Jarrett Walker
@humantransit.bsky.social
Public transit planning consultant and commentator. Author of the book “Human Transit” and the blog HumanTransit.org. The consulting firm is jarrettwalker.com. Also obsessed with literature and plants.
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
The planner Jarrett Walker (@humantransit.bsky.social) talks about planning transportation networks with the goal of freedom (which apparently planners call "access"). He writes about public transit, but I think the approach works for any transportation network.
humantransit.org/basics-acces...
humantransit.org/basics-acces...
Basics: Access, or the Wall Around Your Life — Human Transit
What if we planned public transit with the goal of freedom? Well, it’s hard to improve things that you can’t measure, but now it’s becoming possible to measure freedom, or as we call it in transport ...
humantransit.org
November 25, 2025 at 6:05 PM
The planner Jarrett Walker (@humantransit.bsky.social) talks about planning transportation networks with the goal of freedom (which apparently planners call "access"). He writes about public transit, but I think the approach works for any transportation network.
humantransit.org/basics-acces...
humantransit.org/basics-acces...
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
"Suburban Experiment didn’t just change our geography. It rewired our culture. It trained us to experience isolation as prosperity, consumption as citizenship. By the time internet arrived, we were living in systems too large to understand, too brittle to repair." www.panoptica.ai/the-gutenber...
The Gutenberg Moment
Every communication revolution births chaos before it births order. Gutenberg's press collapsed the gatekeepers of knowledge in the fifteenth century—and it took centuries of war, displacement, and in...
www.panoptica.ai
November 25, 2025 at 5:29 PM
"Suburban Experiment didn’t just change our geography. It rewired our culture. It trained us to experience isolation as prosperity, consumption as citizenship. By the time internet arrived, we were living in systems too large to understand, too brittle to repair." www.panoptica.ai/the-gutenber...
Interesting: @wikimediafoundation.org is doing fundraising with dead trees now.
November 25, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Interesting: @wikimediafoundation.org is doing fundraising with dead trees now.
We warned you that self-driving cars would just create self-driving traffic jams, and here they are.
The car industry has no solution to the shortage of space in cities. Public transit, cycling, and walking are all part of the answer, but cars are not.
The car industry has no solution to the shortage of space in cities. Public transit, cycling, and walking are all part of the answer, but cars are not.
Waymo privatized another public street:
Chanel approaching 4th, San Francisco
Possibly queued for a Billie Eilish show at Chase Center ~half mile away.
The light rail train on 4th seen passing in front of this roboherd has more passenger capacity than all of them combined.
OP: .tiktok.renaspam18
Chanel approaching 4th, San Francisco
Possibly queued for a Billie Eilish show at Chase Center ~half mile away.
The light rail train on 4th seen passing in front of this roboherd has more passenger capacity than all of them combined.
OP: .tiktok.renaspam18
November 25, 2025 at 1:07 AM
We warned you that self-driving cars would just create self-driving traffic jams, and here they are.
The car industry has no solution to the shortage of space in cities. Public transit, cycling, and walking are all part of the answer, but cars are not.
The car industry has no solution to the shortage of space in cities. Public transit, cycling, and walking are all part of the answer, but cars are not.
"Proximity trained us to be citizens." Inspiring @clmarohn.bsky.social piece on how car domination deconstructed American citizenship, and how people are working to get it back. www.panoptica.ai/the-gutenber...
The Gutenberg Moment
Every communication revolution births chaos before it births order. Gutenberg's press collapsed the gatekeepers of knowledge in the fifteenth century—and it took centuries of war, displacement, and in...
www.panoptica.ai
November 24, 2025 at 4:26 PM
"Proximity trained us to be citizens." Inspiring @clmarohn.bsky.social piece on how car domination deconstructed American citizenship, and how people are working to get it back. www.panoptica.ai/the-gutenber...
I was not ready for bipartisan consensus about maroon sweaters with black coats. I tried this look once, but it made my face look too red, much as it's doing for one of these guys.
November 23, 2025 at 4:56 PM
I was not ready for bipartisan consensus about maroon sweaters with black coats. I tried this look once, but it made my face look too red, much as it's doing for one of these guys.
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
When the US was swept with the new-streetcars-mixed-with-traffic fad in the 00s, Canada didn’t build a single one. They only built rail in exclusive lanes.
I wonder if that’s because most educated Canadians have visited Toronto and experienced its old streetcar lines.
I wonder if that’s because most educated Canadians have visited Toronto and experienced its old streetcar lines.
November 22, 2025 at 4:31 PM
When the US was swept with the new-streetcars-mixed-with-traffic fad in the 00s, Canada didn’t build a single one. They only built rail in exclusive lanes.
I wonder if that’s because most educated Canadians have visited Toronto and experienced its old streetcar lines.
I wonder if that’s because most educated Canadians have visited Toronto and experienced its old streetcar lines.
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
I think entirely too much about how California’s climate plan explicitly says that converting to EVs is not nearly enough to meet our greenhouse gas reduction targets so we need to reduce VMT 25% by 2030, and then we do basically nothing to try to achieve that goal
November 22, 2025 at 2:48 AM
I think entirely too much about how California’s climate plan explicitly says that converting to EVs is not nearly enough to meet our greenhouse gas reduction targets so we need to reduce VMT 25% by 2030, and then we do basically nothing to try to achieve that goal
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
People need to realize that government agencies facing repeated budget cuts have already trimmed all of the obvious and easy to trim fat. You can't assume there is more because Reagan assured you governments are inherently wasteful.
Portland: Highly damaging transit service cuts may be coming in the next year. Still no sign of a plan on how to prevent them.
No, there is not a lot of waste in the system; almost all service is justified by ridership or equity (we did that work).
trimet.org/servicecuts/...
No, there is not a lot of waste in the system; almost all service is justified by ridership or equity (we did that work).
trimet.org/servicecuts/...
Planned Bus and MAX Service Cuts
Due to a growing budget gap, we must cut some TriMet service starting in November 2025.
trimet.org
November 21, 2025 at 8:18 PM
People need to realize that government agencies facing repeated budget cuts have already trimmed all of the obvious and easy to trim fat. You can't assume there is more because Reagan assured you governments are inherently wasteful.
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
Portland: Highly damaging transit service cuts may be coming in the next year. Still no sign of a plan on how to prevent them.
No, there is not a lot of waste in the system; almost all service is justified by ridership or equity (we did that work).
trimet.org/servicecuts/...
No, there is not a lot of waste in the system; almost all service is justified by ridership or equity (we did that work).
trimet.org/servicecuts/...
Planned Bus and MAX Service Cuts
Due to a growing budget gap, we must cut some TriMet service starting in November 2025.
trimet.org
November 19, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Portland: Highly damaging transit service cuts may be coming in the next year. Still no sign of a plan on how to prevent them.
No, there is not a lot of waste in the system; almost all service is justified by ridership or equity (we did that work).
trimet.org/servicecuts/...
No, there is not a lot of waste in the system; almost all service is justified by ridership or equity (we did that work).
trimet.org/servicecuts/...
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
We’re excited to have global transit planner + author of Human Transit, Jarrett Walker (@humantransit.bsky.social), as the keynote for #TCamp2026.
Don’t miss your chance to hear from one of the most influential voices in public transit!
Get your tickets 👇
t4america.org/transportati...
Don’t miss your chance to hear from one of the most influential voices in public transit!
Get your tickets 👇
t4america.org/transportati...
November 20, 2025 at 4:06 PM
We’re excited to have global transit planner + author of Human Transit, Jarrett Walker (@humantransit.bsky.social), as the keynote for #TCamp2026.
Don’t miss your chance to hear from one of the most influential voices in public transit!
Get your tickets 👇
t4america.org/transportati...
Don’t miss your chance to hear from one of the most influential voices in public transit!
Get your tickets 👇
t4america.org/transportati...
Portland: Highly damaging transit service cuts may be coming in the next year. Still no sign of a plan on how to prevent them.
No, there is not a lot of waste in the system; almost all service is justified by ridership or equity (we did that work).
trimet.org/servicecuts/...
No, there is not a lot of waste in the system; almost all service is justified by ridership or equity (we did that work).
trimet.org/servicecuts/...
Planned Bus and MAX Service Cuts
Due to a growing budget gap, we must cut some TriMet service starting in November 2025.
trimet.org
November 19, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Portland: Highly damaging transit service cuts may be coming in the next year. Still no sign of a plan on how to prevent them.
No, there is not a lot of waste in the system; almost all service is justified by ridership or equity (we did that work).
trimet.org/servicecuts/...
No, there is not a lot of waste in the system; almost all service is justified by ridership or equity (we did that work).
trimet.org/servicecuts/...
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
This is a great outline of the transit picture in the US.
Here's a new 25-min interview of me on the @transportopia.bsky.social podcast. We talked about the new edition of my book Human Transit, as well as transit politics, rural transit, and driverless public transit. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Transportopia Episode 10 Reimagining Public Transit: Insights from Jarrett Walker
Podcast Episode · Transportopia: Public Transport Stories & Ideas · 11/18/2025 · 31m
podcasts.apple.com
November 19, 2025 at 7:32 PM
This is a great outline of the transit picture in the US.
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
tax the empty (lots)
November 16, 2025 at 9:56 PM
tax the empty (lots)
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
Tune in to the Transportopia podcast for a new 25-min interview with urbanist and transit planning guru @humantransit.bsky.social Jarrett Walker about the new edition of his book Human Transit, transit politics, rural transit, and driverless public transit. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Transportopia Episode 10 Reimagining Public Transit: Insights from Jarrett Walker
Podcast Episode · Transportopia: Public Transport Stories & Ideas · 11/18/2025 · 31m
podcasts.apple.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Tune in to the Transportopia podcast for a new 25-min interview with urbanist and transit planning guru @humantransit.bsky.social Jarrett Walker about the new edition of his book Human Transit, transit politics, rural transit, and driverless public transit. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Here's a new 25-min interview of me on the @transportopia.bsky.social podcast. We talked about the new edition of my book Human Transit, as well as transit politics, rural transit, and driverless public transit. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Transportopia Episode 10 Reimagining Public Transit: Insights from Jarrett Walker
Podcast Episode · Transportopia: Public Transport Stories & Ideas · 11/18/2025 · 31m
podcasts.apple.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Here's a new 25-min interview of me on the @transportopia.bsky.social podcast. We talked about the new edition of my book Human Transit, as well as transit politics, rural transit, and driverless public transit. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
The suburban transit agencies trying to secede from Dallas's DART are basing their plans on unrealistic visions of "microtransit." Nearby Arlington, Texas already shows the limits of that. Good @dallasobserver.com piece. www.dallasobserver.com/news/dart-co...
What Will Replace DART if Cities End Their Contracts?
Two cities allowing voters to elect to leave DART in May have offered microtransit systems as an alternative. They're flawed.
www.dallasobserver.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:03 PM
The suburban transit agencies trying to secede from Dallas's DART are basing their plans on unrealistic visions of "microtransit." Nearby Arlington, Texas already shows the limits of that. Good @dallasobserver.com piece. www.dallasobserver.com/news/dart-co...
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
Game-changing for US transit, allowing for the 2-minute, all day headways we see in other countries
Major announcement in just-posted board documents: DC's Metro is moving fast toward automation.
Over 15 years, Metro plans full automation & platform screen doors, which the agency says will improve safety, reliability, & travel times—at reduced costs.
www.wmata.com/about/board/...
Over 15 years, Metro plans full automation & platform screen doors, which the agency says will improve safety, reliability, & travel times—at reduced costs.
www.wmata.com/about/board/...
November 17, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Game-changing for US transit, allowing for the 2-minute, all day headways we see in other countries
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
Something no one prepares you for when you publish a book is how deeply moved you'll be when anyone tells you they've read it. I keep tearing up and making it really weird, sorry everyone
November 17, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Something no one prepares you for when you publish a book is how deeply moved you'll be when anyone tells you they've read it. I keep tearing up and making it really weird, sorry everyone
Our fun two-day course in public transit network design comes to Washington DC, Jan 15-16 (right after the @trb.org annual meeting). Please share! humantransit.org/2025/11/our-...
Our Transit Network Design Course Comes to Washington DC — Human Transit
Our firm’s two-day intensive course in transit network design is an “inexcusably fun” way to go deep into how transit networks work and learn the craft of designing them. It’s great not just for work...
humantransit.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Our fun two-day course in public transit network design comes to Washington DC, Jan 15-16 (right after the @trb.org annual meeting). Please share! humantransit.org/2025/11/our-...
I'm beginning to suspect that the Trump administration wants a major increase in homelessness because they believe the resulting horrors will all be blamed on big city mayors.
So many of their recent actions on food support, housing support, and healthcare all point this way.
So many of their recent actions on food support, housing support, and healthcare all point this way.
Some news: tomorrow at 9am, Ted Koppel + CBS Sunday Morning will air a two-part story on the devastating surge of full-time workers being pushed into homelessness.
I'll be interviewed along with two families from There Is No Place for Us. It would mean a lot if you'd watch and help spread the word.
I'll be interviewed along with two families from There Is No Place for Us. It would mean a lot if you'd watch and help spread the word.
November 15, 2025 at 3:29 PM
I'm beginning to suspect that the Trump administration wants a major increase in homelessness because they believe the resulting horrors will all be blamed on big city mayors.
So many of their recent actions on food support, housing support, and healthcare all point this way.
So many of their recent actions on food support, housing support, and healthcare all point this way.
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
Lots of buzz about the "affordability agenda," and how we get there.
Well, this is it. Housing and transport are most of the cost of living for most people. We can make it expensive, or we can make it affordable.
“The big difference is commuting. You don’t need a car.” apnews.com/article/hous...
Well, this is it. Housing and transport are most of the cost of living for most people. We can make it expensive, or we can make it affordable.
“The big difference is commuting. You don’t need a car.” apnews.com/article/hous...
No car? No problem. Building apartments near public transit could help address the housing crisis
Quantavia Smith, who was often homeless for a decade, now has a studio apartment in Los Angeles with easy access to public transit.
apnews.com
November 14, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Lots of buzz about the "affordability agenda," and how we get there.
Well, this is it. Housing and transport are most of the cost of living for most people. We can make it expensive, or we can make it affordable.
“The big difference is commuting. You don’t need a car.” apnews.com/article/hous...
Well, this is it. Housing and transport are most of the cost of living for most people. We can make it expensive, or we can make it affordable.
“The big difference is commuting. You don’t need a car.” apnews.com/article/hous...
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
Trump admin Is attempting to massive cut federal transit funds, seeking to:
1–Eliminate transit account, which funds billions of $ in capital expenses for transit agencies
2–Prevent state DOTs from “flexing” funds for transit
These changes, if they occurred, would be devastating for US transit.
1–Eliminate transit account, which funds billions of $ in capital expenses for transit agencies
2–Prevent state DOTs from “flexing” funds for transit
These changes, if they occurred, would be devastating for US transit.
POLITICO Pro: Trump administration proposals seek to eliminate transit funding
DOT recently sent two proposals to the White House budget office seeking to pare back transit money.
subscriber.politicopro.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:44 AM
Trump admin Is attempting to massive cut federal transit funds, seeking to:
1–Eliminate transit account, which funds billions of $ in capital expenses for transit agencies
2–Prevent state DOTs from “flexing” funds for transit
These changes, if they occurred, would be devastating for US transit.
1–Eliminate transit account, which funds billions of $ in capital expenses for transit agencies
2–Prevent state DOTs from “flexing” funds for transit
These changes, if they occurred, would be devastating for US transit.
Reposted by Jarrett Walker
Illinois transit reform bill: “Illinois state lawmakers just removed minimum parking space requirements for developments near transit hubs [and transit corridors], a major win for housing affordability and production statewide.” www.illinoispolicy.org/housing-gets...
Housing gets boost by easing parking lot mandates near transit
The Illinois General Assembly just eliminated parking minimums for developments near transit hubs. That flexibility should boost housing.
www.illinoispolicy.org
November 14, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Illinois transit reform bill: “Illinois state lawmakers just removed minimum parking space requirements for developments near transit hubs [and transit corridors], a major win for housing affordability and production statewide.” www.illinoispolicy.org/housing-gets...