Episode Details

When moving apartments with a hand truck, one listener discovered the real enemy wasn't the weight—it was dodging tourists and parked cars. His question: if Venice runs a modern city with zero cars, moving everything by barge and hand trolley, why can't other cities carve out dedicated cargo lanes for different speeds of non-vehicle movement? This episode explores the Venice logistics model, how it handles Amazon deliveries without a single van, and whether cities like Barcelona and Utrecht are already building pieces of this system. We examine what a "dry canal" street design would actually look like, the political durability of car-free zones, and how dedicated cargo infrastructure could reshape everything from delivery equipment to building design.