Episode 508: Biden Administration's Transportation Policy Legacy

This week we’re joined by Dani Simons, currently of Alstom but formerly Assistant to the Secretary and Director of Public Affairs at USDOT, to take a look back at how Biden Administration policies evolved from ideas to bills such as the IIJA and Inflation reduction act. We also discuss Buy America, the impacts of outside criticisms from different sides of the political spectrum, and the importance of storytelling. +++ Follow us on Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr ... @theoverheadwire Follow us on Mastadon [email protected] Support the show on Patreon http://patreon.com/theoverheadwire Buy books on our Bookshop.org Affiliate site!  And get our Cars are Cholesterol shirt at Tee-Public! And everything else at http://theoverheadwire.com

John Simmerman of Active Towns joins the Mondays Show post election to talk about some of the transit wins. We also look ahead and wonder if LA really could go car free for the Olympics and whether Canada is ready for high speed rail. Below are the show notes and items we chatted about on the show with John. Voters pass Denver 7A - Colorado Sun Nashville voters pass transit funding - Nashville Tennessean Columbus passes transit measure - Columbus Dispatch Washington voters save climate bill - Associated Press Cobb and Gwinett transit measures fail - Saporta Report LA County homeless funding tax passes - Los Angeles Times Will LA Olympics go car free? - Slate Canada will announce high speed rail plans - CBC News   +++ Follow us on twitter @theoverheadwire Follow us on Mastadon [email protected] Follow us on Threads or Instagram @theoverheadwire Support the show on Patreon http://patreon.com/theoverheadwire Buy books on our Bookshop.org Affiliate site!  And get our Cars are Cholesterol shirt at Tee-Public! And everything else at http://theoverheadwire.com

This week on Talking Headways we’re joined by Julie Huls, CEO of Waymaker Group. We chat about economic development strategies for mid-sized cities, the impacts of the pandemic on regional thinking, and what a future of Mega Regions means for cities trying to attract talent. +++ Follow us on twitter @theoverheadwire Follow us on Mastadon [email protected] Follow us on Threads or Instagram @theoverheadwire Support the show on Patreon http://patreon.com/theoverheadwire Buy books on our Bookshop.org Affiliate site!  And get our Cars are Cholesterol shirt at Tee-Public! And everything else at http://theoverheadwire.com

This week on Talking Headways we’re listening in on a 1 to 1 conversation between Julie Eaton Ernst, Climate Resilience Practice Leader at HNTB, and Dr. Cris Liban, Chief Sustainability Officer at LA Metro.  They chat about the co-benefits of transportation, the evolution of the definition of transportation, and making change in small steps. This podcast was produced in partnership with Mpact. http://mpactmobility.org +++ Follow us on twitter @theoverheadwire Follow us on Mastadon [email protected] Follow us on Threads or Instagram @theoverheadwire Support the show on Patreon http://patreon.com/theoverheadwire Buy books on our Bookshop.org Affiliate site!  And get our Cars are Cholesterol shirt at Tee-Public! And everything else at http://theoverheadwire.com

We’re going back in time to Episode 144 to chat with Matthew Heins about his book The Globalization of American Infrastructure: The Shipping Container and Freight Transportation. We’ve done a lot of fun shows and I had forgotten about this one until I was looking back trying to think of a good oldie to share with you all.   Matthew talks about how the American highway and rail systems created a global standard for shipping containers, the local actors shaping globalization, containerization’s effects on labor and relevance to an automated trucking future, and the massive intermodal terminals in cities like Chicago.  +++ Follow us on twitter @theoverheadwire Follow us on Mastadon [email protected] Follow us on Threads or Instagram @theoverheadwire Support the show on Patreon http://patreon.com/theoverheadwire Buy books on our Bookshop.org Affiliate site!  And get our Cars are Cholesterol shirt at Tee-Public! And everything else at http://theoverheadwire.com  

This week we’re joined by Leah Shahum, Executive Director of the Vision Zero Network. We chat about why it’s so hard to make change, the implicit biases around designing for automobiles and the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims coming up on November 17th. +++ Follow us on twitter @theoverheadwire Follow us on Mastadon [email protected] Follow us on Threads or Instagram @theoverheadwire Support the show on Patreon http://patreon.com/theoverheadwire Buy books on our Bookshop.org Affiliate site!  And get our Cars are Cholesterol shirt at Tee-Public! And everything else at http://theoverheadwire.com

This week we’re joined by Gillian Gillett of CalITP and Dan Baker, of the Connecticut Department of Transportation to discuss how agencies can create simpler payment and travel experiences for transit riders.  We chat about the Connecticut Integrated Mobility Project, building payment system capacity and merchant services for smaller transit agencies, and the need for digital customer first thinking in a paper based industry. +++ Follow us on twitter @theoverheadwire Follow us on Mastadon [email protected] Follow us on Threads or Instagram @theoverheadwire Support the show on Patreon http://patreon.com/theoverheadwire Buy books on our Bookshop.org Affiliate site!  And get our Cars are Cholesterol shirt at Tee-Public! And everything else at http://theoverheadwire.com  

This week on Mondays Wes Marshall is back! We chat about his trip to Bogota Columbia, the connections between biological structure and the built environment, and of course we discuss the news from last week including climate migration, high speed rail, roundabouts, and healthy urbanism. Check out below for the show notes including links to the items we chatted about and a full AI generated unedited transcript of this show. And don't forget to check this out on YouTube. Show Notes Ants that count - NPR Austin to Mexico HSR? MySA Japan's 60 years of HSR - The Guardian To Mexico Under Wires - The Overhead Wire Moving to Disaster Prone Areas - New York Times Nowhere is safe, not even climate havens - The Guardian Galveston at the edge of the seawall - Washington Post A worse case scenario - Washington Post Rebuilding roads post disaster - Wired Magazine The Sprawl - The Overhead Wire The Modular Roundabout - Equipment World Rethinking La Rambla - El Pais Obvious Solutions v. Actual Ones - The Overhead Wire +++ Follow us on twitter @theoverheadwire Follow us on Mastadon [email protected] Follow us on Threads or Instagram @theoverheadwire Support the show on Patreon http://patreon.com/theoverheadwire Buy books on our Bookshop.org Affiliate site!  And get our Cars are Cholesterol shirt at Tee-Public! And everything else at http://theoverheadwire.com

This week on Talking Headways, we're joined by architect Vishaan Chakrabarti to talk about his book The Architecture of Urbanity: Designing for Nature, Culture, and Joy. We discuss the goldilocks density, defining urbanity, and the ennui of young architects. How to Make Room for 1M New Yorkers - NYT +++ Follow us on twitter @theoverheadwire Follow us on Mastadon [email protected] Follow us on Threads or Instagram @theoverheadwire Support the show on Patreon http://patreon.com/theoverheadwire Buy books on our Bookshop.org Affiliate site!  And get our Cars are Cholesterol shirt at Tee-Public! And everything else at http://theoverheadwire.com  

We’re flashing back to Talking Headways episode 246 from five years ago and chat with Andrew Owen of the Accessibility Observatory about access as a metric! Wes Marshall will be back next week but in the meantime we've got you covered with some great information. +++ Follow us on twitter @theoverheadwire Follow us on Mastadon [email protected] Follow us on Threads or Instagram @theoverheadwire Support the show on Patreon http://patreon.com/theoverheadwire Buy books on our Bookshop.org Affiliate site!  And get our Cars are Cholesterol shirt at Tee-Public! And everything else at http://theoverheadwire.com