David Zipper
@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
Trump's USDOT has published a rather hollow National Roadway Safety Strategy. Among the many topics it ignores: 🔹 Pedestrian crash safety standards (which Biden proposed) 🔹 Bike safety 🔹 Restrictions on car bloat, blind zones, or infotainment distraction www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.go...
Does USDOT Secretary Duffy's term "DEI bike lanes" make any sense? No, it does not. Wes & David discussed how Trump administration's attacks on bike lanes and transit are making travel more dangerous.
David, on Canada-US traffic safety comparisons: "The average American is more than 2x as likely to die in a crash in a given year than the average Canadian. They love cars; it's a spacious, wide open country. And yet they are way safer than [Americans]. It's important to ask ourselves why."
It’s much the same in Alberta. Police and traffic safety orgs have been doubling and tripling down on PSAs about speed limits since the province banned speed cameras. Crashes and fatalities are up, meanwhile the government’s priorities are increasing highway speed limits and removing bike lanes.
David Zipper@davidzipper.bsky.social · yesterdayA story of cause and effect: Last November, Ontario banned cities from using speed safety cameras to issue tickets. Reckless speeding immediately surged in Toronto, Ottawa, Guelph, and cities throughout the province. A 🧵 about my latest in Bloomberg (gift link)
Data are clear: Speed safety cameras are arguably the fastest, most effective, most affordable way to cut traffic fatalities
David Zipper@davidzipper.bsky.social · yesterdayA story of cause and effect: Last November, Ontario banned cities from using speed safety cameras to issue tickets. Reckless speeding immediately surged in Toronto, Ottawa, Guelph, and cities throughout the province. A 🧵 about my latest in Bloomberg (gift link)
A story of cause and effect: Last November, Ontario banned cities from using speed safety cameras to issue tickets. Reckless speeding immediately surged in Toronto, Ottawa, Guelph, and cities throughout the province. A 🧵 about my latest in Bloomberg (gift link)
What Happens When Speed Cameras Get Shut Off
In 2025, Ontario banned automated traffic enforcement. Now the number of drivers exceeding the speed limit has surged, according to traffic data.
bloomberg.com
New research shows that the US has been a global laggard curbing crash deaths. If the US had merely matched improvements in 14 peer nations, 500,000+ lives would have been saved from 2000-24. doi.org/10.1080/1538...
Oh FFS. DC was doing phenomenally well until this guy moved back last year. Now we're holding on for dear life as National Guard troops wander aimlessly through our streets.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d agoTrump on Washington DC: "This was the crime capital, frankly, of the world. It was the most unsafe capital of any country anywhere in the world."
Livestream tomorrow (8/3) at 6p ET! On the agenda: 🔹 Trump's nationwide halt of transit expansions 🔹 The feds' war on bike lanes 🔹 AVs and cycling? It's messy. Join @davidzipper.bsky.social & @wesmars.bsky.social ⤵️
Look Both Ways LIVE with David & Wes: Episode 27
YouTube video by Look Both Ways with David & Wes
youtube.com
This IMO is the best ongoing study of NYC congestion pricing. An update w/data thru 6/26 is encouraging: "The toll raised cordon-area speeds by 11%, with little effect on air quality, consumer spending, or foot traffic. Speeds also rose outside the cordon." shoshanavasserman.com/papers/the_n...
Better headline: “SEPTA’s bus lane cameras improve transit service; deter illegal driver behavior” www.axios.com/local/philad...
Finally visiting. I’m a little embarrassed it took me this long.
Good. Nothing ruins urban walkability like a drive-through.
How a Culver City In-N-Out Ignited a Drive-Through Debate
The state gave rise to fast-food culture decades ago, but some cities are spurning drive-throughs because of the environmental and aesthetic impacts.
nytimes.com
Something I'll never understand - if I want to make substantial enough changes to my house, it has to go through a neighbourhood consultation process, but someone on my block can buy a vehicle that significantly increases the chances one of my kids gets run over.
David Zipper@davidzipper.bsky.social · 5d agoWhich vehicles most endanger the drivers of other cars? Giant pickup trucks — and the Dodge Charger Source: www.iihs.org/news/detail/...
Yes, and this is why car bloat is caused by regulatory failure. If other cars on the road are bigger than yours, it's reasonable to want a bigger one. Rinse, wash, repeat—and you end up with America's enormous SUVs and pickups. Decades of inaction from NHTSA + Congress enabled this.
Lifted pickups are extremely dangerous. Their blind zones are enormous, and they can crush anyone or anything in their path. Keep in mind: Lift kits fall under state jurisdiction. State legislators and regulators can restrict them, or even ban them completely.
David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · 5d agoI stopped at a red light on a road with no bike lanes, typical in Honolulu. A driver in a lifted pickup pulled up behind me, leaned out the window, and yelled, "Hey buddy, get the fuck out of my way." I promptly got on the sidewalk and waited for the green light. Cars turn people into sociopaths.
Which vehicles most endanger the drivers of other cars? Giant pickup trucks — and the Dodge Charger Source: www.iihs.org/news/detail/...
Detroit should read Clay Christensen s The Innovator’s Dilemma. “Offering the latest in-car gadgetry has become a game of one-upmanship among automakers, from dashboard-spanning display screens and cars that start with a fingerprint, to … infrared cameras that scan a driver’s eyes.”
These Drivers Are Taking Extreme Measures to Avoid New Car Technology
They scour dealerships for models with the fewest bells and whistles. Then they disable alarms and reconfigure dashboards in search of low-tech bliss.
wsj.com
This is framed as a feel-good story, but it should scare the wits out of anybody on the road. Tesla's deceptive marketing is convincing seniors that the cars drive themselves. In reality, a human must always be ready to intervene. If someone lacks the ability to do that, they shouldn't be driving!
Forget rideshare. How seniors are using Teslas for transportation
As Waymo and Tesla robotaxi services promise more rides for more cities, seniors are taking matters into their own hands and self-driving Teslas.
detroitnews.com
Remember when Trump promised the US was about to be a minicar Mecca? Feels like ages ago (it was December)
Trump’s Surprise Answer to Vehicle Affordability: ‘Cute’ Tiny Cars
Japan’s small, efficient kei cars start at just over $10,000.
wsj.com
This is false. Side mirrors themselves can create blind spots, particularly on oversized pickup trucks with gigantic mirrors. Researchers call these blind zones "mirror patches," and they've been expanding. Info: www.sae.org/articles/lon... The solution is simple: Regulate car bloat.
The nexus btw law and road safety is underexamined. This project, from @smartgrowthusa.bsky.social and National Complete Streets Coalition, looks valuable: "...a new effort to explore how our legal system may be preventing safer roadway design—and what can be done about it." GoFundMe ⤵️
Donate to Help us explore legal pathways to safer roads, organized by Smart Growth America
On June 9, Smart Growth America released Dangerous by Design 2026, … Smart Growth America needs your support for Help us explore legal pathways to safer roads
gofundme.com
New GAO report examines how driver blind spots endanger pedestrians and cyclists—and asks why USDOT has done nothing about it. www.gao.gov/products/gao...
“David Zipper probably would have worded a few things differently, but Trump's exactly right.” LOL, no lies detected
Trump Joins War On Cars, Tells Mary Barra 'I'm Not Sure I Want To Get Hit By One Of Your Silverados' - Jalopnik
If you were worried that was the weirdest thing Trump said at his rally at GM's Milford Proving Ground, don't be.
jalopnik.com
Agree. I asked Youtuber car bro Matt Farah if there is a conflict btw his urbanist views and his ownership of 7 (very nice) cars. His response: “No, because my cars spend 99.9% of their lives parked. I may be taking up space, but I’m taking up space on my own private property — vertically.”
Why Car YouTuber Matt Farah Is Fighting for Walkable Cities
The outspoken host of “The Smoking Tire” videos and podcasts has become an unlikely advocate for urban transportation policy reforms that limit car use.
bloomberg.com
Ned Resnikoff@resnikoff.bsky.social · last wk.My immediate reaction to this piece was disgust, but on the other hand at least these guys are paying for car storage instead of expecting the rest of us to subsidize it for them. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/s...
I'm late to this story, but it's hilarious. "Edsel sales dropped each year the model was on the market, and Ford discontinued the car in 1959. Cybertruck sales are off to an even worse start. Only 7,133 have been registered in the US this year through May [despite] SpaceX building out a fleet."
Tesla’s Cratering Cybertruck Sales Evoke Ford Edsel Comparisons
Both automakers expected consumers to buy hundreds of thousands of their futuristic models per year. Tesla’s pickup is missing the mark by a wider margin.
bloomberg.com
Congress appropriated billions of dollars for new transit projects. Why is the Trump administration spending none of it? Why are even transit projects in red states going unfounded? New reporting in @nytimes.com (gift link): www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/u...
As a boy, my grandparents wouldn't dream of buying a Ford b/c Henry Ford—who was long dead by then—had been a rabid antisemite. 40 years later, I'm amazed that so many people who deplore xenophobia remain willing to buy a Tesla.
When I see "Waymo saves lives" op-eds, I always do a quick search to see what the author has written extolling protected bike lanes. Or automatic speed cameras. Or road diets. The results are always the same: Nope. Nada. Zilch.
