bikes aren't a growing safety concern, but 2023 saw over 3,000 teenagers die plus another 200,000+ teenagers injured due to car crashes... and this problem has been around since before Rick Reilly was even born

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/10/02/electric-bikes-speed-injuries/

"I wonder what longtime Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly thinks about kids using e-bikes."
- Nobody

Wee!

by forcing those rolling out into traffic or up onto the sidewalk

No emergency that I could see; just parked there (for a long while) protecting & serving...

Mercedes among top brands to ditch dashboard feature and go back to basics MAJOR automotive manufacturers are taking their vehicles analog after years of begging from gearheads. Even more exciting is that luxury and budget brands alike are committing to the decision. Manu…

Bring them buttons back!

This sign at Bethpage Black, where the Ryder Cup is finishing up today, kinda looks like somebody tried to combine my book cover styling with the @lookbothwayspod.bsky.social podcast title...

I really don't hate John Forester, but I do hate how we traffic engineers let his nonsensical "research" dismantle our approach to safe bicycling infrastructure

My wife lands at an airport late last night expecting to pick up a regular-sized sedan and Avis gives her this... seriously.

Heavy on the victim blaming...

No clue... but when I opened up my email this morning, I found one from Paulie (which I initially took for a joke).
But as a long-time listener, zero-time caller of the show, I was definitely more excited about this nonsense than what I'm usually asked to comment on.

Good effort by Paulie, but what I wrote was:
"Tell Fritzy to move over...  he's putting others - and himself - in danger.
But, to be honest, those passing him probably need to slow down too."

YouTube video by Dan Patrick Show Left Turn: Is Fritzy Wrong For Camping In The Left Lane? | 9/24/25

Here's what they were talking about:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=11yFGGJXYUc

He's an expert... allegedly
#DanPatrickShow