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. 

Over the past few weeks, U.S. news has been flooded with images of hurricane disaster: endless traffic jams full of evacuees, communities destroyed by deadly winds, and residents struggling to access the resources they need to survive while multiple feet of water stand in the streets. But how has car dependency impacted the course of these unthinkable events — and how can addressing it make us more resilient to whatever climate change throws at us next?  On today’s episode of the Brake, we’re sitting down with two experts from the Institute, Sara McTarnaghan and Will Curran-Groom, who are thinking deeply about the intersection between disaster planning and everyday urban planning, and how making our neighborhoods less centered on the automobile can help everyone when the big storm comes — which, as we’ve been reminded this week, can happen just about anywhere. And along the way, we get into hard questions about how to evacuate people who don’t have cars, how ending exclusionary zoning now can pay dividends when communities set up resource hubs after a disaster, and so much more. Note: this episode was recorded after Hurricane Helene, but before Hurricane Milton. We are sending all our thoughts to the people in the path of both of those storms, and all the storms to come. If you are looking for ways to support the victims, here are a few resources.

Cities that have done the work to attract a lot of cyclists aren't just safe for people on two wheels — they're safer for drivers, pedestrians, and everyone else on the road, too. But why, exactly, is that true, and how can we use that insight to sell bike-friendly infrastructure and policy to a public that barely rides at all?  On this episode of The Brake, we're back with Nick Ferenchak and Wes Marshall, who co-authored a new study of seven mid-sized cities that have gotten a lot of their residents into the saddle, and found that they reported 61 percent fewer traffic deaths than peer communities where everyone drives. And that finding may signal the need for a "new framework" for talking about what "bike" infrastructure is really for — and what kind of interventions can best protect people across all modes, if only by getting more residents out of their cars.  Listen in, and when you're done, check out our previous episodes with Wes and Nick.