Jeff Wood

This week Corinne Kisner and Matthew Roe of NACTO tell us about their influential series of street design guides that give transportation engineers "permission" to put walking, biking, and transit first. Learn how the guides are put together and how cities are using them to prioritize people instead of cars.

This week we’re joined by Yonah Freemark, author of the Transport Politic and Streetsblog’s new series Getting Transit Right. Yonah and I predict what's in store for transit in the next 12 months and break down the results of last year’s transit predictions.

The guest this episode is Alexander Garvin, author of the recently released "What Makes a Great City." We chat about why people are an important factor in building cities and taking pictures, why Houston’s Post Oak Boulevard is going to show up Chicago, San Francisco, and New York’s best streets; and Alexander’s heroes, from Edmund Bacon to Haussmann to Robert Moses.

Part two of our discussion of French high-speed rail and cities covers how France approaches infrastructure projects of national significance, the challenges of building the Grand Paris Express rail expansion, and the latent opportunities of San Jose's Diridon station.

As France develops its high-speed rail network, the areas around stations are treated not just as transportation initiatives but as city-building projects. This discussion centers on how public agencies plan high-speed rail station areas in France, integration of the stations into districts as a whole, and the importance of a comprehensive vision for integrating transportation and land use in the station district.

This week we're joined by David Zipper, managing director at 1776 Ventures, a global startup hub based in Washington, DC. A veteran of the Bloomberg administration in New York City and the administrations of Adrian Fenty and Vincent Gray in Washington, David discusses the deal DC struck with Living Social and the introduction of ride-hailing regulations during the city's infamous Uber Wars. We also chat about transportation companies blossoming around the globe and what traits make for great innovators.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Francis Fitzgerald joins the podcast this week 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.

This week we’re going back to LA Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Tamika Butler's plenary at the NACTO Designing Cities Conference in Seattle. In her presentation, “Planning While Black,” Tamika discusses some of her personal history, issues of diversity and equity, and how cities should include people who haven’t been represented in the planning process.

This installment of the 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.

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.