Tag: Vision Zero

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Show #675 – September 26, 2025

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Guests: Steve Frothingham; Jeremy Siegel

This episode of the podcast offers up a short discussion with Bicycle Retailer’s Editor-in-Chief, Steve Frothingham, about U.S. Customs and the seizing of containers from Taiwan manufacturer Giant.

Earlier this week, in a surprise move, US Customs officials seized containers from Giant, the world’s largest bike mfg, over unspecified forced labor accusations.

In an effort to find out exactly what that meant, besides holding up shipments at the ports, I rang up Steve Frothingham, at BR&IN.

His explanation, which was as up to date as of a few hours before we talked, made quite a bit of what was happening clear, but also left me with a lot of questions that I’m hoping will get answered in the next day or so. 

We also talk about tariffs – which unfortunately is becoming a daily topic. 

Here are links to Steve’s articles on the upheld shipments. 

Then I have a very interesting conversation with PRX’s “The World” global Transportation Correspondent, Jeremy Siegel about how Helsinki made it to the top of the Vision Zero with NO traffic deaths for over a year!

I listen The World on WKSU, our local NPR affiliate.  It’s an hour a day and there are always terrific stories from – well, around the world. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was in the car and heard Jeremy Siegel, “The World’s” Global Transportation Correspondent say that Helsinki had reported ZERO traffic deaths for over a year. 

Being a Vision Zero hopeful for the Cleveland area and never having heard of any major city, let alone a country’s capital, say that no automobile, cycling, or pedestrian fatalities had occurred seemed amazing.

I came home, re-listened to the piece on their website, and then contacted Jeremy.

Here is how they did it…

You can hear Jeremy on The World on your local NPR affiliate or log on to the world.org or find him @theworldnewswgbh on YouTube..

I hope you enjoyed the show today.

I will be uploading a new Substack piece to offer up some of my thoughts on both Steve and Jeremy’s conversations. Please consider subscribing to my Substack and help support my work.

Thank you for listening.  Until next time, please stay safe, stay well, and remember, there is always time for a ride.  Bye bye.

Transcript_September 26

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Show #600 – April 23, 2022

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Guest: David Zipper

It’s a milestone. Today, is our 600th episode! Yep – 600… and looking back to that very first episode in September, 2010, it just doesn’t seem possible that it’s been over 11 years!  My heartfelt thanks to WJCU for hosting and supporting the show!

This week, we are going to talk about Vision Zero and why it is achieving its goals across the globe – except for the U.S.

When on-the-road fatalities are down 30-50% in other countries, they are up by double digits in some states here.

And, David Zipper thinks we need to get mad – really mad – to bring attention to the carnage that is happening on our roads.

David is a visiting fellow at Harvard-Kennedy School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government. He is a contributing writer at Bloomberg City Lab and has written extensively for Slate, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Wired.

His abiding interests in cities, mobility, transportation, and safety along with his broad and deep background in government, finance, and more, have all combined to give him a unique and authoritative perspective on what we need to do to get our heads on straight about how we live and how we move.

Click on the link for his article on Vision Zero in Bloomberg.

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Show #481 – December 7, 2019

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Guests: Leah Missbach Day; Dieter Drake; Christine Acosta with Leah Shahum

As we count down to the holiday giving days – Chanukah beginning on the 22nd, Christmas, December 25th, and Kwanza December 26th, I thought it would be a great time to chat with WBR’s co-founder, Leah Missbach Day.

World Bicycle Relief, founded in 2005 after the devastating tsunami in Sri Lanka, is one of the most successful charitable organizations in our bicycle world. Its vision – to supply bicycles to help students, health care workers, and small business owners travel to and from their respective destinations – has resulted in , 487,000 bikes delivered and 2.5 positively impacted.

The original Buffalo Bike is about to undergo a new iteration though as WBR ramps up to bring its vision to South America.

After we talk with Leah, we’ll heading out to Des Moines, Iowa to the meet the new ride director for RAGBRAI, Dieter Drake. Dieter has a long history of successful events in his back pocket and is looking forward to taking the reins of the iconic event as it prepares to launch year #48.

And, finally, Pedal Power Promoters’s Christine Acosta caught up with Vision Zero’s Leah Shahum (yes, we have two Leah’s on the show this week!) at the Vision Zero Cities Conference in October. Christine talks with Leah about what Vision Zero is doing, how certain cities are adapting Vision Zero principles with great success, and, the grim facts of what happens when we don’t address the issues of traffic, equity, and public health.

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Show #460 – July 6, 2019

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Guests: Aaron Gordon; (encore presentation with)Phil Liggett

Last week, we reported on the death of Robyn Hightman, a 20 year old messenger, bicycle ambassador, and evidently an up-and-coming competitive cyclist in NYC.

Then, 3 more cyclists were killed in rapid succession in NY and that brought the total for 2019 to 15. In all of 2018, there were 10 cycling deaths in the City.

Interestingly enough, NYC has a Vision Zero program on the books and a fairly large number of laws that seem to go unenforced; or, at least that is what you would be led to believe when the NYPD published a notice that said .they would enforce the traffic laws for three weeks beginning July 1st and ending July 21st.

Does that sound as ludicrous to you as it did to me? IF the laws are on the books why aren’t they enforced ALL THE TIME?

Why does it take multiple deaths to decide to enforce already in place laws? And, why do the police take the opportunity, immediately after a high-profile incident such as Robyn’s to begin ticketing cyclists in the area of the crash?

I actually have some answers… well, I spoke with someone who has SOME of the answers and understands the situation pretty well, including being one of those cyclists who was ticketed for an “infraction”.
Aaron Gordon is a senior investigative reporter for jalopnik – yes, it’s a car centered organization. Yet, he thinks that the work he’s doing now helps to inform his reporting on the many sides of transportation.

Then, as the Tour de France kicks off today in Brussels, and with the untimely loss of Paul Sherwen, I thought it might be appropriate to bring you an encore presentation of my 2014 conversation with the “voice of the Tour” Phil Liggett.