Christof Spieler
@christofspieler
Director of Transportation, Madison, WI; Author of “Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US and Canadian Transit,” Island Press, 2021, “Transportation and the Shape of Cities,” Island Press, 2026. (he/him) PE/AICP/LEED AP (Views are my own.)
The urban planners say “get a smaller bus.” The highway engineers say “rebuild the underpass.” Ops shrugs “I guess we’ll make it work.”
There is another Boston answer: the Mass Pike, as a way to add regional rail capacity, take some of the Green Line branches out of the downtown subway (and maybe connect them to the Silver Line tunnel), and upgrade Back Bay station.
Anyone out there teaching a transportation class? "Transportation and the Shape of Cities" (out now!) is for anyone who is interested in how cities work. But it can also work as a text for a class, and we've put together some resources to make that easier. press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
The idea is that you proceed across the intersection into the turn box on a green light, wait there (facing left) as your light turns red, then go as the cross street light turns green. So it's located on the right hand side of both streets. (www.bainbridgewa.gov/1167/Olympic...)
And these things (a dropside bed on a van chassis) are actually easier than a pickup to load with big bulky stuff.
Vertical Urbanism: "Using handy, dimensionally scaled illustrations, and concise text they lay out these spatial implications: How many urban blocks it takes to build a below-grade rail crossing, or the turning radii required by trucks, or how much sidewalk space people need to walk comfortably."
One of the ironies of transit is that the streets that are easiest to run a bus down are often also the ones where the pedestrians have the hardest time making it to the bus stop. But if you want ridership you need pedestrians!
On Madison Metro bus 55, running past farm fields. (I’ve said before that light rail past farm fields is probably a bad project, but local bus past farm fields is a sign you’re actually serving the whole city.)
That feeling when council votes on the street design just in time for the last bus of the night.
Houston Hobby is both -- the departures roadway is one level above and maybe 150 feet closer to the terminal than the arrivals roadway. The baggage claim is on arrivals roadway level and under the departures roadway.
“Will people fall uphill?” “Probably not.” “OK — then we don’t need an uphill door.”
“This is a practical, easy-to-read resource for professionals, students, and anyone who wants to understand how transportation shapes our communities. Honestly, it’s the kind of book our industry needs.” - @veronicaodavis.bsky.social, author of "Inclusive Transportation."
Anyone at NACTO? There’s a sample of the new book at the Island Press table!
What Amtrak algorithm has decided my train will be on time at Columbus, WI but exactly 1 minute late at St. Paul in 6 hours?