Episode Details

Jerusalem is in chaos — high-rise construction and light-rail digging happening simultaneously, with no coordination. This prompts a deeper question: how did we get here? This episode traces the birth of traffic engineering in the 1920s, when car ownership tripled in a decade and cities had no rules, no standards, and no science for managing the chaos. We explore how fluid dynamics became the model for traffic flow, how the auto industry invented jaywalking to blame pedestrians, and how Robert Moses bulldozed neighborhoods while Jane Jacobs fought back. Then we pivot to Daniel's provocative question: could the Waze model — intelligent, centralized routing — become a public utility, a stopgap while we redesign our cities for people instead of cars?