"Vindication" : transit planning

While I have one major difference of opinion and he may in fact be right (streetcars vs. buses), basically transit planner Jarrett Walker--who has been presenting in the region this week, in support of his new book, Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives, published by Island Press--advocates professionally for just about everything I've been writing about transit-transportation planning over the past 7 years:

- a focus on efficiency

- transit system legibility

- but not at the expense of quality, efficient, focused services (e.g., we're talking about you, Circulator) that he calls symbolic (tourist-focused, political, etc.)

- planning approaches along the lines of this presentation

- the need to develop a community vision and consensus about transportation

- although my ideas about high frequency transit subnetworks have been directly influenced by his work; etc.

TBD has an excellent interview with him here, "Jarrett Walker imagines unified transit that respects its riders." Since the events yesterday were sold out, many people probably didn't get to hear him speak, and the TBD article is comprehensive.

The talk as part of the Smart Growth Speaker series at the National Building Museum is likely to be put online soon.

The talk at the Montgomery County Department of Planning's Speaker Series is already online. I don't know if they will be putting up his slide presentation as well.