Talking Headways: A Streetsblog Podcast

This week we're joined by Tom Madrecki, Director of Urban Innovation and Mobility at UPS. Tom talks to us about what urban mobility means to a logistics and delivery company like UPS. He talks about the costs of congestion to the company and how streets that make single occupant vehicles the first priority are not good for active transportation and deliveries.

This week we talk with Stan Wall of HR&A Advisors. We talk about his previous work as the Director of Real Estate and Station Planning for WMATA in Washington DC such as how planning, funding and redevelopment at the NoMa transit station happened. Stan also talks about his favorite projects and what value capture actually means.

This week we're joined by Odetta MacLeish White of the Transformation Alliance in Atlanta. She talks about displacement pressures along the Beltline, history of segregation in planning, and big changes coming to advocacy and equity in the Atlanta region.

This week we're joined by blogger and transport journalist Alon Levy. We talk about how Alon got into transportation, subway costs and price comparisons, and the thinking behind a new Boston commuter rail electrification plan.

This week we're joined for a second time by Shared Use Mobility Center Executive Director Sharon Feigon. Sharon talks to us about the newest trends in shared mobility including scooters and e-bikes and we talk about whether the animosity towards ride hailing has waned. We also chat about the issues cities and transportation companies are coming across as they try to create mobility platforms and whether car share usage is going down due to more options in the market.

Recently we moderated a panel in Austin during South by Southwest hosted by moovel and the Rocky Mountain Institute. The panel featured a number of folks from all different backgrounds discussing the future of mobility platforms in cities. We had representatives from the private sector, public sector, and advocacy voices to balance out the discussion and I think it was a good one folks will enjoy. Jason JonMichael - City of Austin Hilary Norton - FastLA Karina Ricks - City of Pittsburgh Nat Parker - Moovel Tim McHugh - Portland Tri-Met Jules Kortenhorst - CEO Rocky Mountain Institute Meg Merritt - Nelson Nygaard

This week we're joined by the Executive Director of the KC Streetcar Authority, Tom Gerend. Tom talks about some of the challenges in creating the streetcar and a broader regional transit network. He explains the value capture funding mechanism that's funds 100 percent of the streetcar's operations and maintenance—as well as some of the project design and construction). The KC Streetcar is unique in a lot of ways, including its lack of a fare. Tom explains the rationale behind the decision to make the streetcar free.

This week we're joined by LA Metro CEO Phil Washington to talk about the many interesting things the agency is working on. He discusses building affordable housing near transit, testing new ideas like microtransit, and the origins of Metro's Office of Extraordinary Innovation.

This week on the podcast we're joined by Joe DiStefano of Urban Footprint. We talk about Joe's work with Calthorpe Associates doing regional planning as well as creating digital tools for big planning ideas. Joe also talks about the importance of planners having information at their fingertips in order to make decisions as well as being the ones in the room to remind everyone plans are about people.

This week we're joined by Shannon Mattern, Associate Professor of Media Studies at the New School in New York City. Shannon discusses her new book Code+Clay ... Data+Dirt: 5,000 Years of Urban Media. We talk about how she came up with the idea to teach a class on the intersection of media studies, architecture, and cities, her favorite research, and how the perfect future interface humans are looking for does not exist. There's also a discussion about mapping and how digital mapping can leave out aspects of space that should be considered.