This event will feature remarks by Jarret Walker, Principal Consultant with MRCagney in Australia and a Freelance Consultant in North America.

Public transit is a powerful tool for addressing a huge range of urban problems, including traffic congestion and economic development as well as climate change. But while many people support transit in the abstract, it’s often hard to channel that support into good transit investments. Part of the problem is that transit debates attract many kinds of experts, who often talk past each other. Ordinary people listen to a little of this and decide that transit is impossible to figure out.

Jarrett Walker believes that transit can be simple, if we focus first on the underlying geometry that all transit technologies share. In Human Transit, Walker supplies the basic tools, the critical questions, and the means to make smarter decisions about designing and implementing transit services.

Human Transit explains the fundamental geometry of transit that shapes successful systems; and the local choices that lead to transit-friendly development.

At the heart of the book is a challenge to land use planners and architects to respect the intrinsic geometry of transit networks at the earliest stages of development, in the same way that all development respects the intrinsic geometry of road networks. It’s fun to imagine that some new technology will make transit work in a new way, but as Walker cautions, “technology never changes geometry.” He goes on to show that respect for transit’s geometry can unleash a flood of new ideas, from new ways to “repair” the suburban arterial to new strategies for envisioning the urban structure.

Whether you are in the field or simply a concerned citizen, here is an accessible guide to achieving successful public transit that will enrich any community.

About the Speaker

Jarrett Walker is an international consultant in public transit network design and policy. He has been a full-time consultant since 1991 and has led numerous major planning projects in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. He currently serves as a Principal Consultant with MRCagney in Australia, and as a freelance consultant in North America.

His new book is human transit: how clearer thinking about public transit can enrich our communities and our lives published by Island Press. Walker grew up in Portland, Oregon during the era when Portland first made its decisive commitment to be a city for people rather than cars, and began his career as an intern with Portland’s transit agency. He went on to complete a BA at Pomona College (Claremont, California) and a Ph.D. in theatre arts and humanities at Stanford University. In his diverse career, he has written peer-reviewed articles in publications as varied as the Journal of Transport Geography and Shakespeare Quarterly. In addition to his consulting, teaching, and speaking, he writes about public transit issues on HumanTransit.org.

Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives