Talking Headways: A Streetsblog Podcast

This week Jarrett Walker of Jarrett Walker and Associates joins the podcast to talk about communicating difficult issues in transportation and planning. We talk about Jarrett's excitement about urban change in Portland Oregon where he grew up and the importance of humanities majors in the transportation profession. We also talk about why NIMBYs feel the way they do and how we can think differently about our language and approach to housing and transportation.

This week we're at the National Shared Mobility Summit in Chicago. Jeff Tumlin of Nelson Nygaard moderates a panel of experts on new mobility including Carla Bailo from the Center for Automotive Research, Krista Huhtala-Jenks from the Finland Ministry of Transport and Communications, Dick Alexander from Trandev, and Justin Erlich from Uber. They talk about the new business model of shared mobility, actually moving people versus selling things, what are the pieces that go into transportation and mobility services as well as the future of moving people around. You might also hear amazing references to MacGyver and heavy metal bands.

This week we chat with Brian Reilly, former Economic Development Director in Buffalo, NY and Cleveland, OH and the Principal of the planning consultancy Doing Good, about integrating transportation and land use in Albuquerque. As Reilly explains, the city's new bus rapid transit line ART is just one project but it forms a frequent and reliable backbone for Albuquerque's entire transportation system. Today, the city is focused on redevelopment along the Central Avenue corridor where ART runs, part of the historic Route 66. Reilly also talks about how the city is approaching poverty reduction from a transportation angle.

This week we're joined by Jonathan Sage Martinson, former Director of the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative in the Twin Cities. We talk about how the collaborative got started, how they supported planning in the Green Line light rail corridor between Minneapolis and St. Paul, and how one member even got the FTA to change a much discussed cost effectiveness rule.

This week we're joined by Robert Cervero, Erick Guerra, and Stefan Al to talk about their new book called Beyond Mobility. They talk about the idea of recalibrating cities and how we can put people first when we think about transportation and the built environment. We also talk about silly regulations such as one parking space per toilet seat and some of the examples of good transportation and planning we can borrow from around the world. Interested in checking out the book? Use the code "4Beyond" at IslandPress.org and get 20% off.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast we're joined by George Karayannis, Vice President of CityNow, a smart city arm of Panasonic Corporation. George talks about smart cities and how to think beyond shiny technology and what it means to think about the future. George also discusses what CityNow is setting up at Pena Station Next, a new smart city concept on Denver RTD's A Line commuter rail that incorporates ideas such as district energy, smarter streetlights, and intelligent power management in buildings. He talks about how and why the station location was chosen for this innovative project.

This week we're joined by Christof Hellmis, Vice President of Strategic Program at Here Technologies in Berlin Germany. I was invited to CES in Las Vegas by HERE to check out the next generation in data and maps and got to sit down with Christof to talk about data and transportation. We chatted about how mapping and location will be important for new transportation technologies and old and I ask questions about equity and data and potential privacy concerns. At one point Christof goes on to say this isn't just mapping for humans, it's maps for everything.

This week on the podcast we're joined by Kyle Shelton of the Kinder Institute to talk about his new book Power Moves: Transportation, Politics, and Development in Houston. I ask Kyle why he wrote the book and his feelings about looking back at history knowing about potentially better transportation outcomes. We also talk about the idea of "infrastructure citizenship" and how local advocacy groups wielded power in past fights between road builders and transit advocates.

This week we're joined by Yonah Freemark of the Transport Politic for our annual prediction extravaganza! Find out how last year's predictions held up and whether you agree with this year's thoughts on Montreal transit and Bus Rapid Transit in Boston. We also discuss the leaked infrastructure plan from the new administration and talk about our favorite writers focused on urban issues.

This week's episode features Fehr and Peers Ron Milam and me discussing the differences between the Transportation Research Board conference in Washington DC and the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, both of which took place on the second week in January. We discuss all the interesting topics that emerged from both conferences including delivery drones, curb management, massive data collection from autonomous vehicles, and the potential uses and rights issues that might arise in the built environment from the use of augmented reality.