Talking Headways: A Streetsblog Podcast

This week we're at the NACTO Designing Cities Conference in Chicago and hear keynotes from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Department of Transportation's Director of Planning and Programming Erin Aleman.   The Mayor discusses Chicago's distinct advantages compared to other cities as well as improvements that have been made to the cities transportation system. He also talks about new funding sources including a ride hailing fee for transit capital and why those things are related.   In her discussion after the Mayor, Erin Aleman discusses how IDOT is working to use NACTO's street design guides, how improvements are being made to reduce fatalities on streets, and how transportation affects everyone.

This week we’re joined by James Corless, CEO of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, the Sacramento area’s MPO and COG.  We chat with James about the Sacramento region and its connections to both urban and rural economies, his past working on federal transportation policy in Washington DC, why it’s kind of ridiculous to do 30 year regional long range transportation plans, and why mid-sized cities are part of a whole new space race for providing jobs and housing around the United States.   

This week we chat with Benjamin De La Pena, Deputy Director for Policy, Planning, Mobility, and Right of Way at Seattle DOT.  We talk about SDOT’s New Mobility Playbook which offers strategies for future transportation that focuses on people first.  Benjamin also discusses his affinity for international transportation, how we help the unbanked with transportation solutions, and how organizations can get ahead on policy during this whirlwind time for new mobility.

This week we’re sharing the last plenary session of the Rail~volution conference which was a panel discussion of three current mayors of major United States cities hosted by Maurice Jones of LISC.  Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland, Mayor Bill Peduto of Pittsburgh, and Mayor Michael Hancock of Denver discuss transportation and innovation in their cities including civic focused non-profits, public-private partnerships, neighborhoods pressures and resilience. 

This week we’re back again at Rail~Volution and joined by Diana Mendes, Transit/Rail Practice Leader and Vice President at HNTB.  We talk about how Diana met the author of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and what needs to change about environmental planning.  She talks about the environmental planning process for the Lower Manhattan Recovery after 9-11 in addition to early use of GIS.

This week we’re back at the Rail~Volution conference in Denver talking with Congressman Earl Blumenauer who represents Oregon’s 3rd District which includes parts of Portland.  Congressman Blumenauer discusses how Rail~Volution got its start, how we can use congestion pricing and road user charges to pay for transportation, Vision Zero, and why urbanists should be thinking about the Farm Bill

This week we’re joined by Tony Dutzik of the Frontier Group and Steven Higashide of TransitCenter to discuss their new report entitled Who Pays for Parking? We discuss where these parking tax subsidies come from, what are some case studies of cities that have learned how to create value from parking, and who benefits from these parking subsidies.

This week on the podcast we’re bringing you an episode we recorded at Rail~Volution in Denver in front of a live audience. I was joined by transit advocate and Maryland local Dan Reed to talk about the Purple Line light rail project.  After 31 years of discussion the Purple Line is finally under construction and Dan gives us some background on the project including where the project goes, how the public private partnership was put together and how lawsuits just couldn’t keep a good line down.  We also learn how Dan used to talk about the project with his friends in high school and how his advocacy has spanned 14 years. 

This week we’re joined by Abby Thorne Lyman, the Transit Oriented Development Program Manager at BART. Abby discusses BART’s new TOD Guidelines and the group of agency policies they pull together.  We talk about the importance of reduced parking, the ridership benefits, and expectations transit agencies should have for property developers.

This week we are back at the UITP Global Public Transport Summit in Montreal. We recorded this session on Land Value Capture featuring Julian Ware of Transport for London, Sharon Liu of Hong Kong’s MTR, and Iain Dobson of Strategic Regional Research Associates in Toronto.  Each of them discuss how each of their organizations looks at land value capture as a specific tool for transport development.