@davidzipper.bsky.social
Thinking, writing, and speaking about transport, cities, and tech. Contributing Writer @ Bloomberg and cohost @ Look Both Ways w/David & Wes. Working on a book about congestion pricing. linktr.ee/davidzipper
Newsletter & contact info: www.davidzipper.com
@observingthecity.caReposted by @davidzipper.bsky.socialConstruction trucks leaving Bloor and Islington area after being successfully deterred from starting work on removing bike lanes in Toronto by a large protest.
@davidzipper.bsky.socialMy kingdom for a headline about speed safety cameras that mentions a reduction in crashes along with an increase in tickets.
@davidzipper.bsky.socialCity workers usually move fast to dismantle a guerrilla crosswalk or bench, often arriving in a matter of hours. IMO that's part of the activists' power: They show that government *can* quickly change streets—even if it seldom does.
@davidzipper.bsky.socialThere are similar stories in N America and Europe. The best response? Do nothing. The inconvenience of parking a rolling behemoth nudges people to buy a model that's smaller and less dangerous to other road users.
@davidzipper.bsky.social"One year after NYC launched its congestion pricing policy, fine particulate pollution inside Manhattan’s congestion relief zone was 13 percent lower."
@davidzipper.bsky.socialMy DMs are open
@davidzipper.bsky.socialMy hottest urbanist take is that I think Dutch cycling is overhyped.
Yes, the Dutch bike a lot, but they also own more cars per capita than Danes & Greeks, and they travel by car more than Poles & Romanians.
@lookbothwayspod.bsky.socialReposted by @davidzipper.bsky.socialOur next livestream is all about gasoline! - Will higher gas prices cause enduring mode shift? - Is "pausing" the gas tax as dumb as it seems? - How the heck will we fund infrastructure when fuel taxes keep declining? Join Wes and David on Tues, Oct 13 at 6p ET ⤵️
@davidzipper.bsky.socialThe London Assembly's Transport Committee just issued a new report on autonomous vehicles, and it's notably lacking in enthusiasm: "We currently have not heard sufficient evidence to persuade us that London should welcome autonomous passenger services."
@davidzipper.bsky.socialLimited myself to books about transportation and cities. It was hard!
@davidzipper.bsky.socialHell yeah on Austerlitz. But Ferdydurke?? That book made as much sense to me as Finnegans Wake.
@davidzipper.bsky.socialSomething I bought in London last week: A 1923 map of the Underground, by Max Gill. Remember: "The Underground Railways are treated as a whole, and tickets are sold at any station to all other stations on the system to which there is a reasonable and convenient route."
@dillo.mediaReposted by @davidzipper.bsky.socialYUP
@davidzipper.bsky.socialThe US should do the same. Deliberately confusing the public is not a legitimate marketing strategy—esp when confusion can be fatal.
@davidzipper.bsky.socialOnce again, the ridehail app’s promised five minute pickup turned out to be 15 minutes after I booked it. I’m not a lawyer, but it sure smells like systematic false advertising.
@davidzipper.bsky.socialAs I understand it, Volvo's perspective is that you get better safety outcomes by focusing directly on height, weight, and body shape (i.e., weight distribution). The engineer I spoke with believed that the popular focus on gendered dummies was misguided and a distraction.
@davidzipper.bsky.socialI had a long conversation with a (female) Volvo safety engineer who insisted that woman-based crash test dummies were a bad idea. She said that other differences between people — esp weight and height — were at least as influential on crash outcomes.
@davidzipper.bsky.socialActivists have called for female crash test dummies that reflect women's' bodies.
But Volvo—a company whose reputation revolves around safety—says that approach is too simplistic. Its new report notes that height, body shape, and weight also affect crash risk.
@davidzipper.bsky.socialWhen I wrote that AVs would be more useful outside cities— the only places where robotaxi co's want to deploy— industry insiders told me that the economics just doesn't work.
OK, but then don't be surprised when people question whether AVs are actually worthwhile.
@davidzipper.bsky.socialSeems bad: "[Self-driving] testing remains concentrated in a small set of urban environments, leaving rural roads, under-represented populations, and less common traffic behaviors underexposed in the data that shapes how autonomous systems perceive the world."
