The Brake: A Streetsblog Podcast

Episode 2: Who Should Get to Decide Whether a Road Goes on a Diet? (Beth Osborne)


Listen Later

This week on Streetsblog, we looked at two communities who each planned to calm an ultra-wide, ultra-dangerous road with the support of the vast majority of the residents they asked, only to have those plans scuttled in the face of vocal opposition. In San Antonio, Texas, that opposition is coming from the top down, as state DOT leaders and the governor himself step in and insist that 7-lane Broadway Avenue must continue to prioritize motorist speed over local safety; in Philadelphia, Pa., it's coming from the bottom up, as a coalition of  business owners and residents of color claim that cutting five-lane Washington Avenue down to three would eventually result in their displacement, successfully persuading the city to rethink their plans.  Both stories, though, prompt the same thorny questions: why is redesigning killer roads so difficult in American communities? Who should get the final say on how safe — or fast — a road through a neighborhood should be? And which structural changes could make it easier for road diet projects to actually make it across the finish line — and make sure that new dangerous, car-centric roads are never built in our neighborhoods in the first place?  On today's episode of The Brake, we sat down with Beth Osborne, director of Transportation for America, to tackle those tough questions, and talk about what strategies could get road diet resisters on board.
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Brake: A Streetsblog PodcastBy StreetsblogUSA

  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9

4.9

30 ratings


More shows like The Brake: A Streetsblog Podcast

View all
Climate One by Climate One from The Commonwealth Club

Climate One

562 Listeners

The Strong Towns Podcast by Strong Towns

The Strong Towns Podcast

417 Listeners

Talking Headways: A Streetsblog Podcast by The Overhead Wire

Talking Headways: A Streetsblog Podcast

167 Listeners

Make Me Smart by Marketplace

Make Me Smart

5,491 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,096 Listeners

Upzoned by Strong Towns

Upzoned

150 Listeners

The War on Cars by The War on Cars, LLC

The War on Cars

906 Listeners

Throughline by NPR

Throughline

16,073 Listeners

Hard Fork by The New York Times

Hard Fork

5,476 Listeners

Volts by David Roberts

Volts

600 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,546 Listeners

The Interview by The New York Times

The Interview

1,494 Listeners

The Climate Denier's Playbook by Climate Town

The Climate Denier's Playbook

294 Listeners

The Wirecutter Show by The New York Times

The Wirecutter Show

1,106 Listeners

Open Circuit by Latitude Media

Open Circuit

140 Listeners