Interviews

As a council member representing Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, and parts of Crown Heights, Tish James was a vocal proponent of redesigning Grand Army Plaza and other street safety initiatives. Since her election to the public advocate's office two years ago, James has amplified her message about the need to rethink city streets, advocating for better laws to safeguard pedestrians, more protected bike lanes, and bus rapid transit.

Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets.

As policy director at the New York City Department of Transportation from 2007 to June, 2014, Jon Orcutt shepherded the nation's largest bike-share system through the earliest stages of planning, a wide-ranging public engagement process, and, last year, the rollout of hundreds of Citi Bike stations.

I first became aware of Jarrett Walker's work through his blog, Human Transit, a few years ago. Here was someone writing about transit in a completely refreshing way, framing questions not in terms of mode or technology but through the prism of values and desires. To call Walker's site a transit blog doesn't quite do it justice. It's about what we want from our cities, and how transit can help us get there. His 2011 book, Human Transit: How clearer thinking about public transit can enrich our communities and our lives, is a must-read if you're interested in cities and want to understand what makes transit work well.

If you’ve ever wondered how a deep-red state like Utah has managed to build some of the most ambitious transit expansions in the country, the short answer is: Envision Utah.

We hope you enjoyed part one of our Q&A with Alan Durning. Durning is publishing a series of articles on his blog at the Sightline Institute -- where he serves as executive director -- about the ways that underpriced parking drives up rents, eats up space, and makes no sense.

Many people have been inspired by UCLA Professor Donald Shoup’s epic takedown of American parking policy, but few have turned that newfound passion into the kind of scholarship Alan Durning has produced on the issue. The executive director of the Pacific Northwest’s sustainability think tank, Sightline Institute, has now published 12 installments in a series called “Parking? Lots!” -- and there's more coming.

Leicester is a city of about 330,000 in England's East Midlands region. Like many other cities, it developed big mid-century plans to drive highways through its city center and paved over much of its historic core. In some cases, it even paved over its history: the bones of King Richard III, killed in battle nearby, were recently discovered beneath a parking lot. In the past decade, however, Leicester has unearthed more than just a king; it's also reclaimed space from the automobile and become a model for other cities looking to create more livable communities.

Here's another obscure but significant obstacle to building walkable places in America: the Institute of Transportation Engineers' shoddy traffic generation models for mixed-use development.