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.

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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

Radical construction rethink - Common Edge 

Property tax rethink - Slate

Intergenerational living arrangement - Maclean's Canada

Forever chemicals in drinking water - New York Times

Why it's hard to stop driving - Slate

Headlights getting brighter - The Ringer

The great abandonment - The Guardian

Hidden cause of Food Deserts - The Atlantic

Bonus Items

Virtual power purchase agreements - Smart Cities Dive

Car dependence and life satisfaction - Travel Behavior and Society

Illegal to stop in Philly bike lanes - Philadelphia Inquirer

Location key to walking more - Men's Health

DC tackled a child care crunch - NPR

Universal Pre-K - New York Magazine

Miami condos sinking - Miami Herald

AT&T to end landline service - Urban Milwaukee

MNDOT won't remove I-94 - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Corn isn't a good solar panel - Need to Know

NACTO Launches urban bikeway guide - NACTO

Raleigh can't find BRT contractor - News and Observer

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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.

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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 natural systems.

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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.

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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.

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This week we’re going back to 2021 to chat with Professor Andres Sevtsuk of MIT about his book Street Commerce: Creating Vibrant Urban Sidewalks.  I really liked this discussion and he just had an MIT News profile out yesterday about his work so I thought it might be of interest to folks.  We chat the importance of location in urban retail, the city factors that might determine a store’s success, and why urban retail should be studied more in planning school.

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This week we’re back at the Mpact conference in Philadelphia and joined by Ruth Miller of Jawnt. Ruth shares her superhero origin story and how employer transit pass programs like SEPTA’s Key Advantage Program work to support employees, agencies, and the region overall.

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This week we’re at Mpact in Philadelphia chatting with King County Metro’s Rachel DeCordoba about her work educating the next generation of transit riders. She chats about transit education and curriculum and the importance of learning with peers.

Also apologies for the audio difficulties 2/3rds of the way though. You can read the transcript of this episode at http://theoverheadwire.com

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This week on Mondays at The Overhead Wire we're Han Solo, but that doesn't stop us from sharing upcoming episodes of Talking Headways and news from the last month or so.  We chat about greening concrete, a car free Congress Avenue, Hamburg's green space compact, and rainways in Vancouver BC.

Links from the Show!

Reimagining Congress Ave - KUT

Greening Concrete - Yale e360

Greening Asphalt and Concrete - TOW on Substack

Hamburg green contract - Guardian

Roads Taken - Baker Institute

Rainway vs atmospheric river - The Tyee

Philly self storage - Philadelphia Inquirer

Preventing street takeovers - Jalopnik

Daylighing intersections in SF - SF Standard

Failures of urban governance - Vital City

Mexico all in on housing - Newsweek

Alabama zombie highway - Inside Climate News

Spokane comfort network - Range Media

State DOTs hiding emissions - Streetsblog USA

Toronto bike lanes - Guardian

Housing instability - Decibel

TfL seizes cars - Guardian

Deteriorating housing - NPR

Bus depot energy hubs - Press Wire

100K bike ride - Guardian

Relaunching congestion pricing - Gothamist

Insurance climate change - Louisiana Illuminator

SEPTA transfer funding - Philadelphia Inquirer

Caltrain ridership high - Mass Transit Magazine

Puppies and Butterflies

A Lego Tram - Associated Press

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This week we’re joined by Ryan Kelley, Community development Manager for Hennepin County in Minnesota.  Ryan chats with us about the county’s transit-oriented communities program and how they support commercial preservation and aid businesses.

This episode was produced in partnership with Mpact. For more information, visit http://mpactmobility.org

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