Look Both Ways with David & Wes

In 1984, an episode of Murder She Wrote featured a self-driving car with a murderous remote operator. Seriously.

@wesmars.bsky.social explains (clip from the new pod, out later this week)

In the next episode, David & Wes answer audience questions like this one from Gary, who asks why car headlights are so awful.

@wesmars.bsky.social: "Headlights could be done so much better than they are now."

Full episode coming later this week

BONUS EPISODE — Live from Fort Lauderdale — is now available: lookbothwayspod.podbean.com/e/bonus-epis...

Get answers to all your South Florida transportation questions, like "What happens when a Brightline train meets a sidewalk robot?"

YouTube video by Look Both Ways with David & Wes Look Both Ways LIVE with David & Wes: Episode 17

Next livestream is this Tuesday at 6p ET. Link below.

David & Wes will be answering listener questions about transportation, safety, and tech. Have one for them? Email lookbothwayspod@gmail.com (or reply below).

Sneak peak of our upcoming bonus episode, recorded live at the Safe Roads Summit in Fort Lauderdale. Special guest: Greg Stuart, head of the Broward County MPO.

@wesmars.bsky.social thinks this one should be called "between six ferns."

David & Wes are in Fort Lauderdale for the Safe Roads Summit, and they're about to record a bonus episode w/Broward County MPO chief Greg Stuart.

South Florida's streets are among the most deadly in the US. They have some ideas for improvement.

Episode available soon on your favorite podcast app.

Whether you use it or not, better public transit makes your commute better A surprisingly small drop in cars on the road can dramatically ease congestion, and public transit is one way to get there.

This is a frequent claim among transit boosters, but it's not really true.

As @wesmars.bsky.social and I discussed recently on @lookbothwayspod.bsky.social, drivers switching to transit get replaced by others who now drive at peak times — which slows traffic once again. Blame induced demand.

Episode 16 is up!

Wes and David delve into the challenges rural transportation — and ask whether autonomous vehicles might provide a solution.

Also, how bad is the "bikelash" roiling many US cities?

lookbothwayspod.podbean.com/e/episode-16...

The Town That Took Downtown Renewal to the Next Level Decades ago, business leaders in Morristown, Tennessee, came up with a radical infrastructure plan to rescue their struggling Main Street. Here’s how it worked out.

David was so fascinated by Morristown's second-story sidewalks (which haven't really worked, BTW) that he wrote a story in Bloomberg about them.

Want to see a town that built second-floor sidewalks a strategy to compete with suburbia?

Put Morristown, Tennessee on your travel itinerary. That's what @davidzipper.bsky.social did.

From the new episode, out shortly.

I just finished watching 30 Rock, so I couldn't be more in the demo for this episode

AV companies are ignoring rural America. That's a shame. Today’s post comes from David Zipper, a Senior Fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative known for his writing on transportation policy, technology, and urban planning.

Here is the story David wrote in @driverlessdigest.bsky.social about the untapped potential of rural AVs

@davidzipper.bsky.social on the disinterest that AV companies have shown in rural America:

"The places where robotaxis could do the most good are not the places where robotaxi companies can make the most money."

From the new episode, coming later this week.

In a new episode, @wesmars.bsky.social explained how he once tried — and failed — to get a ticket as a bicyclist (for research!).

He probably would've had an easier time if he was Black or Latino.

YouTube video by Look Both Ways with David & Wes Episode 16: The Future of Rural Transportation + The War on Bikes

Video pod of the new episode is up!

Livestream is tomorrow (Tues) at 6p ET.

Link below

Daniel is right.

"Improving mobility"is a less compelling transit talking point than "reducing congestion," but it's more honest.

substack.com/profile/8520...

​On the latest episode, David and Wes discussed an inconvenient truth for urbanists:

Better transit service will improve regional mobility, but— let's be honest—it won't actually reduce traffic congestion. (Blame induced demand.)

YouTube video by Look Both Ways with David & Wes Look Both Ways LIVE with David & Wes: Episode 16

This week's episode is all about rural transportation.

Traveling in the countryside is dangerous and expensive—and nearly impossible without a car. Could autonomous vehicles be a solution?

Join David and Wes for the livestream on Tuesday @6p ET, or listen afterward on any podcast platform.

Last week, we talked about the Future of Useful Transit & how Denver's transit agency—who recently declared a shift towards prioritizing big events—is misdiagnosing the problem

This week, this same transit agency decided to do exactly what we suggested: increase frequency

(correlation ≠ causation)

No new @lookbothwayspod.bsky.social this week
but catching up with John Simmerman & @activetowns.bsky.social is always a good time

I'll soon head to the Sunshine State to keynote the Safe Roads Summit in Fort Lauderdale.

My topic: How cities can prepare for an influx of AVs.

I'll be joined by @wesmars.bsky.social, my partner in crime on @lookbothwayspod.bsky.social.

Info: www.browardmpo.org/safe-roads-s...

It's true! We agreed that one (1) Trump idea for transportation is genuinely terrific. (Hint: It's not dressing up before going to the airport.)

Thanks for the kind words, @jordihoney.bsky.social.

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

Genius strategy on the part of Chicago, which will help make up for their enormous failure in doing the 99 year lease of the parking spaces to begin with.

The audio pod for Episode 15 is now up:
lookbothwayspod.podbean.com/e/episode-15...

In which @wesmars.bsky.social invokes Taylor Swift to fix Chicago's parking meter fiasco—and it almost makes sense.

From the new episode, coming later this week.

@davidzipper.bsky.social thinks the rising popularity of golf carts suggests that the US has untapped demand for mnicars that are widespread across East Asia and Europe.

A snippet from the latest episode, available Thursday.

A sneak preview of the episode coming later this week.

David likes Amtrak's Quiet Car. Wes does, too — but he also wants a Party Car.

YouTube video by Look Both Ways with David & Wes Look Both Ways LIVE with David & Wes: Episode 15

Next livestream is Tuesday at 6p ET!

On the agenda for David and Wes:
🔸 The future of transit service
🔸 Minicars' untapped potential
🔸 The painful saga of Chicago's parking meters

Livestream link below. Audio pod posts at the end of the week.