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August 16, 2010
Jarrett Walker - "A Field Guide to Transit Quarrels"
Late last month, Jarrett Walker of HumanTransit.org gave a great talk at Metro. PortlandTransport was there to record the event.Jarrett is an international consultant in public transit network design and policy. Originally from Portland, he is now based in Sydney, Australia.
His presentation, "A Field Guide to Transit Quarrels", deals with the language and conceptualization issues we face when thinking about transit (or any complex issue, for that matter), including the tension between "vision" and factually-based analysis.
The entire video is just over an hour, including the Q&A session, and for YouTube purposes, we've broken it in to five parts. These videos are available in HD via YouTube (check the embedded player for resolution and full-screen choices) which makes the PowerPoint slides quite a bit easier to read.
Part 1: Introductions
Part 2: The Spectrum of Authorities
Part 3: Balancing Claims
Part 4: Example and Conclusions
Part 5: Q&A
Posted by Bob Richardson at 4:10 PM
Comments
August 16, 2010 4:38 PM
Jason Barbour Says:
I personally found his presentation very interesting.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if his disclaimer comment towards the beginning that his thoughts on the subject were evolving were his way of saying that he was simply stating his opinion on the subject, and as such is open to new information which may or may not result in a slightly different perspective (and/or refinement of word choice/presentation style to tie up any loose ends).
Also found it interesting he advocated for having a transit system where not everything runs to a central point, and transfers are necessary for a well-functioning system. Something others have been saying for a while now.
August 16, 2010 5:46 PM
Jason McHuff Says:
Thanks for posting it. I was planning to film it, too, but didn't when I saw you doing it.
Overall, as I tried to comment in the Q & A, I believe that if the transportation marketplace was actually functional and healthy, the "vision" side wouldn't matter as much because people would be more willing to accept the "practical" side.
One other thing I'd like to mention is the SFO BART issue he discussed. I've long believed that BART should NOT have been built to the airport but instead the on-airport AirTrain extended to Caltrain like has been done with the other AirTrains in Newark and NYC. The remaining money should have been spent on upgrading Caltrain, including the planned extension to BART in downtown SF. (But of course BART to SFO was the "vision".)
Lastly, what I've done is get the presentation slides and replace the video with them, though I at least think you tried to do that.
