Policy Topics

Bike Stress - David & Wes talk about bike route stress and a major blind spot in the existing Level of Traffic Stress method: intersections. The current approach does a good job rating street segments, but it largely ignores exactly where a route can become far more stressful in real life. David & Wes discuss a new survey designed to help fix that gap by bringing intersections into the mix, and why better bike safety analysis depends on measuring the full route, not just the links between inters...

Crash Data Blind Spots - David & Wes dig into crash data and why Americans may know less about road deaths than we think. Everyone says they want data-driven safety policy, but the data we rely on often miss major categories of harm, including crashes on private property, parking lots, driveways, and behind gates. They talk through what gets counted, what gets left out, and why police-collected crash data can turn a partial record into something that looks more complete than it really is. It’s a...

The World Cup - David & Wes mark the start of the World Cup by talking about the transportation culture shock many international visitors may experience in the United States. From stadium access to transit service to the everyday assumptions baked into how we move people around big events, they discuss why hosting a global event can expose the gaps in our transportation system. It’s a conversation about what happens when the world arrives expecting world-class mobility and instead encounters the...

Gas Tax Holiday - David & Wes take on gas tax holidays and why cutting a few cents from the price of gas is usually better politics than transportation policy. The federal gas tax has been stuck at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993, and suspending it would barely make a dent in a fill-up while weakening a transportation funding system that is already running on fumes. They talk through who actually benefits, whether the savings ever reach drivers, and why a real price-stabilization policy would h...

Freedom to Drive - In this very special episode of Look Both Ways recorded in front of a live audience on a rooftop in Denver, Jill Locantore of the Denver Streets Partnership joins David & Wes to dig into the Trump Administration’s “Freedom to Drive” initiative and what it says about how we think about congestion, mobility, and who the transportation system is really for. They contrast that national framing with a local story, Denver’s successful “Denver Deserves Sidewalks” campaign, which shif...

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 pricing called The Price of Traffic. Other topics include: 🔹 Sovereignty Implications of Cars 🔹 Bentley’s Law 🔹 Headlights 🔹 Insurance Companies Subsidizing Rural AVs 🔹 Our Favorite Intersections 🔹 Does Traffic Congestion Help or Hurt Safety? 🔹 BRT vs Subway 🔹 Value Captur...

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. Topics include: 🔹 The Brightline Train Destroying a Delivery Robot 🔹 The Long History of Unsafe Streets in Florida 🔹 Managed Lanes Moving from Nonstarter to Normal Additional resources: Delivery robot demolished by train in South Florida Dangerous By Design Report by S...

Rural AVs – David & Wes take a deep dive into the future of rural transportation and why mobility challenges outside our cities deserve far more attention. From David’s experience trying to get around West Virginia to Wes’ take on “rural urbanism” and the awesomeness of some rural Main Streets, they explore what rural villages get right, where and why rural areas struggle, and how autonomous vehicles might help the cause even more so than in urban areas. Other topics: 🔹 Iowa’s Anti-Bike Bi...

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 Chicago’s ability to improve transportation. They also explore the less-discussed reality that some good has come from the deal such as a city that actually charges market rates for curbside parking. Then, borrowing a lesson from Taylor Swift, they explore how Chicago could s...

AV Safety – David & Wes explain why an online kerfuffle about autonomous vehicle safety unexpectedly put David himself in the spotlight. They unpack why autonomous vehicle debates so often generate more noise than insight, how narratives take on a life of their own, and what cities should be paying attention to right now. Listeners will come away with a clear sense of where autonomous vehicles truly stand and why context, logic, and governance matter more than bold promises. Other topics: 🔹 T...

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 infuriating, they reflect on what the past year revealed about the state of streets, transit, and transportation more broadly. Listeners will come away with a clearer sense of the trends that mattered, the narratives that fell apart, and the questions that still haven’t been ...

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’s response as a case study, they dig into the tensions between innovation narratives and municipal responsibility. Listeners will come away with a clearer understanding of why cities are asserting themselves now, what’s at stake in these confrontations, and how regulation s...

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 moves as abstract budget debates, they focus on the real-world consequences for reliability, coverage, and who gets left behind. Today, we also talk about: 🔹 How we learn about transportation in a new city & what those first impressions reveal 🔹 What we mean when we say ...

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 clash... and what all this signals about where cities may be headed next. Listeners will come away with a clearer sense of what’s genuinely new in the agenda, what feels recycled, and why meaningful change often arrives later than promised. Today, we also talk about: 🔹 Where ...

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, equity, and quality of life, and why it remains largely invisible in transportation decision-making. Listeners will come away with a better understanding of why noise matters, how it reflects deeper design choices, and what acknowledging this externality would change about how...

Transit Funding – David & Wes dive into the growing threats to U.S. transit funding and why they matter far beyond agency balance sheets. By looking at how federal decisions shape what cities can build and operate, they unpack why transit in the United States costs so much, delivers so little, and remains perpetually vulnerable to political whims. Listeners will come away with a clearer understanding of how funding structures quietly undermine reliability, access, and public trust in transit sys...

Traffic Cameras – David & Wes take a closer look at traffic cameras and why they consistently poll better than most people expect. Rather than treating automated enforcement as a political third rail, they explore what the data actually show about public support, behavior change, and safety outcomes. Listeners will come away with a clearer understanding of why traffic cameras succeed where many other safety interventions stall, and what that popularity reveals about how people experience streets...

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 well-intentioned rules can limit who feels safe, welcome, or able to move through a city. Today, we also talk about: 🔹 Which of us likes cars less (or more) 🔹 Bike helmet mandates & unintended consequences 🔹 The risk of a transit doom loop And then we have a couple ra...

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