Cities Episodes

Mailbag! – David & Wes take listener questions on any and all things transportation. Before doing so, they talk about why David is at the Northwestern Transportation Library. The answer? He’s writing a book about congestion p...

Florida Men – David & Wes venture down to Fort Lauderdale for the 2026 Safe Roads Summit. After their respective talks, they jump on stage to record a live podcast episode with Broward MPO Executive Director, Greg Stuart. Top...

Parking Meters – David & Wes unpack the recent multi-billion-dollar resale of Chicago’s parking meter lease and why it matters. They explain the contract, including the compensation clause, and how it continues to hamstring C...

End of Year Extravaganza – David & Wes toss the usual format aside to look back at the transportation stories that defined 2025. From policies and headlines that made them hopeful to moments that were equal parts absurd and i...

Waymo in Cities – David & Wes explore why cities are beginning to push back on Waymo and other robotaxi companies, and what that resistance reveals about local control, safety, and trust in emerging technologies. Using Boston...

Defunding Transit – David & Wes examine the growing efforts to defund transit through mechanisms like the Highway Trust Fund. What happens when transit funding is threatened and slowly hollowed out? Rather than treating these...

New York City – David & Wes break down Mamdani's New York City’s new transportation agenda and & the priorities it elevates and avoids. We examine how political vision, implementation, and street-level realities align or clas...

Traffic Noise – David & Wes dig into traffic noise as an overlooked public health problem and a quiet but pervasive form of harm in cities. Moving beyond annoyance, we explore how constant exposure to noise affects health, eq...

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...

Rainbow Crosswalks – David & Wes respond to the backlash against rainbow crosswalks and ask a more fundamental question: why are symbolic safety treatments (that have proven to help_ getting blamed for crashes instead of the ...

Abundance in Transportation – David & Wes take on the idea of abundance in transportation. What would an abundant transportation system look like? Why do so many policies end up producing scarcity instead? We also explore how...

This is episode 1 of Look Both Ways with David & Wes, a new transportation podcast by David Zipper & Wes Marshall