The Brake
Basics
How Can Sustainable Transportation Advocates Help End Poverty? An Interview with Matthew Desmond
One in nine Americans live in poverty, and millions more live in a precarious place somewhere between precarity and true security. A new book argues that we can all play a role in challenging the systems and individual choices that "keep poor people poor" for benefit for everyone else.
April 25, 2023
How to Reframe the Narrative About Car Dependency
On today's episode of The Brake, host Kea Wilson brings you an extended interview with Grant Ennis, author of Dark PR: How Corporate Disinformation Harms Our Health and the Environment. Listen now.
March 28, 2023
Interview: What Does It Take To Start Your Own Bikeshare?
Most bikeshare rides taken on U.S. soil happen in a handful of gigantic cities, on systems maintained by big corporations. But at YoGo Bikeshare in Youngstown, Ohio, Ronnell Elkins and his team are building a bespoke micromobility option specifically for his neighbors — and hoping to create a model for other small cities to combat car dependency.
March 14, 2023
Can Athletes Help Solve Urbanism’s PR Problem? Soccer Star Tesho Akindele Thinks So
If the typical professional athlete talks about transportation at all, it's usually in the context of a mulit-million SUV commercial. Soccer star Tesho Akindele, though, isn't the typical athlete — and as he transitions out of his career on the field, he wants to make a full-time job out of building walkable, bikeable, equitable cities.
February 14, 2023
The (Too-Brief) History of Traffic Violence Memorials in America
Mass memorials to the victims of traffic violence are a rarity on American roads. But it wasn't always that way — and there's a fascinating history behind why so many lost lives have become virtually invisible in the public realm today.
December 13, 2022
Podcast: Who Gets Hurt When Cities Ban E-Scooters?
On today's special edition of The Brake, we're re-broadcasting an episode of Charles T. Brown's "Arrested Mobility" podcast that centered around what happened when St. Louis forced e-scooters out of its downtown — featuring our own Kea Wilson!
November 29, 2022
What the Last Decade Has Done for the Walkability Movement
In 2012, Jeff Speck’s Walkable City sparked a conversation about why pedestrianized places matter and became one of the best-selling books about the built environment in recent memory. Ten years later, though, so much about the world has changed — even as human-centered communities have become more important than ever.
November 15, 2022
What It’s Really Like to Lose Someone to Traffic Violence
More than 100,000 Americans lose a loved one in a car crash every single year. So why don't more of us talk about it — and why don't more of us take action to prevent other families from enduring those tragedies, too?
November 1, 2022
Interview: How to Start A Grassroots Safe Streets Movement In Your City
In communities across America, people are getting angry about traffic violence. But what does it take to turn that anger to a full-blown movement, with neighbors fighting alongside one another to change the status quo?
October 4, 2022
THE BRAKE: Are Would-Be Planners and Engineers on Board With Transportation Reform?
Planning and engineering students are poised to play a major role in shaping America's transportation system for decades. But do they agree with sustainable transportation advocates about what that future should look like?
June 28, 2022
