David Zipper

SUV drivers could face extra charges for driving in London TfL are also poised to increase 20mph zones and cut speed limits on the capital’s fastest roads later this year

👀 👀 👀

“The mayor has asked Transport for London to undertake detailed analysis of the safety risks posed by large SUVs and their wider impact on London’s roads. This could then inform any future policy proposals in London or recommendations to government or the sector.”

I am very close to jumping on the “ban all pardons” bandwagon

It makes zero logical sense to require speed limiters on e-scooters & e-bikes but not SUVs that weigh 100x more.

Useful research here.

findingspress.org/article/1587...

"Focusing on deaths per mile driven is like trying to reduce the number of cancer deaths per cigarette smoked"

Fun fact: My proposed headline for this one was "The Road Safety Metric That Needs to Die."

I'm really, really tired of traffic engineers sealioning about US crash deaths being (slightly) less horrific if you divide them by VMT instead of population.

1) Mishmash is one word
2) See below

Another way to make this point:

Every time an American decides to ride Amtrak instead of drive a car, the US transportation network gets a little safer.

NHTSA never says this, but they should.

Yes, and that's the point!

More density --> Less driving --> Fewer crashes

The US Is Counting Traffic Deaths Wrong By emphasizing the number of people killed per mile rather than deaths per capita, traffic safety groups risk normalizing the factors that make American roads so deadly.

Bottom line: If we want fewer Americans to die while traveling, we need to measure the right number.

It’s deaths per capita, not deaths per mile, that should guide road safety thinking.

An analogy:

Reducing deaths per mile driven is like reducing cancer deaths among smokers. Laudable, but an incomplete strategy.

Public health leaders strive to *reducing smoking,* not just treating smokers with cancer.

We should apply the same logic to road safety.

The US-Canadian Road Safety Gap Is Getting Wider Despite similar infrastructure and vehicle fleets, the US and Canada are going in very different directions when it comes to traffic safety. A new study breaks down the divergence.

What about the physical enormity of the US? Does that force people to drive more?

No, it doesn't.

Canada is an even more spacious country, and residents drive a lot less (and are <1/2 as likely to die in a crash).

But it’s deaths per capita, not deaths per mile or km, that gives a complete picture of road safety.

A key reason Americans are in so many fatal crashes is that they drive so much!

A few causes:
🔹 Parking minimums
🔹 Height limits
🔹 Single-use zoning
🔹 Anemic transit & train service

Instead of admitting the failures of US road safety, many traffic engineers & transport professionals wag their finger: “We should be looking at deaths per distance driven, not deaths per capita.”

By that metric, the US is bad, but not quite as terrible.

The US is awful at road safety.

A new report from the OECD shows that Americans are >2x as likely to die in a collision compared to those in peer countries.

The US is such an outlier that the OECD now aggregates crash data both with and without the US included.

www.itf-oecd.org/road-safety-...

The US Is Counting Traffic Deaths Wrong By emphasizing the number of people killed per mile rather than deaths per capita, traffic safety groups risk normalizing the factors that make American roads so deadly.

Americans drive a lot more than people in other rich countries.

If we didn’t drive so much, we wouldn’t die in so many crashes.

It’s a simple point, but one that NHTSA, traffic engineers, and many road safety org’s have yet to learn.

Me, in Bloomberg 🧵

Dens might want to listen to this guy

slate.com/business/202...

Can we pls swap this for a federal e-bike/e-cargo bike rebate

Miracle on 14th Street getting even better

gothamist.com/news/city-pl...

Wow. Did not expect Bowser to release the congestion pricing report she has long (and inexplicably) buried.

Bowser — a generally retrograde voice on transportation — calls CP "the wrong policy at the wrong time."

But she's a lame duck, and several mayoral candidates say they support CP. 🤔

Uncovered records reveal the hidden costs of Waymo robotaxis on San Francisco streets Self-driving cars are creating new problems for city transit systems. Officials are still figuring out how to adapt.

The many transit disruptions outlined in this story have happened with Waymo operating a fleet in San Francisco that is <1,000 vehicles.

What happens when there are 10,000 Waymos roaming San Francisco streets? 100,000?

Pretty much the last thing I want to see happen on my city’s streets

Denmark responded to 1973 oil crisis by reducing car-dependency. Let's do that now. - Streetsblog Chicago "The government had to introduce car-free Sundays. And then people realized that the car-free Sunday was the best day of the week."

FYI the 1970s oil crisis was the impetus for Copenhagen turning into a cycling city

Oil and gas prices rapidly rise as Iran war shows no signs of letting up The price of oil surged higher and showed no signs of halting its rapid climb a week after the U.S. and Israel launched major attacks on Iran that escalated into a war in the Middle East.

Hello historian of #bicycling here; if anyone wants to hear about what happened in WWII and also during the 1970s energy crisis (when Americans turned to bicycles as alternative transportation solutions) I'm certainly available. I've written about both in _Bike Battles_.

apnews.com/article/oil-...

It is a self-driving issue. Not sure what to tell you. Bye.

It was the company at fault.

And that was only one of many instances.

NTSB says Waymo robotaxis illegally passed stopped school buses in new incidents The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday it is investigating a new incident in ​January of Waymo self-driving vehicles passing a stopped school bus with its ‌lights activated in violation...

Note that these incidents occurred *after* Waymo did a recall to ensure its vehicles wouldn't keep passing stopped school buses.

The company doesn't seem to know how to fix this.

We clearly know different city people

I know it’s trendy to dismiss rural Americans as superfluous yokels. But I don’t think it’s true, and I don’t think it gets us anywhere useful.

To be fair, cities rely on rural areas too.

Good book on the relationship ⤵️