Podcast: Cities on a Hill with Francis Fitzgerald

This week we’re joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Francis Fitzgerald to talk about her 1986 book, Cities on a Hill. We discuss the different “visionary” communities described in the book, including Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, San Francisco’s Castro district, Sun City retirement communities, and Jerry Falwell’s moral majority in Lynchburg, Virginia. Francis also talks about living in New York City and restaurant culture in Vietnam. Fitzgerald’s latest book, The Evangelicals, is out April 4.

Podcast: Navigating Nairobi

This week’s guest is Stephane Eboko, chief revenue officer at Ma3route, a transportation information platform with over half a million users in Nairobi. Stephane tells about about the platform and how it helps people avoid traffic, interesting information from users reporting their experiences, and what travel on the private buses called Matatus is like in Kenya’s capital.

Podcast: Every Cocktail Napkin Has an Alternative Alignment

This installment of the Talking Headways podcast comes from this year’s NACTO Designing Cities Conference in Seattle. Moderated by David Bragdon, executive director of TransitCenter, this discussion examines the obstacles streets and transit agencies face when trying to move good projects forward, and the relationships that help make progress possible. The panel features LA DOT’s General Manager Seleta Reynolds, LACMTA’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Wiggins, Seattle DOT’s Director Scott Kubly, and Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff.

Podcast: Colonias — Informal Housing in the U.S.

This week on Talking Headways our guest is Emily Perlmeter of the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas. Emily discusses the half million people living in informal settlements known as Colonias, on the U.S. side of the Mexican border. Join us for a look at how these settlements are formed, who lives there, and their strengths and hardships.

Podcast: A Bus Full of People Should Go Ahead of a Tesla

This week’s episode returns to the Shared Use Mobility Summit in Chicago for a great discussion of how the changing technology and information landscape could yield more equitable outcomes. Jackie Grimshaw of the Center for Neighborhood Technology moderated this panel featuring Anita Cozart of Policy Link, Rob Puentes of the Eno Center for Transportation, and Joshua Schank of LA Metro.

Podcast: Robin Chase Discusses Autonomous Vehicle Policy

This week we're joined by Zipcar Co-Founder Robin Chase at the Shared Use Mobility Summit.  She talks about autonomous vehicle policy and more.  A few have noted her stance on transit in this discussion is a bit different than other people's.  I'm interested to hear what folks have to say on that subject.  Personally, I think transit will have a larger roll to play than she does, and don't believe that only dedicated lane transit will survive the coming revolution.

Podcast: Former Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz

Talking Headways is coming to you this week from Madison, Wisconsin, and the Empty Storefronts Conference. Our guest is former Madison mayor and current Wisconsin Bike Fed Executive Director Dave Cieslewicz.

Podcast: Christof Spieler Talks Holistic Transit Planning

At last month’s Rail~Volution conference I caught up with Houston Metro board member Christof Spieler. Hear from Christof about the progress on Houston’s bus reimagining and his tips for public engagement and transit system planning.

Podcast: Meea Kang on Developing Affordable Housing in California

This week I’m joined by Meea Kang, Rail~volution board member and founding partner of Domus Development. I caught up with Meea at the Rail~volution conference to talk about what it’s like to be an affordable housing developer building sustainable projects. We discuss the 16 variances needed to do transit-oriented development in Sacramento, workforce housing in Tahoe on a bus line with 60-minute headways, and what it takes to pass a state law that reduces parking requirements near transit.

Podcast: Remixing Transit Planning in Cities

This week I’m joined by Tiffany Chu, co-founder of the transit planning software firm Remix, which helps agencies quickly assess the impact of potential changes in service. Tiffany discusses the response the company has received from the transit industry and what got it started. We also talk about the possible policy implications of Remix, as well as the movement towards open data.

 

Podcast: 100% Universal Design with Sunday Parker

This week on the podcast: Transit advocate Sunday Parker discusses access for people with disabilities. We talk about the design of transit stations, the layout of the new BART train cars and what that means for different types of users, the idea of universal design and access in the overall built environment, and our best transit days.

Podcast: Shane Phillips on LA Housing

Shane Phillips, who writes at the blog Better Institutions, joins the podcast this week to discuss housing issues in Los Angeles (and everywhere else), and what to make of the “Neighborhood Integrity Initiative.”

NACTO Desiging Cities Seattle 2016 Plenary Recordings

Thanks to everyone who listened in live to the plenaries at NACTO Designing Cities in 2016.  We recorded them all and now have them on The Overhead Wire SoundCloud page.  You can also listen to them below and we will also choose a few to be on the Talking Headways Podcast at some point in the future.

Opening Plenary with Scott Kubly and Janette Sadik-Khan



Tuesday Morning Plenary "Building Great Transit Streets" with LA and Seattle Officials



Tuesday Lunch Plenary "Planning While Black" with Tamika Butler



Wednesday Morning Plenary with Sidewalk Labs' Rohit Aggarwala 



Wednesday Closing Plenary with Transportation Choices Coalition's Shefali Ranganathan

Streaming at NACTO Designing Cities

Starting Monday we will be at the NACTO Designing Cities Conference in Seattle.  We'll be live streaming some of the sessions in audio.  If you'd like to listen in, check my twitter feed for times and come back here to listen using the player below.

ALERT: The 11:45 session will start at 12:10 unless you want to hear everyone eating lunch.


TheOverheadWire is on Mixlr

Podcast: A Different Look at Transportation with Rob Puentes

Our guest this week is Rob Puentes of the Eno Center for Transportation, an organization that has focused on better transportation outcomes for 95 years. Rob touches on a number of topics that we don’t usually explore in-depth, like aviation, freight, and coordinating automated vehicle policy.

Podcast: The Vancouver Model with Brent Toderian

Former chief planner for Vancouver BC Brent Toderian joins the podcast to talk about cities and urbanism.  We have a fun discussion about city rankings as well as talk about planning for the Olympics.  Check it out!

Podcast: Putting Dallas Back Together Again

Patrick Kennedy comes on the podcast this week to talk about what’s going on in Dallas. We discuss the highway removal campaign known as A New Dallas and the recent Texas DOT CityMap Plan to re-imagine the freeways and roads in the city’s downtown. We also discuss downtown subways, urban politics, why existing walkable neighborhoods matter to new walkable neighborhoods, and what’s going on with plans for the Trinity River.

Podcast: Columbus, the Smartest City in the Land

Josh Lapp, a board member at the advocacy organization Transit Columbus, joins us this week to talk about Ohio’s capital city — how it’s becoming more urban, how its stadiums have been situated to support downtown growth and walkability, and how transportation options like light rail and bike-share are developing. And of course, you’ll hear about Columbus’s winning bid in U.S. DOT’s Smart City Challenge.

Podcast: Future Shared Mobility in Cities

This week we’ve got a fascinating discussion from the Live.Ride.Share conference in Denver earlier this year. Hear what representatives from NRDC, Uber, Lyft, and U.S. DOT think about the future of shared-use mobility systems, carpooling services, autonomous vehicles, and their impact on cities and greenhouse gases.
Speakers include:

• Mark Dowd, deputy assistant secretary for research and technology at U.S. DOT
• Amanda Eaken, deputy director of the Urban Solutions Program at NRDC
• Emily Castor, director of transportation policy at Lyft
• Jonathan Hall, head of economic research for public policy and litigation at Uber

Also check out the archives at Streetsblog USA.

Podcast: Mapping the Smells and Sounds of the Sensory City

This week we're joined by Daniele Quercia and Luca Aiello to talk about mapping the smells and sounds of cities.  I visited Cambridge UK to record this one so you'll want to check it out.