Fixing America's Car Culture with David Zipper
The War on Cars
The War on Cars, LLC
4.9 • 937 Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2024
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Happy New Year! We’re kicking off 2024 by bringing you our conversation with David Zipper, one of the hardest-working analysts on the transportation scene today. You may be familiar with David from his writing at Bloomberg CityLab, Slate and Fast Company, where he relentlessly covers road safety, climate change, and the future of micromobility.
We talked with David about the excesses of the auto industry, our road fatality crisis, the absurd way speed limits are determined on American streets, and whether we might ever be able to swap out our bloated SUVs for electric golf carts. Or if that’s too much to ask, will cities at least start charging people more for driving massive glacier melters?
LINKS:
You can find out all about David Zipper’s work, along with links to his writing, at his website.
See David on NBCDFW’s excellent series about why Dallas is such a deadly place to drive.
This episode is produced with support from Cleverhood. Listen to the episode for the latest Cleverhood discount code.
See The War on Cars LIVE at Caveat on NYC on Wednesday, January 31st. Tickets are going fast!
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This episode was recorded by Josh Wilcox at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio. It was edited by Ali Lemer. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We have been getting a lot of rain this winter, so I've been using my cleverhood gear more than ever. |
| 0:08.0 | I have the Rover Rain Cape, which I love for how simple it is to slip over my head and for the way it keeps not just me, but |
| 0:16.1 | whatever I'm carrying dry. |
| 0:18.1 | I also have the Urbanaut trench. |
| 0:20.4 | It's not only the most stylish raincoat I've ever owned. |
| 0:24.0 | Seriously, everyone is always asking me questions about it and I love it. |
| 0:28.0 | It's also the most practical. |
| 0:30.0 | It's woven with 3M reflective yarns that keep me visible. I stay dry and I just enjoy wearing it around |
| 0:36.1 | my neighborhood. |
| 0:37.1 | Aaron, Sarah, and I are big fans of our cleverhood gear and we know listeners of the War on Cars |
| 0:42.1 | R2. Now through the end of January, you can say And we know listeners of the War on Cars are too. |
| 0:42.8 | Now through the end of January, you can save 15% on everything in the Cleverhood store. |
| 0:48.3 | Go to Cleverhood.com slash War on Cars and use the Code Clever New Year. |
| 0:55.0 | Again, that's Clever |
| 0:57.0 | com slash War on Cars, Code Clever New Year. |
| 1:01.0 | We thank Clever Hood for supporting the podcast and for having us covered, literally. |
| 1:07.0 | We've been telling Americans for decades, look out for protecting yourself inside a vehicle, and we're not actually |
| 1:16.7 | doing anything from a regulation perspective, unlike a lot of other countries, to force them |
| 1:21.8 | as consumers or as car designers to think about the broader |
| 1:26.0 | safety implications you end up with a sort of national fleet of cars getting |
| 1:31.4 | bigger and bigger and bigger because people are looking out for their own |
| 1:34.5 | self-interest, even if overall we would all prefer to be in a country with smaller cars. |
... |
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