Sign Up for The Overhead Wire Daily

Hey all!  I know I haven't posted here much and there are still a lot of visitors apparently from Google.  So if you're interested in what we've been doing over at The Overhead Wire website check it out.  Also, sign up for a free two week trial of our daily newsletter below.  It's been going since 2006 and is unlike any other newsletter you get.  No credit cards, just an email address. And if you ever unsubscribe we delete it forever.

We do 8 hours of city news search work daily so you only have to do 5 minutes.

Email Address

Talking Headways Podcast: Critiquing the Language of Planners

This week, Robin Rather of Collective Strength joins the podcast to talk about missteps in the planning profession - including how things go wrong with language. Robin shares how she got to thinking about urban issues and why she believes current planning practice is stuck in the 1990s. We discuss the often jargon-filled language the profession uses, taking a paragraph from Austin’s current zoning code rewrite to illustrate.

It's Not the Zoning, It's the MUD

I will be updating here less now as I've moved blogging over to new The Overhead Wire site. This site will always be up as an archive. 

My most recent post is on Houston and development as it pertains to the weekend's horrible events.  At some point soon I'll write a longer post about the change, but in the mean time, feel free to subscribe to the RSS there too.

Talking Headways Podcast: Transatlantic Part 1 - The United States

Here’s the first installment of my two-part conversation with Jonn Elledge, the editor of City Metric and the host of the Skylines podcast. In this episode Jonn interviews me about American transportation, particularly the history of urban subways and light rail, as well as transportation politics and possible futures.

Talking Headways Podcast: Self Driving Cars Getting Drunk on Motor Oil

For the 150th episode of the podcast, this week we welcome back Talking Headways co-founder Tanya Snyder, now a reporter at Politico Magazine. We get into the developing topic of regulating self-driving vehicles, including issues of children’s safety and state versus federal rules. We also discuss aviation legislation in the House of Representatives, what it means for drones, and whether private jets should pay more for air traffic control.

Talking Headways Podcast: Planning Is Easy, Zoning Is Hard

This week’s guest is Lee Einsweiler of Code Studio in Austin, Texas. We talk about all things land use and zoning — what goes into a land use code, the approaches to zoning in different countries, and of course the dreaded topic of parking.

Talking Headways Podcast: Sharing a Ride to the Future

This week’s guest on Talking Headways is Zack Wasserman, head of global business development at Via, a ride-hailing company headquartered in New York. We talk about Via’s role as a trip provider, as well as a software builder for transit agencies, and how we can get more people sharing rides. We also discuss how transportation systems are likely to change in lower density places and the role of technological and policy innovation in both the public and private transportation sectors.

Talking Headways Podcast: Avoiding Carbon Emissions by Taking Transit

This week we’re coming to you from the UITP Global Transport Summit in Montreal with guest Projjal Dutta, director of sustainability at the New York MTA. We chat about the idea of “transit-avoided carbon,” how you measure emissions, and the impact of Superstorm Sandy on sustainability thinking in the New York region.

Talking Headways Podcast: Giving Away TIGER and Transit Money to Wall Street

This week Beth Osborne of T4America and Kevin DeGood of The Center for American Progress join us to discuss infrastructure and the new administration. We talk about the budget process — “skinny” or “thick”? — the possible benefits and drawbacks of public-private partnerships, and the difference between funding and financing.

Talking Headways Podcast: Zero Emissions Cities Are the Key

We’re joined by Patrick Oliva, co-founder of the Paris Process on Mobility and Climate,to talk about the decarbonization of transport. The conversation touches on the electrification of the transportation sector and what it means for climate change, the role cities need to play in the Paris process and what levels of government work best to address climate change, and what the focus should be for mayors in the coming decade.