Welcome to Axis ProRado, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision

of tech, business, and politics. I'm Dan Per Mac. On today's show, coronavirus kills a tech

conference and the new owner of America's second largest local news publisher. But first, building

safer cities. So for those of you who still watch local TV newscasts, a staple of them is the pedestrian or cyclist getting killed by a car. Almost always an accident, almost always glossed over as the cost of urban living. But that's not actually true everywhere, not in every city. In Helsinki and Oslo, for example, not a single pedestrian or cyclist was killed by a car last year.

Now, part of that is obviously good fortune, but more of it is good design.

These cities have wider sidewalks the most, and narrower car lanes and lower speed limit.

They've also invested in modernized public transit,

making it a more appealing alternative to driving,

and politicians there have actively worked

to change the language around road fatalities,

reframing it more as a public health issue than a transit issue.

And just for context, Helsinki has around

the same number of residents as Louisville, Kentucky,

where 23 pedestrians

and six cyclists were killed last year.

Within smart city circles, there's a name for cities like Helsinki and Oslo, or at least those

who aspire to be like them.

It's called Vision Zero, and several U.S. municipalities have signed on, including New York,

Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

But none of them seem to be on track to meet their targets.

And, in fact, some of them have actually seen deaths increase recently, particularly among cyclists.

The bottom line, America is beginning to talk about the problem, but isn't yet serious about solving it.

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