The Brake: A Streetsblog Podcast

What is an electric car, really? Is it a godsend that could save the planet from climate catastrophe by slashing emissions in the sector that contributes the most greenhouse gases in virtually every developed country in the world Is it an important tool for climate harm reduction that we have to invest in big, even if it doesn't solve all of the problems of car dependent transportation systems? Or is it just a heavier and more heavily subsidized car that makes nearly all of the core problems of car dependency worse, while using its climate benefits as a screen to shield us from those harms? On today's episode of The Brake, we sit down with Agnieszka Stefaniec, co-author of the new paper "A wolf in sheep's clothing: Exposing the structural violence of private electric automobility," to get her take — and talk about why the EV debate is so polarizing.

One in nine Americans live in poverty, and millions more live in a precarious place somewhere between precarity and true security. A new book argues, though, that it doesn't have to be this way — and that we can all play a role in challenging the systems and individual choices that "keep poor people poor" for benefit for everyone else. On this episode of The Brake, host Kea Wilson sits down with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Matthew Desmond to talk about his new book Poverty by America, the poverty abolition movement, and how it intersects with the movement to end car dependency. (Hint: it's not just about hefty monthly car payments.) Listen in, and buy your copy anywhere books are sold.

Look up traffic fatality stats for almost any country in the world, and you'll find that men are almost always drastically over-represented among the dead, even in countries like the Netherlands and Sweden which have made the most progress towards Vision Zero. But if good road, vehicle and systems design isn't saving as many male-identified lives, what will — and why is it so hard to talk about cultural forces without denying the dangers of our built environment? On this episode of the Brake, host Kea Wilson sits down with researcher and urban planning professor Tara Goddard to talk about how toxic masculinity plays out on our roads and what can we be done to stop it. Listen in, and check out the resources below mentioned in the show: Tara's recent presentation on transportation safety culture at Portland State University Cara Daggett's "Petromasculinity: Fuel and Authoritarian Desire" "French Warn Parents of an Underestimated Roadway Danger: Toxic Masculinity"

"Roadway safety is a shared responsibility, and people in cars and outside of cars play an equal role in keeping each other safe." "Sprawl is good, actually, because it means people can have big, beautiful houses and some quality alone time on their daily commutes." "We won't need to worry about transportation emissions or the broader impacts of automobiles on the environment for that much longer, because haven't you heard? electric cars are here!" Those phrases might spike make the average sustainable transportation advocate's blood pressure spike. But in the world of corporate disinformation, they're simply a handy way to reframe the conversation about car dependency — and to manipulate the public into accept ing the avoidable deaths of their loved ones and their planet. On today's episode of The Brake, host Kea Wilson brings you an extended interview with Grant Ennis, author of Dark PR: How Corporate Disinformation Harms Our Health and the Environment. Listen in, and check out a sharable summary of the "nine devious frames" he outlines in his book here.

Most bikeshare rides taken on U.S. soil happen in a handful of gigantic cities, on systems maintained by big corporations. At YoGo Bikeshare, though, Ronnell Elkins and his team are building a bespoke micromobility option specifically for his neighbors in Youngstown, Ohio — and hoping to create a model for other small cities to combat car dependency. On this episode of The Brake, host Kea Wilson sits down with Elkins to talk about what makes this Black-led, family-owned bikeshare stand out, why YoGo's investing only in e-bikes, and what it takes to get a town of 60,000 people on board a revolutionary new transportation mode. Learn more about YoGo Bikeshare on their website.

Across America, a shocking number of drivers are illegally hacking their cars to be as loud as possible — and evidence is mounting that the phenomenon has a huge impact on public health. But what can cities do about it? Today on The Brake, we sat down with researcher Nick Ferenchak, whose work on traffic safety we've been following for years. Now, he's turning his attention to the link between vehicle noise pollution and dangerous driving — and launching a company to help cities put equitable and effective noise camera programs on their streets. Join us for a deep dive on noise cameras, and learn more Not-A-Loud and Nick's research on his website.

If the typical professional athlete talks about transportation at all, it's usually in the context of a mulit-million SUV commercial. Soccer star Tesho Akindele, though, isn't the typical athlete — and as he transitions out of his career onthe field, he's making building walkable, bikeable, equitable cities his full-time job. Today on The Brake, we talk to Tesho about how he fell in love with urbanism, why he uses his platform to talk about parking minimums, and the secret to getting non-wonks on board the movement to end car dependency and create people-centered places. Follow Tesho at Twitter @Tesho13.

Not enough U.S. mayors make sustainable transportation a priority, and even the ones that do don't always get much done. On today's episode of The Brake, though, we spoke with one elected official who's making massive progress to make streets safer, greener and more equitable in his small town — and sharing lessons in leadership that can scale to even the biggest cities. In this extended conversation with Mayor John Bauters of Emeryville, Calif., we learn more about his successful effort to put a seat at every bus stop in his town, which Streetsblog covered last month, and what it takes to get humble yet ambitious mobility projects like this done. And along the way, we chat about why he thinks climate change is a losing campaign issue even though it's the most important issue of our time, why elected officials should get outside more, and why he thinks that you — yes, you — should run for office.

Mass memorials to the victims of traffic violence are a rarity on American roads. But it wasn't always that way — and there's a fascinating history behind why so many lost lives have become virtually invisible in the public realm today. On this episode of The Brake, Kea Wilson sits down with historian and author Peter Norton to talk about how America used to memorialize car crash deaths in the early days of the automobile, and why automakers invested so much into reshaping the way we grieve. And then they chat about what it might take to bring the national traffic violence epidemic out of the shadows, and why even everyday non-lethal road trauma deserves to be called out. Listen in, and learn more about traffic violence memorials in our earlier coverage.

In communities across the U.S., city leaders have reacted to safety concerns about the shared e-scooter industry with fleet curfews, neighborhood restrictions, and even outright bans. Those blunt policies, though, might hurt more people than they help — especially when it comes to socially and racially marginalized communities without other ways to get around. On today's special edition of The Brake, we're re-broadcasting an episode of Charles T. Brown's Arrested Mobility podcast about what happened when the city of St. Louis forced e-scooters out of its downtown, featuring an interview with our own host Kea Wilson, who covered the story for Streetsblog last year. And along the way, we'll explore why so many places beyond Missouri's borders have enacted similar policies — and why Black and brown Americans, in particular, deserve so much more from their transportation leaders.