David Zipper
Seventy years ago, the writer Lewis Mumford warned that urban highways would be a disaster:
“This is pyramid building with a vengeance, a tomb of concrete roads and ramps covering the dead corpse of a city.”
He was right. We just didn’t listen.
My homage, in Bloomberg CityLab:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-14/in-1955-lewis-mumford-saw-nyc-s-congestion-battle-coming?srnd=phx-citylab
David Zipper
Because of tariffs and recession fears, Americans are more likely to buy a sedan instead of a pricey SUV or truck.
But Detroit doesn’t offer any sedans. Foreign automakers do.
In Fast Company, I explained why car bloat leaves the Big Three uniquely vulnerable to Trump’s economic chaos.
David Zipper
Google Maps has become dangerously distracting.
The app now issues alerts -- with loud chimes -- prompting drivers to confirm incidents like stalled cars.
The alerts direct drivers to look away from the road, and there's no way to turn them off. That's reckless UX.
My latest in Fast Company:
https://www.fastcompany.com/91276060/google-maps-drivers-confirmation-roadway-incidents-criticism
David Zipper
In Slate ,I explained that car bloat is now a global problem, not just an American one.
Worldwide, SUVs alone now comprise ~half of new car sales. The avg European car gets 1 cm wider every 2 years.
That's bad news for climate change, as well as for safety.
David Zipper
My initial reaction:
This is a huge step in the right direction — and long overdue. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards have real teeth. If this proposal comes into effect, carmakers will finally have to address how car bloat endangers pedestrians.
David Zipper
As rich countries snap up EVs, they could flood the Global South with aged gas guzzlers – in the process worsening climate change and dirtying the air in cities already choked with smog.
My latest in Vox: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/369695/used-cars-electric-vehicles-buy-exports
David Zipper
The Economist has published a deeply-researched story about car bloat -- and it's very, very damning.
"For every life that the heaviest 1% of SUVs and trucks save, there are more than a dozen lives lost in other vehicles."
Well worth your time: https://www.economist.com/interactive/united-states/2024/08/31/americans-love-affair-with-big-cars-is-killing-them
David Zipper
It really says something about the USA that a miniature kei car is "too dangerous" for public roads, but a lifted 8,000-lb pickup is just fine.
David Zipper
US transportation agencies keep claiming that expanding highways will reduce climate change.
In Vox, I explained why that's absurd.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/363013/wide-highways-climate-environment-pollution
David Zipper
Today is World Emoji Day, so here's a reminder that we have 🚳 and 🚷 but not
David Zipper
In just 18 minutes, Minnesota received 10,000 applications for e-bike rebates. The website crashed.
This happens pretty much every time a state or city offers e-bike rebates for the first time.
David Zipper
Thought I'd take a moment to introduce myself.
I'm a writer/wonk/advisor focused on the future of #transportation and #technology. I think designing cities to accommodate #cars was a cataclysmic mistake -- for #climate, quality of life, health, and equity -- but it's one we can fix.
I'm a Senior Fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiaive, and I've written 100+ articles on #mobility and #cities in Slate, CityLab, The Atlantic, Fast Company, The Verge etc.
Very happy to be a part of this community.
David Zipper
In case you were wondering
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a60983144/study-loud-exhaust-psychotic/
David Zipper
In Bloomberg CityLab, I interviewed engineering prof Wes Marshall about his new book, Killed by a Traffic Engineer, and the reasons why US road designers prioritize car speed over street safety.
David Zipper
I will bet money that the owner of this minitruck hauls stuff way more often than the average owner of an F-150
David Zipper
In Fast Company, I wrote about how wild it is that Ford, GM, and Stellantis no longer offer any sedan models in the US.
That's bad for Americans -- and it's risky for the Big Three.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91123174/detroit-killed-the-sedan-we-may-all-live-to-regret-it
David Zipper
As I told Canada's CBC News:
"'We are so used to subsidizing cars, treating streets as car parking, we don't even recognize what we've lost in doing so.' [Zipper] suggested using spaces once occupied by cars for bike lanes, gardens or cafés."
David Zipper
In Vox, I explained how federal policy encourages car bloat, making American vehicles more enormous, polluting, and dangerous than they'd otherwise be.
That's the exact opposite of what we should be doing.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24139147/suvs-trucks-popularity-federal-policy-pollution
David Zipper
As I told NBC News:
“If we’re serious about reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, we have to be serious about reducing transportation emissions, and in order to do that we have to address the main source of those emissions, which come from cars and trucks on highways."
“And to that extent, we need to rethink how much we want to expand highways.”
David Zipper
"No one I spoke to for this piece could name a recent sizable pedestrianization or traffic-reduction scheme that had been reversed once it had been given time to have an effect."
Visiting Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, focused on mobility, cities & tech. Writing in CityLab, Slate, Fast Company, The Atlantic etc. Tweets: @davidzipper #transportation #cities #innovation #technology #transit #cars #cycling #trafficsafety
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