Jeff Wood
Recent Posts
Talking Headways Podcast: The Eternal Rush Hour
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This week Talking Headways returns to the Michelin Movin On conference in Montreal with guest Greg Rogers, director of government affairs and mobility innovation at Securing America's Future Energy, which promotes reduced oil dependence. Greg discusses autonomous vehicle regulation around the country and the limits of techno-optimism. We also review what worked and what bombed at the Movin On conference.
Talking Headways Podcast: Highways and Partisanship
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This week we're joined by Clayton Nall, a professor of political science at Stanford University, to discuss his new book about the interstate highway system and political partisanship -- The Road to Inequality: How the Federal Highway Program Polarized America and Undermined Cities. Professor Nall discusses how partisanship affects the way people think about transportation projects, and historical shifts in the politics of transportation policy.
Talking Headways Podcast: The Logistics of Urban Deliveries
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This week's guest is Tom Madrecki, director of urban innovation and mobility at UPS. If you want to know how a huge logistics company like UPS thinks about city streets and transportation systems, don't miss this one. Tom discusses the costs of congestion to UPS, and why streets that prioritize solo car trips don't work for walking, biking, or deliveries.
Talking Headways Podcast: Value Capture and Transit-Oriented Development
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This week we talk with Stan Wall of HR&A Advisors. Stan tells us about his earlier work as director of real estate and station planning for WMATA in Washington DC, including an interesting case study -- the redevelopment at the NoMa transit station -- his favorite projects, and what "value capture" actually means.
Talking Headways Podcast: The New Atlanta Way
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This week's guest is Odetta MacLeish White of the TransFormation Alliance in Atlanta. Tune in for a lively discussion about displacement pressures along the BeltLine, the history of segregation in planning, and big changes in advocacy and equity in the Atlanta region.
Talking Headways Podcast: The Cost of a Subway
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This week's guest is transit analyst and writer Alon Levy, whose work comparing the capital costs of rail construction across cities and countries has become increasingly influential. We talk about how Alon got into transportation, subway costs, and price comparisons, and the thinking behind a new Boston commuter rail electrification plan.
Talking Headways Podcast: A Shift in the Short Trip
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Please welcome back to the podcast Shared Use Mobility Center Executive Director Sharon Feigon. In this episode, Sharon discusses the newest trends in shared mobility, including scooters and e-bikes. We talk about whether the animosity toward ride-hailing has waned, the issues that cities and transportation companies are coming across as they try to create mobility platforms, and whether car-share usage is declining due to more options in the market.
Talking Headways Podcast: Building a Culture of Transit Ridership
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This week's guest is Tom Gerend, executive director of the KC Streetcar Authority. Tom tells us about the challenges of creating the streetcar and a broader regional transit network, and explains the value capture mechanism that funds all of the KC Streetcar’s operations and maintenance.
Talking Headways Podcast: Innovation at LA Metro
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LA Metro CEO Phil Washington joins the podcast this week to discuss new developments in Los Angeles transit. Listen in and hear about Metro's Office of Extraordinary Innovation, the potential for autonomous buses, microtransit pilot programs, and new fare media, as well as the links between affordable housing production and transit.
Talking Headways Podcast: Planning for Godzilla in SimCity
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This week on the podcast we’re joined by Joe DiStefano of Urban Footprint. We talk about Joe’s past work with Calthorpe Associates, where he did regional planning. Joe also talks about creating digital tools for big planning ideas, the importance of planners having information at their fingertips, and how planners should remind everyone that plans are about people.
Talking Headways Podcast: How Media Has Shaped the City
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Author Shannon Mattern joins the podcast this week to discuss her new book, Code+Clay, Data+Dirt: 5,000 Years of Urban Media. We talk about why the perfect future interface humans are looking for does not exist, and how digital mapping can overlook important aspects of the urban spatial landscape.
Talking Headways Podcast: Climbing the Ladder Together
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This week we’re joined by Joseph Curtatone, mayor of Somerville, Massachusetts, which is currently working on plans for transit-oriented development around the Green Line Extension. Mayor Curtatone talks about how that effort is progressing and can be recreated in the future, and how this inner Boston suburb has transformed yet maintained its unique character over his 14 years in office.