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.

Transit Trends Episode 7: Ride Hailing in Austin

Uber and Lyft left Austin in May 2016 after voters decided to implement stricter operational guidelines for transportation networking companies (TNCs). Soon a flood of new TNCs including RideAustin, Fare, Fasten, GetMe and even a Facebook group called Arcade City with 40,000+ members launched. Yellow Cab soon launched an app and already existing, LUXE, an app that sends someone to valet your car from anywhere downtown, gained popularity. The rideshare market is strong, so we know Uber and Lyft have a long-term plan to stick around nationwide. There's work being done to add autonomous cars into the mix, and partnerships with public transit agencies to help with first / last mile solutions. In episode 7 of Transit Trends, we met up with Andy Tryba, the Co-Founder of non-profit TNC company RideAustin to discuss the state of TNCs in Austin.

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.

Transit Trends Episode #6 with Lukas Neckermann

It’s safe to say the creation and rollout of autonomous vehicles is the hot topic of the transportation industry now. Each major car company has plans to move forward with these vehicles in the next five or so years. But how long will it actually takes us to adapt to the fact we may eventually ride around in vehicles that we only control the 5-10% of the time?

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.