Along for the Ride #197

🖤

Heya friends, happy Friday.

I had a few plans of what to write about this week, and was excited to share various bits and bobs about my trip back to SF (did I get a tattoo of a pain au chocolat? yes! did I learn I’m allergic to mosquitoes? also yes!).

And then Tuesday I got a piece of heart-shattering news about a close friend who has been in a serious bike-related accident. I say accident because it was indeed an accident. I won’t share too much right now about what has transpired, but I will just say this: hug the shit out of a loved one today. Don’t let go of ‘em, and hold onto them past the point of awkward. And if you get the chance, go ride your bike somewhere beautiful.

I took this picture during their birthday this year at Ocean Beach, and I’m holding this memory very close to my heart. Because of this event, I have a very slimmed-down edition of the newsletter this week. The most I can muster up this week is some interesting links for you. Hope you understand. 🖤 Links below.

• US Congress is being urged to revive AV legislature efforts (The Independent)

• The rebels stopping AVs in San Francisco, one cone at a time (The Guardian)

• AV rules get a renewed push as Congress eyes China (Bloomberg)

• Germany’s cheap train tickets are generating mode shift (Bloomberg)

• Waymo is “pausing” their trucking efforts, Via (Freightwaves)

• Fears of Chinese AVs is on the ride (Bloomberg, not going to lie this title screams Western ideology in the worst way)

• WeRide plans to launch hundreds of AVs in UAE by 2025 (The National News)

• Cruise starts testing technology in Miami (Autoblog), and their cars have already started stalling in Austin, TX (Fox)

• Aurora raises $820M via private placement (Freightwaves)

• TuSimple completes autonomous trucking test in China (CleanTechnica)

• The E-Bike City as a radical shift toward zero-emission transport: Sustainable? Equitable? Desirable? (Journal of Transportation Geography)

• Depopulation or ageing? Decomposing the aggregate effects of projected demographic changes on urban transport systems (Journal of Transportation Geography)

• San Francisco shouldn’t ignore tech that can make roads safer (SF Chronicle via Waymo’s CEO)

  • I try and be fair and share different perspectives in this newsletter, including some I disagree with. I don’t have a ton of words in me today, but I will remind folks that infrastructure makes roads safer. Cars do not.

• Some sweet friends in London have launched a newsletter about air population in London. It is wonderful, and you can subscribe below:

That’s all from me, have a beautiful weekend friends.

Sarah
(I love you)