Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Podcast

Talking Headways Podcast: Helmet Hair

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 24, 2014 | No Comments

Did you wear your helmet when you biked to work this morning? Whether you did or you didn’t, it’s up to you. So why are there so many people shrieking about it? On one side, the 85-percenters, overstating the protection helmets offer against head injuries. On the other side, the 3-footers, claiming that it’s actually […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Les Rues Are Made for Walking

By Tanya Snyder | May 28, 2014 | No Comments

Last week, Smart Growth America brought us the bad news: More than 47,000 people died while walking between 2003 and 2012. Most victims are killed on high-speed arterial roads. A disproportionate number are elderly or racial minorities. Paris showed us a powerful solution: The city is lowering its default speed limit to 30 kilometers per […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Houston, Transit Paradise?

By Tanya Snyder | May 22, 2014 | No Comments

Welcome to a super-long extra-bonus episode of Talking Headways! We only took on two topics this week, but we got so enthralled by both of them we just couldn’t shut up. First, we talked to Christof Spieler, a member of Houston Metro, about the “blank-sheet” bus overhaul he helped design. Instead of trying to tweak […]

Talking Headways Podcast: A Deep Dive Into Biking and Walking Census Data

By Tanya Snyder | May 12, 2014 | No Comments

We were so excited about the first-ever Census report exclusively on biking and walking that we devoted this entire episode of the Talking Headways podcast to an interview with its author, Brian McKenzie. Bike commuting is up 60 percent since 2000, the Census shows, and people with low incomes are by far the biggest proportion […]

Talking Headways Podcast: California Über Alles

By Tanya Snyder | May 1, 2014 | No Comments

Welcome to our all-California, all-the-time episode of the Talking Headways podcast. We start with a statewide debate over whether $60,000+ Teslas should qualify for tax breaks — or whether any electric vehicles should get tax breaks. Then on to the conversation about how California’s cap-and-trade dollars should be spent. One proposal, from the State Senate […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Let Them Drive Cars

By Tanya Snyder | Apr 9, 2014 | No Comments

Quick quiz: What city is the world leader in highway teardowns? San Francisco? Portland? Madrid? Wrong, wrong, wrong. It’s Seoul, South Korea, which has removed 15 urban highways — and is about to remove another. In this week’s Talking Headways episode, Jeff and I talk about what can take the place of a freeway in […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Knight Rider Rides Again

By Tanya Snyder | Mar 27, 2014 | No Comments

It was a dark and stormy day in San Francisco and Jeff Wood stayed dry in Woonerf studios, recording the Talking Headways podcast with co-host Tanya Snyder, who was bitter that days after the spring equinox, Washington, DC, was getting hit with another snowstorm. But more importantly — what does the future hold after a […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Taking Transit Numbers for a Spin

By Tanya Snyder | Mar 13, 2014 | No Comments

What a week! Transit ridership skyrocketed (ahem, by 1.1 percent) to levels not seen since 1956 (depending how you look at it). Radio Shack is shutting down 20 percent of its stores. Is brick-and-mortar retail collapsing — and is it just as well, if getting delivery from Amazon is more efficient than driving to the […]

Talking Headways Podcast: One More Freeway Without a Future

By Tanya Snyder | Feb 26, 2014 | No Comments

So, Bertha is stuck digging an enormous highway tunnel underneath Seattle. Jeff Wood and I ask the essential question: Does Seattle really need to spend $2.8 billion on a new traffic sewer, when traffic on the Alaskan Way Viaduct has been plummeting? We also highlight this week’s public conversation about CNU’s big report calling out […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Hug This Streetcar

By Tanya Snyder | Feb 20, 2014 | No Comments

Jeff Wood of the Overhead Wire (now working with NRDC’s crack transportation team) and I talk to Randy Simes in this week’s podcast about the streetcar movement in Cincinnati — and how they finally grabbed the long-elusive gold ring. Then Randy stayed with us to discuss the false choice between transit that’s useful and transit […]

Talking Headways Podcast: The Year Ahead in Transit, With Yonah Freemark

By Tanya Snyder | Jan 13, 2014 | No Comments

Readers, rejoice! Perhaps you feared that you would never get to sit in on nearly an hour of transit talk between world-renowned brainiac straphangers Jeff Wood and Yonah Freemark. But ho! Fear no more. This week, podcast co-host Jeff Wood and I got to chat with The Transport Politic’s Yonah Freemark about the outlook for […]