David Zipper

FYI: My exchange with the NYT op-ed writer on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

I myself have worked in VC. Some investors are well-intentioned, thoughtful people; many aren't.

Bottom line: I agree 100%.

And note the didactic, omniscient tone of the writer who clearly has no experience with road safety or transportation policy.

It's rare that a NYT op-ed pisses me off. This one succeeded.

This op-ed is truly terrible.

A few obvious failures:
🔹 Why are Waymo's self-reported data treated as fact?
🔹 Why does the writer ignore myriad ways to save lives that are cheaper, more reliable, and quicker than waiting for AVs?
🔹 Why doesn't he mention he's a VC partner?

Note that NYT op-ed writer describes himself as a surgeon, but he's also a venture capital partner. (Nothing in his background suggests experience w/transportation.)

VCs are huge boosters of AVs' safety claims, for obvious and self-interested reasons. Listen to the transportation experts instead.

Opinion | Don’t Fear Self-Driving Cars. They Save Lives.

“There’s a public health imperative to quickly expand the adoption of autonomous vehicles.”

Would the author say the same about building bike lanes? Installing automatic traffic cameras? Requiring Intelligent Speed Assist?

All of those are proven to save lives — and at a fraction of AVs' cost.

YouTube video by Look Both Ways with David & Wes Look Both Ways LIVE with David & Wes: Episode 11

New livestream recording this Thursday at 6p Eastern!

On the agenda:
🔹 Boston's looming battle over robotaxis
🔹 Is the e-bike industry in trouble?
🔹 Making "transportation access" make sense

Join @davidzipper.bsky.social & @wesmars.bsky.social on YouTube live via link below

Yes, but that's the fun part! You can buy a pound of green coffee for like $9. Easy and cheap to sample beans from all over the world.

The French Roast SR540 one has been a game-changer for me. A bit messy (a few husks get blown out of the lid), but easy to use. Quick, too.

www.amazon.com/Fresh-Roast-...

Better idea IMO: Spend a couple hundred bucks on a decent coffee roaster, and you'll never need to buy craft coffee again (nor will you want to).

Until I got a roaster a few months ago, I had no idea how delicious coffee could be. I was living in Plato's cave.

This Friday at noon ET, I'll join an MIT Mobility Initiative webinar to discuss my research exploring the politics of urban speed reduction.

(TL;DR: Tactics like speed humps, automatic cameras, and road diets are more popular than many think)

Open to the public: mit.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Paint is not infrastructure.

"Vancouver’s painted lanes were associated with higher cyclist KSI; Calgary’s cycle tracks with fewer KSI."

KSI = Killed or seriously injured

doi.org/10.1016/j.aa...

Wise policymakers would seize this opportunity to increase the federal gas tax for the first time since 1993, encouraging EVs while fortifying the Highway Trust Fund.

Zero chance that will happen, but it should.

Shawn Micallef: This truck ad shows why Toronto needs smaller vehicles — if only the carmakers wanted to sell them A car comically overloaded with plywood? It’s a good ad for a pickup — but also a sign of the incredible amount of money, weight and energy being wasted on

“It’s time to demand automakers return to providing vehicles appropriate for jam-packed cities.”

“Waymos are involved in ten times fewer serious crashes than an average human driver.”

That stat is from Waymo itself. I suggest treating it with many, many grains of salt.

Congestion doesn’t necessarily make a car more dangerous, but thousands robotaxis taking illegal turns, blocking intersections, and making dropoffs in bike lanes definitely would.

More info in the Vox article.

A self-driving car traffic jam is coming for US cities A century ago, cars remade America. Autonomous vehicles could do it again.

A city with a few hundred robotaxis is cool and futuristic, but with 100,000+ it'll be gridlocked and dangerous.

All the more reason for local leaders to adopt congestion pricing and automatic traffic enforcement ASAP.

Self-driving cars will transform urban economies A robotaxi boom is coming. The impacts might be broader than you expect

Really can't overstate how problematic robotaxis become at scale:

"Urban traffic is constrained by the fact that getting around by car either requires (expensively) paying someone else to drive or (inconveniently) driving oneself. Without such constraints the result could be brutal gridlock."

A very good piece on bike share and tourism.

As a Lyft Pink subscriber I get member pricing on bike share in NYC and Chicago, so I mostly got around by bike when I visited. Boston, on the other hand, charges high daily and per-trip rates to tourists; so I took a lot of ride-hails instead.

Good piece!

I will also add that, in my experience, this highly discourages light local use—the exact type of people who might, after trying for a bit, decide to become a member.

I'm bracing for Republicans to cite Abundance as a reason to gut car safety rules.

I'm becoming convinced Lyft has a basic conflict of interest managing ridehail as well as bikeshare in NYC, DC, Boston, Chicago, SF, etc.

The more expensive bikeshare is for visitors, the more likely they are to take ridehail instead (great for Lyft; bad for cities).

Seems like a problem!

Bikeshare Shouldn’t Kick Tourists to the Curb Barcelona’s bikeshare program excludes non-Spanish visitors. Other cities charge tourists much higher fees to rent two-wheelers. Which policy makes more sense?

$10.69 for a 15-minute ride?

For visitors, public bikeshare often feels like a ripoff.

In CityLab, I explored why.

– Vet ikke hva jeg er mest imponert over: At de klarte å komme seg inn i situasjonen, eller at de kom seg ut av den Mandag kveld bød på komiske scener fra Alexander Kiellands plass.

In Oslo, four articulated buses trapped themselves in a roundabout yesterday.

"I don't know what I'm most impressed with: That they managed to get into the situation, or that they got out of it."

Rad Power Bikes' batteries receive major fire risk warning | TechCrunch The U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission claims Rad Power "refused to agree to an acceptable recall." Rad Power says the CPSC's solution would bankrupt the company.

This is really bad. Rad Power was already close to going under.

Rad Power owners should note that the company's newer batteries are not affected by the CPSC warning. Link in the story about how to check.

Induced demand: Same as it ever was

The Finns are built different

New research compares the use of electric and regular bikes in DC's Capital Bikeshare network.

Conclusion: E-bikes make bikeshare better.

"E-bikes enable broader dispersion across the city by connecting more distant bikeshare stations and supporting extended mobility."

doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

Not true for the French Riviera, based on what I heard and learned. Pedestrianization and transit efforts there began long before Hidalgo took office. And Riviera residents loathe Paris (see my story's kicker).

On the French Riviera, Street Reforms Come From the Right Politically conservative Côte d’Azur cities like Cannes and Nice have embraced pedestrianization, car bans and bike lanes. That’s a departure from global norms.

This is the story I referenced, about the surprisingly anti-car, pro-bike/walk policies of the French Riviera (where most mayors are conservative).