Journalism

Andrew writes about mobility innovation, transportation, driving automation, public transit, and technology policy for an educated audience of non-specialists.

The principal home for Andrew’s work is his Substack, Changing Lanes, a weekly newsletter on mobility, AI, and innovation. With more than 75 issues published, it has built a readership of over 1,400 subscribers, including founders, tech executives, planners, elected officials, policy analysts, and academic researchers.

Longform Pieces

  • Why Are American Passenger Trains Slow?

    • American Affairs · Spring 2026

      • American passenger trains are slower today than they were before the Second World War. That’s not because something went wrong, but because something went right

      • It may seem that the USA lags Europe on rail service, but only if we notice America’s visibly mediocre service for passengers but ignore invisibly great service for cargo

      • Instead of asking why America lags Europe on passenger rail, we should be asking ourselves whether the USA can have better passenger rail… and whether it should want to

  • Seeing Like a Sedan

  • Asterisk · Winter 2026

    • A history of how automated vehicles learned to ‘perceive’ the world around them, and how Tesla’s approach to the problem is very different than Waymo’s

    • The contrast between the two firms prompts the question: should we expect self-driving cars to be as safe as human drivers… or better?

  • Taking Our Hands Off the Wheel

    • Arena Magazine · April 2025

      • An exploration of how self-driving cars will reshape cities, suburbs, public transit, and daily life…and why, despite their promise, they will also bring more traffic than ever

Op/Eds

  • In Air Canada’s French fallout, it is unfairly treated as both a private and public entity

    • The Globe and Mail · March 2026

      • The CEO of Air Canada gave a near-English-only message of condolence after a crash, which triggered a parliamentary summons… a surprising response to a communications failure

      • That’s because Air Canada is neither fully public nor fully private: privatization left it bound by the Official Languages Act with no funding to offset compliance costs, a situation its competitors don’t face

      • Canada must choose to have a national carrier with public obligations and public support, or a private competitor on equal terms; the current hybrid is incoherent and unstable

  • True cause of deadly LaGuardia plane crash horror is hiding in plain sight

    • The New York Post · March 2026

      • The tragic crash of an Air Canada flight at LaGuardia airport in March 2026 was not just a procedural failure — it was a symptom of an air travel system with no slack, built for a fraction of today's passenger volume

      • The United States has built no major commercial airports in the past 25 years, while annual passengers have grown by 50%; the system is structurally incapable of absorbing routine disruptions

      • The answer is to build more airports, more runways, and more capacity, starting with a fourth New York-area airport

  • Remember When the Information Superhighway Was a Metaphor?

    • The Wall Street Journal · December 2025

      • Self-driving cars will, in the long run, make getting around cheap, safe, and easy… but in the short run, prepare for traffic jams

      • There are things cities can do, and they should start doing them now

  • The High Cost of Free Transit

    • The Daily Economy · September 2025

      • Eliminating transit fares sounds compassionate, but when implemented, it misallocates scarce resources and makes everyone worse off… especially the lowest-income riders the policy is supposed to help

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