Mobility Conversations
To continue building on our in-person and online learning events, Transport Futures is facilitating a series of webinars that focus on all aspects of transportation policy and planning: transit, intercity travel, active transportation, road safety, traffic management and much more. During each inspiring conversation, a local or international expert will make a 25-minute presentation and then take 45 minutes to respond to your excellent questions and comments. Subscribe to our listserv to be kept informed about future webinars taking place in fall 2024!
Previous Mobility Conversations
Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives
May 27, 2024 – 3:00 to 3:15 pm ET
Jarrett Walker
Jarrett Walker + Associates
Portland, Oregon, USA
Transportation expert Jarrett Walker believes that public transit can be simple, if we focus on the underlying geometry that all transit systems share. Jarrett’s gift is being able to break down the basic principles of transit so that you may have the tools necessary to clarify and advocate for your own values.
In 2011, Jarrett published Human Transit which became a classic for professionals, academics and NGOs advocating for sustainable transportation. He recently released his updated and expanded book to further deepen his initial explanations. The content moves into new territories, such as the problem with specialization; the role of flexible or “demand response” services; how to know when to redesign your network; and responding to tech-industry claims that transit will soon be obsolete. It also has a major new section exploring the idea of access to opportunity as a core measure of transit’s success.
During this webinar, Jarrett discussed the revised edition of Human Transit and provided delegates with excellent guidance that is sure to help them build and operate successful public transit in their communities.
BIO:
Jarrett Walker is President of Jarrett Walker + Associates, an international consulting firm specializing in public transit network design and policy. Based in Portland, Oregon, he has been a full-time consultant since 1991 and has led numerous major planning projects in cities and towns of all sizes, across North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Born in 1962, Jarrett grew up in Portland during the revolutionary 1970s, the era when Portland first made its decisive commitment to be a city for people rather than cars. He went on to complete a BA at Pomona College (Claremont, California) and a Ph.D. in theatre arts and humanities at Stanford University. Passionately interested in an impractical number of fields, Jarrett is probably the only person with peer-reviewed publications in both the Journal of Transport Geography and Shakespeare Quarterly.
The Past, Present and Future of the Bicycle in Toronto and Beyond
June 17, 2024 – 1:00 to 2:15 pm ET
Albert Koehl
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Cities around the world are discovering the value of the bicycle not only as an option to fight traffic congestion, but as a key part of the solution to the climate crisis, poor fitness levels, and challenges of affordability. It turns out that this “discovery” is not actually new. During this webinar, lawyer and author Albert Koehl discussed his new book Wheeling Through Toronto and took us on a 130-year ride through history to show that Toronto (like many other cities) enthusiastically embraced the bicycle – alongside mass transit and walking – long before road space was handed over to motorists. Responding to delegates’ perspectives on where the bicycle belongs in a truly multi-modal transportation network, Albert helped us learn from the past so we can chart a more hopeful course forward – one that many cities are already taking, albeit slowly and reluctantly.
BIO:
Environmental lawyer and former Osgoode Hall adjunct law professor Albert Koehl has been dedicated to issues of transportation, energy and climate change for 30 years. His writings and interviews are regularly published in a variety of media, including the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail and Spacing Magazine. He has represented (pro bono) cycling groups before courts, tribunals, public forums, and at city hall. Albert’s name has been called “synonymous with cycling in Toronto,” his work inspired and sustained by a commitment to social justice and the belief that how we get around should be based on fairness and respect for each other and our community. Among his proudest achievements at home or abroad he counts his leadership in the successful, decades-long fight for a Bloor Street (-Danforth Avenue) bike lane that transformed this dangerous arterial into a model for safer, happier, and more climate-friendly public spaces. He holds a law degree from Queen’s University and a political economy degree from University of Toronto.
More Mobility Conversations to be announced soon.
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