The best thing about hosting a Streetsblog podcast is getting to call on other Streetsblog reporters for the lowdown on the biggest news of the week. In this case, Jeff Wood and I called Ben Fried, Streetsblog’s editor-in-chief based in New York, to provide some context for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s big announcement of the campaign to eliminate traffic deaths in the city. Note that the podcast was recorded before the recent outbreak of jaywalking tickets in Manhattan.

We also took a look at how California is changing its environmental laws to stop considering vehicular Level of Service as something to strive for — and how some people miss the nuances of how population density affects transportation planning.

As always, the podcast is also available on iTunes.