Hey everybody. Welcome to Shift,

podcast about mobility. I'm Pete Bigelow, your host and reporter to the Automotive News.

One of the topics we've addressed here on the podcast from time to time

is how the limitations of driver assistance systems can set human drivers up to fail.

We had one early guest call that dynamic a moral crumple zone, something

which protects the reputation and legal liability of the technology at the expense of the

human operator. I've been thinking about that in a new way lately.

It's not just technology that can set human drivers up to fail. It can also be infrastructure,

aka the built environment,

aka the way roads are designed and developed

to maintain and prioritize speed of vehicles,

at the expense of pretty much everything and everyone else.

So I've been thinking about that because the latest federal figures on

traffic fatalities came out last week,

and they showed that 42,795 Americans were killed in traffic collisions last year,

hundreds of thousands more are injured. My guest today is Beth Osborne,

the Director of Transportation for America, which is a project of smart growth America.

She's going to help me consider the role of the built environment in those traffic crashes,

and perhaps most importantly, how we might go about designing safer streets.

Without further ado, I'm pleased to bring you this conversation with Beth Osbourn.

Beth, welcome to the Shift Podcast. It's great to have you today.

Thanks for inviting me.

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