This week we’re joined once again by Yonah Freemark of the Urban Institute to discuss his annual transit project updates at Transit Explorer. In Part 1, we talk about housing strategies for properties near transit, exciting transit openings in 2025, and which cities could use a subway project. We also talk about government deference to local offici…

Cities across America have been trying — and mostly failing — to achieve Vision Zero for more than a decade. But is it really time to trade the goal of ending road deaths and serious injuries for the aim of reducing them 30 percent by 2030? And would we be better positioned to eliminate the other 70 percent of fatalities if we made that strategic s…

This week we’re joined by Yoni Appelbaum to discuss his book Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity. We talk about the history of moving in the US and how the different traditions of land ownership and management in the US evolved. We also talk about how much people loved apartments at the turn of the …

This week on Mondays at The Overhead Wire we're Han Solo! But don't worry, we cover a lot of ground including congestion pricing's sparing match with a wannabe King, Canada's high speed rail plans, microplastics, and a big bike experiment in Denver. For more links to items discussed on the show, see below: USDOT wants end to congestion pricing - St…

This week we’re chatting with Stacy Mitchell of the Institute of Local Self Reliance about her recent article in the Atlantic entitled The Great Grocery Squeeze. We chat about the deregulation mood of the 70s and 80s and what that’s meant for shopping, access, and how much we drive. +++ Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, Sub…

This week on the Talking Headways podcast we’re joined by Ren Yee of UN Studio at the Mpact Transit + Community conference in Philadelphia. We chat about the cognitive workload of pedestrians and creating safe opportunities for mind wandering and absorbing information. +++ Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, Substack ... @the…

This week at Mondays at The Overhead Wire, we're joined by Streetsblog USA's Kea Wilson to chat about the new USDOT directives from the Trump administration. We talk about rescinded memos, funding memos, and Kea thinks Jeff might be trying to hard to find logic in the reasoning for using birth and marriage rates to steer transportation funding. Bel…

What’s a little bigger than a bike, a lot smaller than a car, and might be the tool you didn’t know you needed to get a big haul home from the grocery store two miles away in the pouring rain? The answer is actually an entire category of vehicles that aren't common on U.S. roads — but with the right mix of policy, code, and infrastructure reform, w…

This week on Talking Headways we’re joined by Member of the Welsh Senedd (Parliament) Lee Waters and Dr. Jennifer Kent of The University of Sydney. They talk about how Wales set climate targets, did a roads review, got to a 20 mile per hour speed limit across the country, and what it might take for other places to do the same. They share the import…

This week on Talking Headways we’re joined by Mike Eliason of larch lab to discuss his new book Building for People: Designing Livable, Affordable, Low-Carbon Communities. We chat about single stair buildings, development on arterials, building back after climate disasters, and the problem with RFPs. +++ Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, Yo…

What if there were a single document that told every U.S. resident exactly how safe their state is — or isn't— for pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vulnerable road users, as well as what that state is doing to save lives ? Turns out there is: the Vulnerable Road User Safety Assessment, or VRUSA. And since the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastruct…

This week on Mondays at The Overhead Wire we're Han Solo, but that doesn't stop us from talking about all the podcasts we've got coming up, news about the LA wildfires, modular homes, and surveillance technology. More news than you can use this week on the Talking Headways podcast feed. Main News Items Essential eternal apartment - JSTOR Daily Reth…

This week on Talking Headways we’re joined by Jon Kramer, CEO of engineering and planning firm OHM Advisors. Jon chats about going from Intern to CEO over a 30 year period, competing against large engineering firms, and the state of engineering education. +++ Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr ... @theoverheadwire Follow us o…

This week on Talking Headways we’re joined by Bridget Marquis, Director of Reimagining the Civic Commons. Bridget chats with us about connecting public assets, the importance of creating metrics that matter, and better ways to think about community engagement. +++ Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr ... @theoverheadwire Follow…

If you’ve been following Streetsblog for a while, you might have heard of famed planner/engineer/all-around transportation superstar Roger Millar, not least for his recent leadership as the head of the Washington state DOT. But you might not have heard that, while at WashDOT, Millar and his team did something quietly radical: they challenged every …

We're Han Solo this week but have a lot to share from the end of December and the start of 2025. As we get back into the new year we cover new ways to think about housing construction, transit expansion from Yonah Freemark, and worries about the brightness of headlights. Check out the show notes below. Transit Openings 2025 - Transport Politic Radi…

This week on the Talking Headways podcast we're joined by Ben Ross and Joe Cortright to discuss their article in Dissent Magazine discussing how modeling is being used to expand highways around the country. We chat about their critiques of highway modeling, politics, and some potential solutions to the problem. +++ Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, In…

This week we’re joined by Professor Sara Bronin to talk about her book Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World. We chat about all the ways that land is regulated. And why zoning is an opportunity for people to reshape their communities. We also chat about food policy, connecting the street to property, and the relationship between land and nat…

This week for our holiday break we’re going back in time to episode 108 which we recorded in Cambridge England with Daniele Quercia and Luca Aiello of Bell Labs. We chatted about using social media to map sensory experiences in cities including smells and soundscapes. +++ Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr ... @theoverheadwir…

This week we’re joined by Austin Gibble, currently of Stantec but formerly of the City of Indianapolis and IndyGo. We chat about the history of planning for BRT in Indy, the Cultural Trail bike network, transit and infrastructure costs, and the interpersonal relationships that can make or break projects. +++ Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram…