Tech Isn’t Fixing the Crisis on Our Streets w/ David Zipper

Paris Marx is joined by David Zipper to discuss how Silicon Valley pitched new technologies as the fix for a whole range of transport problems, and how that really just distracted us from solutions while allowing issues like road deaths, emissions, and traffic to get even worse.

David Zipper is a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Taubman Center for State and Local Government and a contributing writer at Bloomberg CityLab. You can find his articles and sign up for his newsletter at DavidZipper.com and follow him on Twitter at @DavidZipper.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• David wrote about why traffic safety is getting worse in the US • , and compared it to Canada • , Finland • , France • , and Japan • . He also wrote about the history of self-driving cars • , the danger posed to pedestrians • on the roads, the problem with infotainment systems • , and what’s wrong with positioning car tech as the solution to our problems • . • Paris wrote about how Elon Musk designed the Hyperloop to try to get California’s high-speed line canceled • . • AAA puts the annual cost of car ownership in the US at over $10,000 a year • in 2022. In Canada, CAA put it at $8600 to $13,000 a year • in 2017 — a number that is surely even higher now. • Peter Norton wrote about how the auto industry took over US roads • in the early 1900s in Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City • .

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