Decades of research prove that highways tear apart the physical fabric of our cities,  segregating neighborhoods by race and income and making it harder for anyone outside a car to access the jobs, services and communities they rely on — at least if those things happen to be located on the other side of a dangerous road. But what impact do highways have on the invisible social fabric of our places — and does the internet provide a bridge between these disconnected communities, or only a digital mirror of the sharp divides that highways draw between our neighborhoods?  Today on the Brake, we’re talking to data science researcher Luca Maria Aiello from IT University of Copenhagen, who found a fascinating way to quantify exactly how much downtown highways disconnect our social networks, in addition to our sidewalk, bike lane and transit networks.  And along the way, we discuss what those divisions cost us in social mobility, democratic cohesion, and real dollars and cents. 

Cities across America have been trying — and mostly failing — to achieve Vision Zero for more than a decade. But is it really time to trade the goal of ending road deaths and serious injuries for the aim of reducing them 30 percent by 2030? And would we be better positioned to eliminate the other 70 percent of fatalities if we made that strategic shift, or not?  Today on the Brake, we sit down with the presdient of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, David Harkey, to talk about his organization's pivot to push for a five-year full-court press on traffic violence, and why he doesn't believe that means giving up on ending road deaths overall. And along the way, Kea presses him to examine what strategies would really rise to the surface if we set a tighter time horizon for more modest road safety gains, and why we have to sweat our strategy when it comes to saving lives. 

What’s a little bigger than a bike, a lot smaller than a car, and might be the tool you didn’t know you needed to get a big haul home from the grocery store two miles away in the pouring rain? The answer is actually an entire category of vehicles that aren't common on U.S. roads — but with the right mix of policy, code, and infrastructure reform, we could see a lot more of them. Today on the Brake, we sit down with Karina Ricks of CityFi and Benjie De La Peña of the Shared Use Mobility Center to talk about all things mini-mobility, also known as light urban vehicles (LUVs), personal light moblity (PLMs), Neighboorhood Electric vehicles, (NEVs), and about a million other acronyms. Whatever you call them, Ricks and De La Peña recently won a $750,000 federal grant to help American communities encourage their use – only to find out, days later, that the grant might be in jeopardy thanks to President Trump’s executive orders.  Listen in to learn more about their project and how you can help keep it alive.       

What if there were a single document that told every U.S. resident exactly how safe their state is — or isn't— for pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vulnerable road users, as well as what that state is doing to save lives ? Turns out there is: the Vulnerable Road User Safety Assessment, or VRUSA. And since  the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, every DOT in the U.S. has been legally required to write one – even if they don't always do it in ways that are particularly helpful to transportation reform advocates, Today on the Brake, we're sitting down with Michael Kelley of Bike Walk KC in Kansas City, Mo., who recently co-authored a new report that digs deep into how six states are approaching the all-important VRUSA — and how every state could make this document a more meaningful blueprint for saving lives. And along the way, we touch on why there are so many ways to quantify carnage on our roads, and why even in uncertain times, documents like this matter more than ever.

If you’ve been following Streetsblog for a while, you might have heard of famed planner/engineer/all-around transportation superstar Roger Millar, not least for his recent leadership as the head of the Washington state DOT. But you might not have heard that, while at WashDOT, Millar and his team did something quietly radical: they challenged every decision maker in their state to confront the role of land use in saving lives in our roads, by changing the very framework on which the state’s Vision Zero program rests. On this episode of The Brake, we sit down with Secretary Millar on the eve of his departure from WashDOT to talk about not just why that change could be so impactful, but how he wants his career to be remembered, even as he transitions to a new chapter. And along the way, we get into a deeper conversation about what state DOTs are really for, and how advocates can push them to do better.  

More than a decade ago, Kate Gallego had a seizure that temporarily cost her the ability to drive  – and opened her eyes to the difficulty of getting around her city of Phoenix, Arizona without a car. Now, in her third term as Phoenix's mayor, she's pushed for some of the most aggressive multimodal transportaiton investments in the city's history, including a new shade plan to tackle the impact of the community's notoriously sweltering heat on people who walk, roll, orwait for a ride.  On this episode of The Brake, we dive deep into how Phoenix is using next-level data to put shade investments into the neighborhoods that need them most, how shade structures can do double-duty as public art and play space, and the cultural challenges of fighting for multimodality in a place built around the car.  Check it out, and if you appreciated this show, include Streetsblog USA in your holiday giving, or sign up to be the first to know when our new SB-branded rain gear is available from Cleverhood.

Scott Snodgrass, co-founder of Meristem Communities, shares insights on Indigo, a pioneering car-light neighborhood in suburban Houston. They discuss transforming suburban spaces by prioritizing human-centered design and promoting local agriculture. The conversation tackles challenges of reducing car dependency in a car-centric culture, featuring innovative solutions like pocket neighborhoods. Scott emphasizes the importance of community engagement and sustainable practices as models for future developments, igniting a vision of accessible, walkable living.

Tirana, Albania has gained international recognition for putting kids first on the road —  especially their award-winning "School Streets," where cars are either banned or significantly limited from driving near learning centers and play spaces for kids are built instead. As the Balkan city grows its bike network, though, its mayor says it's still reckoning with a post-communist culture that sees cars as an aspirational symbol of success. And he has some fascinating thoughts about what it takes to shift that paradigm before it takes root any further.  Today on The Brake, we finish up our dispatches from Bloomberg Citylab with Mayor Erion Veliaj. And along the way, we dig into some fasciating questions about America's "soft power" over European countries, why kids deserve a bigger say in how our cities are built, and why building places where grandmas want to sit and knit is better for public safety than any smart-city gadget. 

Quelimane, Mozambique might not be the first city that comes to an American's mind when she thinks of an active transportation paradise. With 40 percent of trips taken on foot and 35 percent in the saddle, though, the east African city has already been ranked as the most walkable city on Earth — and now, it's setting its sights on becoming an international model for how to support people who walk and roll through visionary leadership and policy. This week on The Brake, we continue our dispatches from Bloomberg Citylab with an inteview with Quelimane's mayor Manuel de Araújo. In his 13 years in office, de Araújo's made it his mission to elevate the social status of his city's cyclists and use the bike as a tool for social change, even building the country's first cycle lanes the help of a $400,000 grant from the Bloomberg Initiative for Cycling Infrastructure. In the process, though, he's come up against many of the same cultural and political challenges that American advocates face, even in a wildly different landscape where car dependency hasn't yet taken hold — and his leadership could be a powerful example for the U.S. as we head into uncertain times.

Highways and other federal transportation investments have destroyed neighborhoods of color across America, even as the current presidential administration attempts to heal those wounds through grants like the Reconnecting Communities Program. But what is it like to actually be a local leader fighting to win that money  — especially when the sheer volume of disconnected communities makes the competition dauntingly steep?  On this episode of The Brake —and our first dispatch from Bloomberg Citylab 2024 — we sat down with Lansing, Mich. Mayor Andy Schor, who's going above and beyond to win his town the money it needs to address the harms caused by Interstate 496, whose construction claimed more than 800 homes and businessess and even the dirt on which they sat. And along the way, we talk about how local officials and advocates can play a bigger role in resisting bad highway projects, and how mayors are exchanging tools to help in the fight.  Listen in, and read interviews with three other small-city mayors who are getting into the federal grant game with the help of experts at the Local Infrastructure Hub.