Killed by a Traffic Engineer

The War on Cars

The War on Cars, LLC

Cars, Society & Culture, Culture, Bicycling, Politics, Urbanism, Walking, Transportation, Cities, Transit, News Commentary, News

4.9 • 937 Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Because it has the word “engineering” right in there, the field of traffic engineering is something most people assume is governed by science and rational rules. But a new book, written by a traffic engineer himself, argues that is not the case at all. In Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion That Science Underlies Our Transportation System, Wes Marshall — a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado Denver — says that the idea that the design of our transportation system is based on science couldn't be further from the truth. By examining a century's worth of history, studies, old professional journals and current standards, Marshall argues that his colleagues need to do some deep soul searching about the rules they follow so that they no longer design a system that kills tens of thousands of people per year.

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This episode was sponsored by Cleverhood and Bullmoose Softgoods. Listen for the latest discount codes.

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This episode was edited by Yessenia Moreno. It was recorded by Josh Wilcox at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody. It's Doug here and I am at Vello City, one of the biggest bike
0:06.4	conferences in the world. This year it is hosted in the city of Ghent in
0:11.5	Belgium. It's just been incredible and randomly I have been
0:15.1	walking around and I have seen a lot of people wearing their cleverhood.
0:19.6	All right, Coach Sam Balto, former guest of the podcast, Bike Bus Advocate,
0:27.3	Extraordinair. You are wearing your cleverhood anorac here at Vello City.
0:32.3	Have people said anything about your your jacket? Hood, Anorac here at Vello City.
0:32.8	Have people said anything about your jacket?
0:35.9	I feel like this is my cape.
0:37.6	I've had people from all around the world
0:40.0	recognize me with my cleverhood bike bus jacket and so it's been amazing to see how
0:46.1	you know just the joy and excitement of the bike bus has been so infectious and
0:51.7	that these amazing cleverhood jackets have kind of
0:55.2	been the way that people recognize it. And it's funny that you say it's your cape
1:00.4	because they make capes but you're wearing the jacket.
1:04.0	Originally I asked Susan to make us capes and she was very adamant that we have the
1:08.0	anoract jackets because it would be better for us signaling and you know
1:12.0	quirking the intersections for the leaders of the bike
1:15.7	bus and I couldn't agree more that these anoracts are just the best quality they
1:20.6	really you know make us feel special while we're, you know, leading the bike bus and making sure kids get to school safely.
1:28.0	And the nice thing is, Susan at Cleverhood, the whole Cleverhood gang, they support the bike bike bus it's not just they're giving
1:34.1	you these jackets but when you make a purchase of a bike bus jacket of a war on cars
	...

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